Housing Project Endorsed By Morristown Zoning Board

MORRISTOWN, NJ — At this week's meeting, the Morristown Zoning Board unanimously approved a new three-story, 28-unit building modeled after the Turtle Road Commons.

The residential building, dubbed “Turtle Two,” will sit behind offices at 161-163 Madison Avenue, according to zoning board documents.

On Wednesday night the board authorized the preparation of an approval resolution, which will be voted on again at next month's meeting. One of the possible conditions is that the developer, Silverman Group, increase the number of new trees from eight to sixteen.

Silverman's initial plans for the development in November 2020 called for 46 units on four floors; the new plan calls for 28 units. Turtle Two, like Turtle Road Commons, requires a use variance to allow for multifamily housing.

The land is zoned for medical and professional offices, daycare centers and nursing homes.

Turtle Two includes 20 two-bedroom units and eight one-bedroom units. Project planner Michael Tobia previously stated that four units would be designated as affordable.

A traffic engineering study was carried out to determine the amount of traffic that would be generated by the proposed development. According to the findings, the construction would not have a strong impact on Morristown traffic.

"Based on this analysis, while it is expected that the proposed development may add additional traffic activity than currently exists the volume will not be of such a level to negatively affect overall traffic operations, particularly during the peak hours," the study said.

According to the consulting engineers, it is anticipated that the future commuter traffic would generally follow the same distribution that occurs at The M at Morristown across the office access road.

Members of the zoning board will vote on the project once more at next month's meeting, according to officials.