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Hackensack Discussion / Re: 24-story tower for Summit Avenue
« on: August 19, 2013, 11:28:16 PM »
http://www.northjersey.com/hackensack/Fate_of_rejected_Hackensack_medical_building_plan_in_judges_hands.html
I guess we will know pretty soon. I hope the city's attorney made a stronger argument than it sounded in this article.
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Fate of rejected Hackensack medical building plan in judge's hands
Monday August 19, 2013, 4:24 PM
BY ALLISON PRIES
STAFF WRITER
The Record
HACKENSACK — The fate of a 19-story medical building proposal that was unanimously rejected by the city’s zoning board is now in the hands of a judge.
Oral arguments that began on Friday concluded Monday morning with just an hour of rebuttals by attorneys.
Judge Alexander H. Carver, III will make a decision by Aug. 30, his expected retirement date.
The Hackensack Zoning Board of Adjustment denied the application in January 2012, saying it would bring traffic and parking problems to the residential area around the site at Prospect and Summit avenues. Residents packed hearings, held protests and hired attorneys to oppose the medical center.
Joseph L. Basralian, the attorney representing Bergen Passaic Long-Term Acute Care Hospital, argued that the facility would benefit the growing population of aging adults in Bergen County more than it would inconvenience its neighbors; the center’s clients typically stay 25 days and would not add to traffic problems, and that the height of the building was comparable to those within the same zone.
The project would require the demolition of two homes to make way for 10 floors of patient rooms, a dialysis center and an adult medical day-care center for up to 180 adults.
Demand for dialysis centers has been rising about 5 percent per year, Basralian said, and six other centers in Bergen County are already operating near capacity.
Laura Kirsch, an attorney for the city’s zoning board, said the major issues that drove the board to vote down the project were parking, traffic and safety issues. Prospect and Summit avenues already experience traffic problems and back ups.
She expressed concern about 30 dump trucks of soil leaving the site per day over 10 months of construction and the impact that would have on the water table for neighboring properties. Kirsch said there were issues with site lines and an inability for cars and trucks to maneuver safely at the driveways. “There’s no continuous path,” she said.
Liquid oxygen tanks being trucked on and off the site could also exacerbate the problem. “You have the potential for a serious accident,” Kirsch said. “If a vehicle hits a truck carrying oxygen, we could lose Prospect Avenue.”
Basralian declined to comment after the hearing.
The lawsuit says that the city and zoning board engaged in a political scheme to deny the applicant a fair and impartial review.
Carver, during the hearing, asked Kirsch how she felt about candidates for mayor and council speaking out publicly at the beginning of the application. Kirsch said the officials spoke as any other citizen would have the right to.
But Carver said if they had come as private citizens, they wouldn’t have spoken at the beginning of the application and “set the tone.”
LTACH also claims in its lawsuit that the board allowed an objecting attorney to harass the property owner, applied different standards for its own experts and created a conflict of interest with the applicant’s engineering consultant by engaging and interviewing the consultant — forcing the applicant to switch professionals in the middle of the process. The company also said the hearing process was delayed and costly, noting there were 23 meetings, of which 20 were special meetings at a cost of $3,000 each to be paid by the applicant to the city.
Email: priesa@northjersey.com
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/hackensack/Fate_of_rejected_Hackensack_medical_building_plan_in_judges_hands.html?page=all#sthash.QVar9ntG.dpuf
I guess we will know pretty soon. I hope the city's attorney made a stronger argument than it sounded in this article.
________________________
Fate of rejected Hackensack medical building plan in judge's hands
Monday August 19, 2013, 4:24 PM
BY ALLISON PRIES
STAFF WRITER
The Record
HACKENSACK — The fate of a 19-story medical building proposal that was unanimously rejected by the city’s zoning board is now in the hands of a judge.
Oral arguments that began on Friday concluded Monday morning with just an hour of rebuttals by attorneys.
Judge Alexander H. Carver, III will make a decision by Aug. 30, his expected retirement date.
The Hackensack Zoning Board of Adjustment denied the application in January 2012, saying it would bring traffic and parking problems to the residential area around the site at Prospect and Summit avenues. Residents packed hearings, held protests and hired attorneys to oppose the medical center.
Joseph L. Basralian, the attorney representing Bergen Passaic Long-Term Acute Care Hospital, argued that the facility would benefit the growing population of aging adults in Bergen County more than it would inconvenience its neighbors; the center’s clients typically stay 25 days and would not add to traffic problems, and that the height of the building was comparable to those within the same zone.
The project would require the demolition of two homes to make way for 10 floors of patient rooms, a dialysis center and an adult medical day-care center for up to 180 adults.
Demand for dialysis centers has been rising about 5 percent per year, Basralian said, and six other centers in Bergen County are already operating near capacity.
Laura Kirsch, an attorney for the city’s zoning board, said the major issues that drove the board to vote down the project were parking, traffic and safety issues. Prospect and Summit avenues already experience traffic problems and back ups.
She expressed concern about 30 dump trucks of soil leaving the site per day over 10 months of construction and the impact that would have on the water table for neighboring properties. Kirsch said there were issues with site lines and an inability for cars and trucks to maneuver safely at the driveways. “There’s no continuous path,” she said.
Liquid oxygen tanks being trucked on and off the site could also exacerbate the problem. “You have the potential for a serious accident,” Kirsch said. “If a vehicle hits a truck carrying oxygen, we could lose Prospect Avenue.”
Basralian declined to comment after the hearing.
The lawsuit says that the city and zoning board engaged in a political scheme to deny the applicant a fair and impartial review.
Carver, during the hearing, asked Kirsch how she felt about candidates for mayor and council speaking out publicly at the beginning of the application. Kirsch said the officials spoke as any other citizen would have the right to.
But Carver said if they had come as private citizens, they wouldn’t have spoken at the beginning of the application and “set the tone.”
LTACH also claims in its lawsuit that the board allowed an objecting attorney to harass the property owner, applied different standards for its own experts and created a conflict of interest with the applicant’s engineering consultant by engaging and interviewing the consultant — forcing the applicant to switch professionals in the middle of the process. The company also said the hearing process was delayed and costly, noting there were 23 meetings, of which 20 were special meetings at a cost of $3,000 each to be paid by the applicant to the city.
Email: priesa@northjersey.com
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/hackensack/Fate_of_rejected_Hackensack_medical_building_plan_in_judges_hands.html?page=all#sthash.QVar9ntG.dpuf