December 12, 2009 The Gazaette Grant will be for park bathroom/water fountain by Justin Zaremba The borough will receive $48,406 from the Passaic County Board of Freeholders in order to install a new bathroom and water fountain in Hofstra Park. Mayor Mohammed Khairullah announced receipt of the letter awarding the Community Development Block Grant at the Dec. 21 council meeting, stating the grant would pay for nearly a third of the installation of a prefabricated bathroom and water fountain. "Now we are going to focus on trying to get other grants," Khairullah said, estimating the total cost around $150,000. Vandalism and graffiti forced the borough to demolish the previous facility, Khairullah said. "Whatever comes in is going to be a lot prettier than what we had before," Khairullah said, adding that the facility would be handicap accessible. Despite a recent announcement that he would recommend sweeping cutbacks in 2010, Khairullah said the grant was "project specif ic" and that the borough was prevented from using it for other municipal services. "The purpose of the cuts is to save taxpayers money," said the mayor. State officials recently announced their intention to withhold 5 percent of total promised municipal aid to New Jersey towns. As a result, Khairullah has stated he would seek $35,000 to $50,000 in budgetary cuts. Khairullah has stated that full-time and part-time employees who work within borough hall would have only a four-day work week, averaging 10 hour days. The savings to the borough would result from reduced energy costs for heating and electricity, according to Khairullah. Khairullah had also suggested that the mayor and council abstain from a month's pay in 2010, but demurred at eliminating mayor and council's salary entirely. According to borough records, the borough could save nearly $20,000. "That wasn't discussed," Khairullah said. "obviously you start slow and explore further options later on." November 5, 2009 Hawthorne Press Dems Retain Control In Prospect Park Incumbant Councilwoman Esther Perez easily won re-election on Tuesday and her runningmate, Samir Hayek was also victorious. Perez received 648 votes; Hayek, 591 to 380 ballots cast for Republican challenger Thomas F.X. Magura. Democrats gave a 2-1 margin for the county candidates. A total of 1103 votes went to the polls. August 27, 2009 Hawthorne Press Arson Charges In Garage Fire A 19-year-old Prospect Park man has been charged with arson for allegedly setting fire to a garage at 15 Planten Avenue. The Passaic County Prosecutor's Arson Squad arrested Michael Pier after the young man reportedly admitted his involvement. Pier was charged with third degree arson and bail was set at $20,000. Unable to make 10% of the bail, Pier has been remanded to the Passaic County Jail. The fire alarm was called in at 5:52 pm on Sunday. A two-car detached garage at the rear of the property along North 9th Street was engulfed in flames when the Prospect Park Fire Department arrived at the scene. After the firefighters extinguished the blaze, Prospect Park's Fire Official Bill Smith deemed the fire "suspicious" and called in the county's arson squad. The garage is on the property which is owned by Annette Pier, Michael Pier is her son and resides there with his mother. August 18, 2009 The Record Prospect Park rezones quarry by Maggie Astor The Borough Council’s approval of a revised master plan clears the way for development of the Tilcon rock quarry if a contractor submits a suitable plan. Residents turned out en masse Monday night to protest the quarry rezoning, which allows up to 720 residential units, and buildings up to nine stories, on the 78-acre tract. But while that discussion consumed well over half of a 3.5-hour meeting, officials emphasized that the ordinance at hand was not about the quarry but a new master plan. That plan, Mayor Mohamed Khairullah asserted, sets parameters for allowable development and protects the borough from overzealous developers. His assurances did little to assuage the protesters. “I’m not looking forward to having a slum in my backyard,” resident Hans de Bruyn said. “I can remember when Paterson got rid of their tenement houses. We’re putting up more tenement houses — it doesn’t work,” echoed Betty van Eeuwen. “You can’t stack people in such a small area and expect it to be manageable,” James Wisse added. But officials noted that the density of the quarry would actually be lower than in the rest of town. “We’re trying to be responsible and develop this site to what’s appropriate, and protect this town from even higher-density development,” planner Paul Ricci said. Based on numbers from the Center for Urban Policy Research, Ricci estimated the quarry project would be home to 1,080 people, and acknowledged the borough would need to expand infrastructure, including