Sixty-Year Paramus Landscaping Company Undergoing Redesign

Greenland Nursery will soon be operating its landscaping, gardening and floral business on a smaller portion of the Forest Avenue property its owned for more than 60 years. 

Thursday night the Paramus Zoning Board gave unanimous approval to the longtime business owner for its redesign plans.

The business, which has been on Forest Avenue for 65 years, currently occupies 9 acres of land and is now consolidating its operations onto 2 acres of that land.

The other 7 acres have been sold off to the Shelter Group which received site plan approval in April for a 139-unit senior living facility. 

Bill Weiss, owner of Greenland, told the Board that the bulk of the operation will remain the same however they will be eliminating its top soil and bulk mulch business which will reduce truck traffic by roughly 98 percent. Greenland is a gardening center, nursery and floral shop which sells supplies and also does landscape architecture for residences and businesses. 

The existing building will remain on the property and will be housed by the floral business which is currently part of the Greenland operation. 

The greenhouse buildings, which currently are on the portion of the property Greenland will no longer occupy, will be moved to the smaller parcel and a two-story building which will consist of a garage for equipment and an upstairs office where business will be conducted.  

In addition there will be a storage unit for gravel and bulk mulch and an 18-foot wide paved fire lane will be constructed for emergency use. 

The new design of the the Greenland property and the previously approved senior living facility has drawn a handful of neighboring residential property owners to the hearings armed with questions mainly concerning what the development will do to the area's already serious flood problems. 

Cliff Cervelli of Taft Court questioned the project's engineer as to why the storm drain had to be located on the part of the property which borders residential ones.  According to the engineer the drain was placed where it made the most sense based on the flow of water and it is intended to drain the water off the Greenland property onto the senior living property. 

"I've seen the brook overflow and I've seen it come up onto the roadway. What happens if the numbers aren't correct?" Cervelli asked of the plans.  

Bernard Nickel of Spring Valley Road questioned the need for variances for the buffer zones, parking and impervious coverage suggesting that Greenland should have held on to more property so there would be no need to ask for such permissions. 

The number of parking spaces actually doubles due to the redesign with 44 spots as opposed to the 22 that exist now according to those who testified. However the residential neighbors charged that the space should be used to create more of a buffer between the property and its neighbors. 

Project experts testified that the property was sufficient for the operation Greenland plans to continue. Project planner Keenan Hughes said the redesign would be more aesthetically pleasing than the way it exists now and will fit in harmony with the residential area. 

"It’s nice to be able to retain a family business that has been part of Paramus tradition for a long time," said Stuart Liebman, attorney for the Greenland property. "They came up with a way to keep their operation here and they have not created a heavy commercial site."