36
« on: February 04, 2012, 11:57:40 AM »
29985 Hackensack Chronicle
Hackensack Zoning Board votes down hospital plan on Prospect
Thursday, February 2, 2012 Last updated: Friday February 3, 2012, 1:24 AM
BY MARK J. BONAMO
MANAGING EDITOR
After almost three years of debate, the Hackensack Zoning Board unanimously rejected a plan to build a 19-story hospital on Prospect Avenue at a special Jan. 19 meeting, citing concerns about traffic, parking and neighborhood quality-of-life issues.
The proposed project, known as the Bergen Passaic Long Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH), generated concerns among residents living on Prospect and Summit avenues near the project site. Some residents hired two attorneys to present their opposition to the plan.
Zoning Board Chairman Michael Guerra echoed this disquiet just before the board’s vote.
"The bottom line is the LTACH is misplaced in this neighborhood," Guerra said, followed by applause from a crowd of more than 60 residents, many of whom had sat through more than 20 special meetings focused on the controversial project.
"We have a hospital zone, and the thought has been that it belongs in the hospital zone," Guerra added, referring to the designated area surrounding Hackensack University Medical Center. The proposed project and the medical center are not affiliated.
"We’re disappointed with the decision of the board, and we’ll explore our alternatives," said Richard Pineles, the president of the company seeking to develop the hospital.
According to attorney Joseph Basralian, who represents Pineles, these alternatives include an appeal.
"The board rendered a decision it felt was appropriate. If we disagree, then we take the next step," Basralian said.
The proposed hospital would provide a range of medical services if constructed. The 120-bed facility would have 10 floors dedicated to patient rooms, a dialysis center with 63 stations and an adult medical day-care center equipped for as many as 180 people. The facility would also include several driveways and five levels of underground parking.
City officials stated that the project would need site plan approval and more than a dozen variances in order to go forward.
These include variances for use, parking and lot size. Pineles is also seeking approval to knock down two-story homes on four lots on Prospect and Summit avenues near Golf Place to build the 1.15-acre hospital. The site, located at 329 Prospect Ave., is currently zoned for residential and multi-family buildings.
Pineles also owns Prospect Heights Care Center, a 180-bed nursing home facility close to the site, as well as Regent Care Center, a nursing home on Polifly Road.
Basralian argued that Pineles had made compromises to allay concerns about the project, including a reduction in the building’s size as well as the number of patients it would treat.
Basralian also argued that the hospital would install computerized traffic lights that would aid traffic flow and that the developers would create a park on Prospect Ave. as part of the project.
Board member Frank Rodriguez refuted these claims, however, stating that the developers had not demonstrated that the new traffic lights would actually improve traffic flow. Rodriguez also noted that a 30,000 square-foot park on Summit Avenue to be included as an open space component of the project was just the hospital’s front entrance.
"I don’t find it very compelling that the applicant came before this board with a very, very large facility and – by their own initiative, not by anything thing we said – suddenly reduced it to a very large facility," Guerra added.
At the end of the meeting, residents Murray and Tama Cuperman, who attended most of the special meetings, spoke approvingly about the end of a chapter in the hospital project saga.
"It took three years to get here, but it’s very gratifying," said Murray Cuperman. "In the meantime, peace and quiet stays on Prospect and Summit avenues."
"We need something like this project, just not in that place," added Tama Cuperman. "There are plenty of other places where it can be built."
Email: bonamo@northjersey.com