Why then is South Orange considering building and maintaining a 40-bed emergency shelter, when Essex County already provides that exact service just a couple miles down the road?
First, some background: As many people know by now, the site known as 3rd and Valley is about to be redeveloped by Jonathan Rose which includes a 5 story building with 3000 sq ft of retail on the ground floor and 215 apartments above. In addition, a multi-story parking deck with 521 spaces (255 of which will be dedicated to the public and will replace the 183 spaces currently used by commuters and village staff) will also be built on the site. As a result of this project, the current Rescue Squad on that site will be eliminated and needs to be relocated to a new site.
During my tenure on the Board of Trustees (BOT), the Board supported the idea of replacing the Squad building, but a location was never discussed. In the Vision Plan (page 47), it states:
Incorporate the South Orange Rescue Squad within the new parking structure of locate the facility on Sloan Street beside the renovated Fire House.
Since the Village spent $250,000 for the Cecil Group, experts in Planning and Design, to produce the plan in 2009, I certainly always assumed that plan would be followed. However, in February of 2013, I learned serendipitously that a wooded lot on Walton Ave, adjacent to the Animal Shelter was chosen by Alex Torpey (without consultation with the BOT, nor the Rescue Squad themselves) for the site of the new Rescue Squad and, that plans had already been drafted.
Trustee Gould requested that a public discussion of the Rescue Squad location be placed on the BOT Agenda for discussion, but at the March 28, BOT Meeting, that topic was relegated to Executive Session. Upon emerging from Executive Session, resident Richard Bell spoke at the podium during Public Comments and the meeting minutes reflect:
Richard Bell, 321 Walton Road, questioned how many sites are under consideration for theThe minutes of the following BOT Meeting on April 8 reflects only:relocation of the South Orange Rescue Squad and further inquired, of those sites, how many are
Village properties. Mr. Bell further inquired about the Trustees' ranking of the prospective sites.
Village Counsel cautioned the Board to use discretion in their response.
President Torpey responded to Mr. Bell's inquiry stating new site options have become available and
would be further explored in lieu of the location that Mr. Bell's concerns arose from. Trustees
Goldberg and Gould voiced their adamant opposition to relocating the South Orange Rescue Squad
to the proposed Walton Avenue site. Trustee Davis Ford concurred stating that the Walton Avenue
site doesn't make sense. Trustees Levison and Rosner both expressed a preference in relocating the
rescue squad to another proposed location.
At the April 22 BOT Meeting, Redevelopment Counsel, Joe Baumann, presented a proposed plan for the 3rd & Valley Development and included the proposal to relocate the Rescue Squad to a Village-owned lot on 2nd St that currently contains approximately 16 parking spaces, as well as an adjacent empty lot that was anticipated to house another 16 parking spaces. (Plus, we were told that more "off-site parking" would also need to be dedicated to the project.) However, according to the Vision Plan, this site is part of a contiguous block of properties that should be utilized for parking. Similarly, the Development Committee recommended that this contiguous block of property was a prime future development opportunity, as well. Placing the Rescue Squad at this location interfered with both of those plans.There is ongoing discussion with the developer for the relocation and building of the South Orange Rescue Squad.
At this meeting, it was also shared that this new Rescue Squad would contain almost 5800 square feet of space - more than DOUBLE the size of the current rescue squad (which is approximately 2600 square feet). Since this proposal was shared for the purpose of discussing the financial terms of the proposed development and 3rd/Valley, no discussion was held by the BOT about the Rescue Squad project.
It was not until a new Board was elected and they met on July8, that a "discussion" of the site occurred. Highlights of that discussion can be viewed in the clip below:
At that meeting, we learned that the Development Committee, a committee of volunteers with expertise in Planning, Architecture and Development had discussed the proposed location on 2nd St and sent a memo to the Board of Trustees recommending against that site and proposing many alternatives, including next to the Firehouse or next to Village Hall.
That meeting prompted a lively discussion with many great suggestions on Maplewood Online: http://forum.maplewoodonline.com/discussion/97667/rescue-squad-new-building/p1
So, the questions remain:
- Will the Village build a Rescue Squad that is more than DOUBLE the size of the current Rescue Squad, with the majority of that space being heated, cooled and unused over 99% of the year?
- Will the Village build a dedicated 40-bed Emergency Shelter in the building, despite Essex County already providing that service?
- Will the Village eliminate over 30 parking spaces that are so desparately needed downtown?
- Will the Village ignore the recommendations of the experts who wrote the Vision Plan and the professionals who volunteer on the Development Committee?
People in South Orange always wonder why our taxes are so high. It's exactly situations like this - building expensive oversized vanity projects that duplicates existing services, which are avoidable, yet costly to build and maintain - that only amplifies our already untenable tax problem.
As always, I'd love to hear what you think.