schools and police. But, he added, “Projects like this don’t happen overnight — they’re phased in.” Now that the master plan has been approved, prospective developers can submit site plans for the quarry, which would be subject to approval by the Land Use Board. Carriage Hills Associates, a Long Island-based contractor, has expressed interest but representatives could not be reached after Monday’s vote. In June, Carriage Hills said it expects to submit a site plan next month. For some at the meeting, though, any development at the quarry site is too much. “We don’t want any more people in Prospect Park. We don’t want a big city and all the problems that go with it,” Helen Donohue said. Janet Guariglia added, “We have apartments that are empty because we can’t even get people to move in. My taxes are extraordinarily high. I don’t feel this project makes common, ordinary horse sense.” Proponents say the development would reduce individual tax burdens by giving the borough millions in new taxable property. After over two hours of debate, Councilman Hassan Fahmy made a motion to table the master plan vote. That failed, with support only from Fahmy and Andre Greer. The council then adopted the plan, 3-1-1, with Fahmy casting the only dissenting vote and Greer abstaining. Cristina Peralta, Silvia Villegas and council president Adnan Zakaria voted to adopt; Esther Perez was absent. “I’m very disappointed. A lot of people came to discuss their issues, and we wouldn’t take the time to revisit it,” Greer said. “It shows we’re really not listening to what the residents are saying to us.” Peralta, who is also on the Land Use Board, countered, “This is not the first time we’ve had a public session. We’ve been updating as we go along, and everything they asked has been taken care of in the master plan. They think the master plan is about Tilcon, but it had to be updated whether the Tilcon project happens or not.” “We can’t have a master plan with a blank for Tilcon,” Khairullah said. “To do absolutely nothing — I don’t see that as a solution.” Ricci agreed: “I think everyone would like to see it preserved as open space, but unless someone was willing to buy it and preserve it, I don’t think that’s a realistic option,” he said. “It has to have a utilitarian aspect for the borough.” The site is owned by Tilcon New Jersey, which has a license to operate the quarry until 2013. Fast facts: The borough initially proposed a 795-unit maximum for the quarry tract, but reduced that to 720 in response to public concerns, which produces a density of 9.23 units per acre. Elsewhere in Prospect Park, the least dense neighborhood is 11.6 units per acre. The Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) sets an 8-units-per-acre density minimum for for-sale housing and a 12-units-per-acre minimum for rental housing. COAH requires that 20 percent of housing units in the quarry development be “affordable,” so if the quarry is developed with the aximum of 720 units, 144 would be affordable. Buildings in the back of the quarry can be nine stories maximum; buildings in front can be four stories maximum. Buildings can extend a maximum of 15 feet above the rim of the quarry, and there must be a 100-foot buffer between the buildings and the rim of the quarry. The rezoning plan allows for 20,000 square feet of commercial space in the quarry tract; for comparison, a typical CVS is 15,000 square feet. The development will be primarily residential. Source: Paul Ricci, Prospect Park planner August 13, 2009 Hawthorne Press Prospect Park. Land Use Law Creates New Zone For The Quarry Prospect Park's 2009 Land Use Ordinance creates new zones for the Tilcon Quarry that will pave the way for 724 additional housing units in the community. The new quarry medium residential zones, Q-MR-1 and Q-MR-2, are not the only areas to be re-designated. "A lot of uses in the borough are not permitted," said Professional Planner Paul Ricci, who prepared the legislation. "North 8th Street is commercial but there are a lot of residences ... I want to make the zone conform to the character of the community." "We want to encourage re-investment into that area," he said, "A large degree of the properties are non-conforming and this corrects that." An overlay zone, P-LWO professional live-work, will be created along North 9th Street between Brown Avenue and Fairview Avenue extending to a portion of North 14th Street. In the P-LWO, an overlay zone for the former Haband buildings, residents will be allowed to convert existing one and twofamily dwellings into limited professional uses in a manner that retains the residential character. Permitted uses included family day care, offices and live-work units as i well as residential. Major home occupations will be permitted as conditional uses along structures facing North 6th, North 