Tempers Flare Over Edison Project at Council Meeting
Public comment dominates meeting, residents demand transparency
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[Editor's note: The Feb. 21 township council meeting will now be held at Thomas A. Edison Central Six School on 75 William Street.]
Tuesday's township council meeting quickly heated up when residents took offense at what they considered a lack of transparency about the Edison redevelopment project by township officials.
"Information is not being disseminated properly," resident Rosary Morelli told the council. "There's a lot of suspicion going on because of the moving around of these meetings."
The long-debated project to redevelop the land surrounding the Thomas Edison National Historic Park on Main Street will finally be heard before the township council during the Feb. 21 meeting at Edison School.
The rental project, originally slated to be discussed in November, was repeatedly pulled from the township council agenda pending additional information from the developer.
"The mayor refused to move this project until those documents were in place," business administrator Jack Sayers said. Several documents detailing the infrastructure and financing for the project are now available online.
A handful of residents, though, remained angered by the drought of information surrounding the project before it was placed on the township council agenda.
"There's a lot of stuff to this that you are not sharing. This isn't right, this should have been represented to the public," said resident Christine Bosco who felt the township was not being honest with its taxpayers. "You are asking the people, the taxpayers to pay for what (the developer) is going to develop."
The slew of comments riled up township officials and caused a back-and-forth between both parties, forcing council president Patricia Spango to repeatedly strike her gavel.
"We're not getting answers, we're being ignored!" people yelled from the audience, claiming residents had been cut off during public comment.
Councilman Joe Krakoviak addressed the tension in the room and said residents should be able to speak for their allotted five minutes without being interrupted.
"It's not so much as not letting the residents speak … but when you start to personally attack or accuse people, that's wrong and I am going to stop that," Spango said.
Other residents were confused by the automated calls that only went out to some residents about a meeting on Feb. 15 to discuss the redevelopment.
Sayers confirmed the township will be hosting a Feb. 15 meeting at Edison School at 7 p.m. to discuss the project with residents closest to the site.
He said the call went out to a specific section of residents that live near the Edison property. "It has nothing to do with shutting anyone out, we're trying to get people that live there, that live there everyday." He said the meeting, though, would be open to anyone.
Sayers also responded to people's transparency concerns and said assured the township was committed to being transparent.
"I don't know how much more transparent we can be with this process … Our commitment is to make sure that everyone is informed and everyone knows what's going on," he said.
He said additional information would be posted on the website and reiterated the proposals still have to be approved in several meetings before coming to fruition, "There are rules that have to followed, these documents have to be approved at two separate meetings by this council."
To read more about the Edison redevelopment project, see attached documents.
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Thomas Edison National Historical Park
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Thomas A. Edison Central Six
75 William St, West Orange, NJ
steve@murraystreet.com
8:23 am on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
While I can understand some concerns about a project so large and so critical to the future of downtown West Orange, its also crucial in this time of a fragile economy that we be civil and nurture this initiative. While asking prudent questions we should do all we can to help turn this gateway to downtown to a welcoming space, providing both residence and essential revenues to the township.
Tom G.
8:28 am on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The town has been taking the wrong approach with the meetings. They need to wait until all necessary documents have been received and reviewed, and then announce the date of the council meeting in which the topic will be discussed. Don't keep rescheduling in hopes that you'll receive the necessary paperwork on time. This just causes confusion and frustration for residents.
wohopeful
8:46 am on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
This matter has been handled very poorly by the administration and the Mayor who is ultimately responsible. How can they decide to have a public meeting on the project and only notify a small group of the township's residents? Putting this on the township council agenda with no disclosure of all of the documents for public review and comment and then the repeated moving of the item from meeting to meeting is demonstrative of the lack of leadership and participation those in charge have of the process.
We need to immediatley put the brakes on these proposed oirdinances, get all of the information distributed to every property owner/taxpayer in the township, allow time for review and appropriate public comment before any ordinances are considered by the township council. Anything less is just the elected officials, township administration, and wealthy developers trying to take advantage of the honest people of West Orange.
Gary Englert
9:41 am on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Standard procedure for a hearing on any Zoning/Planning matter is to notify the property owners most effected; long established to be those within 200 feet of the subject proerty's borders in each direction. There is nothing untoward about scheduling a February 15th meeting and having specifically notified those property owners and any member of the public may attend.
The final documents to be voted upon have already been posted on the township website for a few days and the public will have had two weeks to review them before the first of two Council Meetings necessary before a the matter will be put to a vote.
There has been no rush to judgment here: the project itself was approved in its current form back in 2008 and only the vagaries of the financial markets have kept it on hold. The bonding proposed is for only +/- 3% of the projects total cost and the financing charges for them will be more than offset by the PILOT.
Ralph
9:49 am on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
I think we all knew that this was going to be a debated topic in West Orange regardless of the details. However, the town did themselves no favors by announcing they would reveal the details of the Edison project in Nov and then delay it 2 months.
Not saying anyone has done anything wrong, or that it wasn't the right move to push back the date, but if was a bad PR move to announce a date and then have to pull it back because all their ducks weren't lined up.
I look forward to spending some time analyzing the details since I do have questions about adding this many rental units to our town. I'm certainly going to into this with an open mind since something has to be done about the ugly "Hole"
Jerome Leslie Eben, AIA, PP
11:11 am on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
The ugly "Hole" is something that could easily be solved if pressure was put on the developer to clean up their property by the Zoning Officer or Property Maintenance Person. I have spoken about this on numerous occasions as a member of the Downtown Alliance and a person who for over 30 years have stated that the Battery Building redevelopment is the key to "Bringing back from the brink OUR Downtown" The developer's
feet must be held to the fire both from the clean up of the site as the way it looks today and
the eventual plan that they wish to present to OUR governmental leaders. the sand in the hour glass is running out and we need movement on this project with the onset of Spring!
Michelle Cadeau
2:15 pm on Wednesday, February 8, 2012
I for one agree with Steve. I think out of courtesy to the people living in that area something has to be done but further more it will help the whole town and the feel of the town.
I totally understand why the citizens living in that area are the ones being specially invited. That to me is common sense. And is not taking anything away from the citizens that were not specially called to get notified.
I am not sure about all the ins and out but there is a wealth of information on the website below. However, I am very excited about the redevelopment and hope it can get started sooner than later.
http://www.westorange.org/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={B18753AB-113C-4F69-B453-4165E579A91D}&DE={EAE021C3-D1A3-416B-867B-F6CE87CAA49A}
Mike Taylor
9:59 pm on Thursday, February 9, 2012
This project will impact the taxes of every homeowner in West Orange. We already have one of the highest tax rates in suburban Essex County. This project could push our taxes even higher. It is important all concerned taxpayers to participate in these meetings.