Is a Memorial Park City good for Maplewood?

I have to sound the alarm. A final hearing and vote on EXPANDED DEVELOPMENT MAP FOR RESIDENCES ON DUNNELL ROAD by the Maplewood Township Committee (TC) is scheduled for tomorrow night—7:30 PM, Tuesday, January 18th—at the Maplewood Municipal Building, 574 Valley Street, Maplewood, NJ, according to a flyer distributed by a local zoning activist to this writer today.

This vote is one of the most important if not THE most important of the decade at the beginning of the new millennium because it has the potential of radically altering the character of the connection between Memorial Park and Maplewood Village, IMHO. Will the up to 50 ft. high apartment buildings with a density of 60 apartments per acre create a wall, a filter, or a what?

In fact, the Township of Maplewood Planning Board recognized the need for further careful review and planning before this momentous decision is made as recently as their meeting of January 11, 2011, when it made the following recommendations by a vote of 6 to 3:

On a motion by James Nathenson and seconded by Craig Miller the Board voted Affirmative (6) James Nathenson, Craig Miller, John Branigan, Tammie Haynie, Jenifer Steig, Chair Carlson, Negative (3) Victor DeLuca, Jerry Ryan, Edward Bolden, to make the following recommendations to the Township Committee
• That immediate application of the Parkside Zone be limited to those properties along Dunnell Road that are currently in the Neighborhood Business Zone.
• That inclusion of other properties in the Parkside Zone at this time would be premature.
• That the Township retain an expert planner to conduct a planning study of the area in question so as to provide guidance
- See http://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/boards-committees/planning-board-minutes/january-2011-memo-planning-board-parkside-review/view

It is obvious from the flyer, a local citizen group's related website http://savememorialpark.org/, and the above recommendation by the Planning Board that the Township Committee should NOT agree to the ordinance revising the zoning map of the Township of Maplewood for the purpose of expanding the development of residences along Dunnell Road.

And we the residents of Maplewood should come to the hearing before the vote at the Township Committee meeting tomorrow night at the Maplewood Municipal Building to help make sure the ordinance is rejected.

This post is referenced in a listing on:
- the calendar of the Maplewood Patch website.