8th, Planten, Brown and Struyk Avenues. The practioner must be the owner or lessee of the residence in which the major home occupation is contained. The practitioner must reside in the home and not engage more than two office employees. Adequate off-street parking shall be provided. Most of the properties fronting on Haledon Avenue will be zoned community business B-C. This zone allows retail sales and personal service, professional offices, restaurants, theatres, institutional uses, financial institutions, funeral homes, recreation facilities, child care centers and apartments (upper floors). General Business l, B-G- l, includes properties between North 9th and 10th Streets on the east side of Fairview Avenue and a section on the west side between North 14th and North 11th Streets. Retail and office uses are allowed on the first floor; apartments on upper floors. General Business-2, B-G-2, will encompass the area near East Main Street and North 6th Street. Allowed here will be retail sales, offices including medical, indoor recreation, print shops, veterinary hospitals, wholesale establishments, financial uses, funeral homes and all uses in the B-C zone, The townhouses an East Main Street are designated R-2 townhouse while all the rest of the town is zoned R-l (Residence-1) which allows single-family and two-family houses. A Village Commercial Residential VCR zone is designated along properties an North 8th Street between Fairview and Flanten Avenues. It is a mixed use of businesses on the firstt floor and apartments on the upper floor. In the Q-MR-1 zone, the permitted density will be 12 units per acre with a permissible height of nine stories or 100 feet, The zone lies between Hofstra Park from Struyk Avenue Extension and Planten Avenue to the rear property lines of Cyril Avenue. The Q-MR-2 zone encompasses an area from the dead end of Planten Avenue running along Wagaraw Boulevard to Kenneth Avenue, North 13th, North 14th, Circle Avenue and a portion of Park Avenue. The allowable building height is four stories or 50 feet. The quarry units will be designed so that the walls are lower in the front and go higher in the back. "We want to keep it below the height of a single family home as viewed from below and hide the development," said Ricci. There will be a 100 foot buffer to keep the adjoining areas in their natural state. The revised plans eliminate the connectivity of the paved parking lot "so they will look more like residential streets . .. 20% of the parking will be enclosed in buildings . .. We're trying to encourage design standards," he said. In the Q-MR-2 zone, townhouses will no longer be a permitted use. The goal in this zone, he said, is to create a mixed use between condominiumstyle flats and commercial uses such as restaurants, retail and service businesses. "The commercial level will be the neighborhood type," said Ricci, "There is no exposure of the road network from the quarry. There may be some business from adjacent areas. The goal is to reduce the number of trips of individuals from the quarry to the town. To be quite frank, it may not work in the long run." Of the 576 market rate units, seven percent will be three-bedroom. The rest will be one and two bedrooms. With a 20% set aside for affordable housing, the yield will be 144 low and moderate income units, Of these, 14 must be three-bedroom, according to Ricci. Councilman Andre Greer asked about the age-restricted units and Ricci said only 25% could be allowed. "So 600 plus units can be occupied by families," said Greer, "Is there zoning to allow another school." "That's an excellent question," said Ricci, "93% of the site is for one and two bedrooms." "The development will pay substantial taxes and that will allow for school expansion," said Ricci, "I examined the fiscal evaluation and this development is expected to be a positive ratable." What's allowed in quarry zone Q-MR-1 Zone 9 stories high, 100 feet Q-MR-2 Zone 4 stories high, 50 feet 720 units on 38 acres 576 market rate units 40 (7%) 3 - bedroom 421 (73%) 2 - bedroom 155 (20%) 1 - bedroom 25% can be age restricted 144 affordable housing units bedroom mix to be decided. June 29, 2009 The Record Quarry Eyed For Potential Redevelopment Riches by Maggie Astor For now, it’s a rock quarry. By 2013, it could be a gold mine — or a pit of troubles, depending on who’s doing the predicting. Prospect Park officials envision a complex of condominiums, retail space and recreational facilities to replace the 79-acre Tilcon quarry. The 79-acre Tilcon quarry at the heart of this 1.2-square-mile town is as visually stark as the potential riches advertised in favor of developing it into a complex of condominiums, retail space and recreational facilities: Up to $15,000 per unit in impact fees from the developer. Three million dollars in taxes