Council Green Lights James Street Redevelopment

The council on Wednesday voted unanimously to re-zone a section of James Street that will allow for an expansion of ShopRite and raze blighted properties nearby.

The new redevelopment zone will encompass a series of properties along James Street stretching from West Palisade Avenue to Tallman Place.

The approved plan is a far cry from previous efforts for ShopRite to swallow 100 homes within the neighborhood. 

"There's a lot of good in this," Councilman Eugene Skurnick said. "There will actually be eight single-family homes as opposed to 20, or at one point 100 possible homes."

The supermarket's long-awaited 11,000-square-foot expansion will encroach into what are currently the backyards of a number of James Street homes, most of which are vacant. Should ShopRite's realty corporation acquire additional homes on the street, its expansion could yield 22,000 more square feet of development. The expansion would extend ShopRite's parking lot.

ShopRite owner Irving Glass – who has purchased James Street homes over the course of two decades – has pressed the city for an expansion of the supermarket to serve a growing population of Hispanics, Asians, Asian-Indians, and Orthodox Jews.

An agreement between the developer and the city requires Glass to raze three homes, build eight new dwellings and finish its expansion of the supermarket within three years. If it isn't completed within three years, Glass will make payments in lieu of taxes on the residential properties, the agreement states.

Property records show Glass has owned homes on the block for as long as 20 years. Prior plans to expand ShopRite failed to win city approval, and over the years many properties on the street have fallen into disrepair. 

"There's a bad rat problem," said Albert Lopez, who lives on James Street and, along with his mother, owns the two holdout homes. "The houses have been like that for years. They haven't done nothing. What's there is junk."

Lopez said he's hopeful the redevelopment goes as planned to reinvigorate the neighborhood, which borders the downtown shopping district.

Still at issue, however, is the eventual makeup of the new single-family properties. Residents have pressed officials to require the construction of bedrooms on the first floor to serve an aging population.

While the ordinance passed Wednesday codifies the developer's agreement, some key factors have yet to be determined.

The planning board's attorney, Michael Kates, wrote a letter to the council stating the board's wish that the design criteria be worked out during a site plan approval.

He wrote: "This is not to disregard what has been articulated to date – the desire of Englewood residents to downsize into homes that will be attractive to an aging population and will not lend themselves to illegal tenancies or the deterioration and decay that was systemic in the housing that these new homes will be replacing."

Kates' letter will be entered into the record for the planning board during site plan process, Mayor Frank Huttle said.

City officials say they recognize the importance of revitalizing the neighborhood.

"This is an opportunity to upgrade a neighborhood that is attractively positioned – in close proximity to shopping, restaurants and entertainment in downtown Englewood," Kates wrote in his letter to council members. "Neither the City Council nor the Planning Board will allow it to become a missed opportunity."