Flooding is Concern to Fair Lawn, Elmwood Park in Development Hearings

A proposed self storage facility planned to be built in Saddle Brook that raised concerns it could worsen flooding in a Fair Lawn neighborhood now also has Elmwood Park officials it could worsen flooding there, too.

Storage Assets, LLC has applied to the Saddle Brook Zoning Board for permission to build a 121,275-square-foot Lackland Self Storage facility at 635 North Midland Avenue, a pair of empty lots next to the Quik Chek in the northwest corner of the township which border both Fair Lawn and Elmwood Park.

Brian Shortino, an engineer for the project, testified at a hearing this week that all of the rain that falls on the site would be collected in a basin which would drain to the south, then under the neighboring railroad tracks to a ditch. It should help reduce flooding on nearby Arcadia Road, he said.

"This actually improves the drainage that's on the site now," he said.

The ditch where that water eventually would end up leads into Fleischer's Brook in Elmwood Park, according to engineers from Boswell McClave Engineering. They wrote a letter to the Saddle Brook Zoning Board on behalf of Elmwood Park to share their concerns with the project.

"Elmwood Park experiences flooding with Fleischer's Brook without any potential additional flow from this development," the engineers wrote.

They asked that the drainage pipe into Elmwood Park not be permitted by the board.

Shortino said he believed that the drainage system would still reduce the flow of water into the brook because the basin will hold a certain amount. Currently, water that isn't absorbed into the ground just flows off the property when it rains.

The applicant is expected to make some revisions to the plans before the next hearing. The Saddle Brook Zoning Board next meets on December 2.