into municipal coffers. For a borough with a yearly municipal budget of about $5 million, those are huge figures, and they have turned the quarry into a focal point of both hope and anxiety. “We can truly see tax relief here in Prospect Park before the first apartment is sold,” said borough buildings manager Paul Jay Birch, asserting that licensing and permit fees could be a financial boon even before the units begin generating tax revenue. And Birch said the units would be reasonably priced to attract newcomers of various incomes — “We’re searching for a more professional clientele, and people that really don’t have the money or resources to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a home,” he said. Carriage Hills Associates, a Long Island-based development contractor, is prepared to submit a site plan for the project. But before it can do so, attorney Jerome Vogel said, the Borough Council must rezone the town. Officials have released a report on the potential challenges of the project and the zoning changes it will require. The council introduced the rezoning plan on June 22. It now is before the Land Use Board, which will determine its consistency with the borough’s Master Plan, and the council will hold its final vote on Aug. 17. Given that approval, Vogel said Carriage Hills would aim to submit a formal application in September. The quarry was begun in the 1890s and since 1997 has been owned by Tilcon New Jersey, which operates 13 quarries in the state, including in Pompton Lakes, Riverdale and Totowa. The company’s license on the land is valid until 2013, “at which time we will explore renewing it,” Tilcon President George Thompson said. But Birch and Mayor Mohamed Khairullah have indicated Tilcon could end operations earlier than 2013 if the rock quarry is depleted. Thompson confirmed “preliminary conversations with officials regarding development when the quarrying is completed.” Critics point to the project’s potential effects on traffic and the school system, which listed an enrollment of 842 in pre-K to 8th grade as of October. More than 700 one- and two-bedroom units could mean upwards of 1,000 new residents, who critics say the borough — population 5,633 as of 2007 — can’t accommodate. “My biggest argument is the stress that it would put on the infrastructure,” said Thomas Magura, a school trustee and Republican candidate for Borough Council. “You’re talking hundreds, maybe thousands more students in the school system, and it’s already too big. Even a couple hundred students would be too many.” The borough’s 2009 Master Plan Reexamination Report acknowledges that concern, but notes, “The projected amount of children cannot be determined until more formal plans are in place.” Because the development is designed to attract a primarily older market and is “not family-oriented,” Birch predicted fewer than 100 new students. New fire equipment and more emergency personnel also may be needed — but the flip side of that expense could be the creation of jobs. Meanwhile, officials in nearby Haledon, North Haledon and Hawthorne fear a spillover of traffic. “Our streets are crowded enough,” Hawthorne Mayor Richard Goldberg said, adding that for now, “We’re trying to let the process go its normal course.” North Haledon Mayor Randy George said he was following the plans, but declined to comment until Prospect Park completes a traffic-impact study. Khairullah said such a study would be part of the developer’s application and agreed, “We have to work with neighboring towns. There might be a need for additional traffic lights or one-way streets, but you leave stuff like that to the professionals.” The Master Plan report urges the development of shuttle service between the quarry complex and nearby public transportation to mitigate traffic problems “The area is already congested,” resident Said Ramadan said. “They’re going to crowd up the area some more and decrease the quality of life.” Proponents say the project will do the opposite, enriching the town financially and culturally. “This project could be the key to the revitalization of Prospect Park,” Birch said. “It could really be a renaissance.” He said officials modified the original plans to mitigate concerns. The number of units — initially 795 — was reduced to 720. Additionally, developer’s impact fees are meant to offset the cost of improving infrastructure. Magura said he would prefer to see a strictly commercial development. “I don’t think they have the capability or the infrastructure to handle new housing of that magnitude,” Magura said of the borough. “Thirty years from now they’ll be the slums — that’s what happens to concentrated housing like that.” But Birch called the project “very unique” and said modifications will allow it to serve its intended purpose without becoming “a nightmare for