General Category > Hackensack Discussion
24-story tower for Summit Avenue
irons35:
316 summit bought 8-20-08 for 800K
320 summit bought 2-13-07 for 998,333
324 summit bought 2-13-07 for 998,333 from same owner as 320.
329 prospect bought 2-13-07 for 1,328,333 from same owner as 320 and 324 summit.
all sold to
BERGEN PASSAIC LTACH C/O BRACH
433 HACKENSACK AVE 8TH FL
HACKENSACK NJ 07601
just watching:
Now, this is getting REALLY scary. It would be one thing if they had contracts to purchase the houses, and they would only spend that kind of money if they won the variances. But no, that's not what is going on. They already invested 4.125 million dollars. All for the hope of OVERWHELMING the City of Hackensack, either at the Zoning Board level, or by appeals in Court. This is big-time Chutzpah. These people have deep pockets and want to go to war.
They are going to say it's an "inherently beneficial use". This is really going to be a battle royal.
One thing going in the City's favor is that the Zoning Code was upgraded in June 2005. Not only did the city specifically decide to keep the single-family Zoning current, but they tweeked the definitions. The R1 zone (75 feet wide, 7500 square feet) was abolished citywide in favor of R60 (60 feet wide, 7500 square feet), R75 (75 feet wide, 10,000 square feet), and R100 (100 feet wide, 20,000 square feet). R1A is now called R50, so the city has FOUR zones defining the size of single-family lots. That's how serious we are about the importance of the single-family land use. This part of Summit Ave went from R1 to R75, so the required lot size went from 7500 to 10,000 square feet. Eric Martindale worked on this for years, and was eventually able to push this through in the final month of the Zisa administration.
The fact that the lot size was increased, even if only slightly, shows the city's determination to preserve the street. This will play big at the hearings, and in Court.
The city would be very smart, at this time, to adopt a Historic Preservation Ordinance outlining a historic preservation district. Certainly Summit Ave from Beech Street to Catalpa Ave should be included, as well as the east side of Maple Hill Drive, and probably parts of Hamilton, Anderson, Lookout, Clinton, and Euclid Ave. At least as far east of Prospect Ave on those streets. The more levels of protection that exist, the more likely it is that this proposal can be defeated. It's way overdue for Hackensack to have a historic preservation district. This is needed even if this proposal didn't exist. The 1990 Master Plan listed all the houses on Summit Ave that have historic value.
Note also that the city's zoning used to have a clause, until the early 1990's, that allowed a more intensive use to protrude 75 or more feet over the zone line into a less intensive use. That's how multi-unit dwellings reached the west side of Third Street without any variances despite an R2 zone that was 100 feet wide along the west side of Third Street. Various residents protested this, and pressured the Council, even noting that Summit Ave could be at risk by a "punch-through" from Prospect Ave. Then a developer tried to take advantage of this loophole on Essex Street and "punch through" to Kaplan Ave, not far from the Tri-Boro Diner,. If approved, a commercial use would be on both Kaplan Ave and Essex Street. The residents there fought it bitterly, and the Council FINALLY passed an ordinance to remove that loophole. That property is now, over 15 years later, being built on.
That ordinance change is now to the great benefit of Summit Ave, over 15 years later. We'd have a lot less power to resist this if that old clause was still in the Zoning Ordinance.
murphyonsummit:
The 24-story tower will take up the lot on Prospect .... the three lots on Summit will house a circular drop-off/pick-up driveway with a five-level, underground parking garage with space for over 400 cars! Sorry, but this is not what I thought single family zoning meant.
Whitey:
I understand that this application will NOT be heard at the February 18 meeting of the Zoning Board. There are other applications on the agenda to be heard.
just watching:
I agree, that's not my idea of the single-family zone. Even if they deeded the surface to the city as parkland and built a playground, I wouldn't want it.
The delay could be a good sign. The Zoning Board is known for stonewalling applications that they don't like. There was a proposal a few years ago to make 3-story condos in a 2-family zone, and they were not townhouse-style. It was literally snaking through the back yards of houses on Berdan Place and James Street. It was a crazy lot shape, at one point it was only a few feet wide in the middle of the lot. After jerking them around for nearly a year and hearing every other application that they wanted to, the Zoning Board denied it unanimously. Geneva Youngblood was furious, she was going to make big profit on the deal.
By the way, I noticed today that a bunch of burned and blighted houses on Gamewell Place, just west of Union Street was torn down. Including one house on South Park Street. Not sure what is proposed there. I'll make a seperate string for this item. If the city is smart, they'd try to re-direct the Nursing Home down there, the lot is big enough. Hey, they can buy a few more of the worn-out old houses on Union Street, and do whatever they like down there, as far as I'm concerned. That's where we need this type of development.
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