Prospect Park.” May 20, 2009 The Gazette Former Mayors Honored by Tonya Holman Two borough sites were dedicated by the borough to former mayors. Mayor Mohamed T Khairullah, along with the council members, celebrated the dedication of the borough's Department of Public Works (DPW) garage on May 16 in honor of past Mayor Alfred J. Marchitto, who served from 1995 to 1998. They also marked the dedication of Hofstra Park's new tennis and basketball courts to past mayor William W. Kubofcik, who was in office from 1999 to 2006. State, county and municipal officials, in addition to friends and family members of the honorees, were invited to the ceremonies, which took place first at the DPW garage before moving to Hofstra Park. According to the borough, Marchitto played an essential role in the establishment of the DPW garage as it stands today. He brought about necessary improvements to enable the facility to the handle the equipment needed for the borough. Kubofcik initiated many improvements and raised funds during his term to fix many aspects of Hofstra Park, according to borough officials. The baseball field, bike path, playground, basketball and tennis courts all benefited from the funds raised. Khairullah said these two men were essential to the betterment of the Borough of Prospect Park and the quality of life residents enjoy. "I am proud to call these two men my friends, and the council and I wanted to show them the appreciation that they deserve by dedicating these two facilities to them because they were so vital to the improvement of the infrastructure and quality of life within the borough," stated Khairullah. April 23, 2009 Hawthorne Press Prospect Park School Elections Prospect Park voters went to the polls Tuesday and passed the local school budget as well as a $4.2 million bond issue for school expansion. With only 365 voters participating, the 90 absentee ballots made the difference. Voters trounced the Manchester Regional budget 274-49 and both the budget and the referendum would have been defeated except for the absentees. The school budget passed by a mere five votes 167-162. Before the absentees were counted, the $2.5 million tax levy was down 148-96. The referendum for four preschool classrooms and to replace existing boilers was down 101-72 until 70 affirmative absentee votes and 14 negative ones shifted the balance. The bond issue passed 142-115. In the local school board race three candidates were uncontested. Results were. Albert Demarest 264 Jose Pantoja, 203 and Stephen Miller, 197. Demarest and Pantoja are incumbents. Incumbent BOE member John Vandermolen breezed to victory 261-41 over challenger, Fredrick Mutooni, for one of the Prospect Park seats on the regional school board. April 2, 2009 Hawthorne Press Prospect Park Boro budget to hike average taxes by $365 Prospect Park is one of the few municipalities in this area to introduce its 2009 budget by the March 31st deadline. As in past years, the municipality is seeking state extraordinary aid, hoping to get $350,000 to offset a $447,000 loss in revenues. This year, according to Municipal Auditor James Cerullo, the borough is also taking advantage of legislative initiative that allows the municipalities to defer this year's pension payments. That accounts for $168,451 which would have been added to the shortfall. The $5.07 million budget calls for a tax levy of $3,339,425, $456,000 more than the 2008 tax levy of $2,883,231. "Overall the expenses have increased about $9,000," said Mayor Mohamed Khairullah comparing the 2009 budget to last year's $5.06 million fiscal plan. The tax impact on the average property assessment ($146,000) is estimated at $364.75 for municipal purposes. If the borough gets state extraordinary aid, the tax hike would be mitigated. The budget also does not reflect some $30,000 in revenue anticipated from the lease of antenna space on the cell tower. Cerullo said these revenues can't be included until the lease goes into effect. The mayor thanked all the departments for "belt-tightening." "We have spoken to all the employees, both union and non-union," said Khairullah, "We're looking for some concessions in order to stabilize taxes. We've had a dialogue and I believe some savings will come from this.. We hope we can make it up in future negotiations." "We're working diligently to stabilize taxes," said Councilwoman Esther Perez chair of the finance committee. Last year, the borough received $325,000 in extraordinary aid but Cerullo cautioned that with so many communities in economic distress, "The majority of towns are applying. There may be more competition than in recent years. We won't hear until June but I'm not sure we'll get it this year." March 26, 2009 Hawthorne Press PROSPECT PARK BOARD OF EDUCATION BUDGET
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