'Residents For Summit' Town Hall Meeting Brings Packed House

Patch made changes to this article, as more information was provided by Toplogy — the City's planning firm.

SUMMIT, NJ — Concerned Summit residents packed into St. Teresa's Memorial Hall Wednesday evening to attend a town hall meeting hosted by "Residents for Summit" — a group that is strongly opposed to the proposed Broad Street West redevelopment plan.

Carlos Rodrigues, a professional planner, spoke at the meeting and pointed out various issues with the proposed redevelopment plan, as well as provided suggestions to improve the project.

More than 830 residents signed Residents for Summit's petition to demand alternate development and design proposals for Broad Street West Subdistrict 3 — a five-story building that is set to include 140-units of housing, as well as retail space.

Read more: 800+ Summit Residents Sign Petition Against Broad St. West Development

Deborah Oliver, a prominent member of Residents for Summit, spoke at the top of the meeting and stressed the concern that the new development would bring overcrowding to Summit.

"We love our small town, with our Village Green, convenient train line, one-of-a-kind downtown and the suburban features of light, air, open space and drive-ability ..." Oliver said. "We moved here and stayed here because we loved these things. If we wanted more density, we would live in Brooklyn, Jersey City or Montclair."

Amy Disibio, who also spoke at the beginning of the town hall, said Mayor Nora Radest, President Marjorie Fox and Councilwoman Lisa Allen were among some of the council members who attended the meeting.

Problems With The Redevelopment

Rodrigues broke down a number of key issues he found with the proposed development.

First, he said the five-story building would loom over the surrounding neighborhood and overshadow Broad Street and the nearby Vito Gallo Senior Building, as well as tower over St. Teresa's.

He presented a shadow study of the proposed building, showing that at different times of the day, such as 9 a.m. and noon, Broad Street is entirely in the shadows. Then at 5 p.m., nearby Cedar Street is completely in the shadows.

Rodrigues said the developer has also proposed to close off part of Cedar Street to traffic in front of the YMCA. However, in a memorandum issued to the Broad Street West Steering Committee from Topology — the developers involved in the project — it states that Cedar Street will not be closed.

Rather, Topology said the street is being designed so that if a group wanted to close it down for an event, such as an outdoor yoga class, they can.

Rodrigues also argued that the building is severely under-parked, and it needlessly complicates access to the YMCA. Lastly, he said there is no synergy between St. Teresa's, Vito Gallo and other surrounding features in the development proposal.

Rodrigues then pointed out several discrepancies between the Broad Street West proposal and the adopted redevelopment plan.

The original plan only allowed for 72 dwelling units, whereas the proposal requests 140 units. The original plan also only calls for 45 units per acre, and the proposal requests 108 units per acre.

Overall, Rodrigues suggested that the proposed building is much larger than its original plan.

One of the most glaring discrepancies, according to Rodrigues, is that the original plan required 285 parking spaces, whereas the proposal only provides 125 spaces.

"I'm sorry, but I've seen some brazen representations during the course of my career made by ambitious developers, but I've never seen this level of misrepresentation," Rodrigues said.

Topology's Response

Architecture firm Topology released a number of corrections after Rodrigues's presentation, claiming that he shared misinformation about the development.

Topology argued that this plan has been well thought-out and undergone a long process of planning.

"While aesthetics is subjective, the presenter indicated that this project looked cheap,
that no time has been spent on the design and was not well-thought out," Topology wrote.

"This current proposal has been through 68 redesigns at the developer’s expense (at a cost of over $700k) to be consistent with the Master Plan, the Redevelopment Plan, the City’s Developer Regulation Ordinance (DRO) and feedback from stakeholders (who themselves have provided hundreds of hours of their own time)."

Topology also argued that the density of the project would allow for 105 units, not 72 units. In Subdistrict 3 itself, Topology said the building can have up to 155 units, and the city is seeking to cap that number at no more than 140 units.

Although Rodrigues said the original plan was to only build a four-story building, Topology said the redevelopment plan always contemplated structures that would be five stories or up to 70 feet in height.

In terms of parking, Topology said the developer is meeting its requirement of 185 spaces by providing 140 parking spaces on-site, as well as 45 spaces off-site.

Rodrigues also said in his presentation that the developer was planning to implement more than 62,000 square feet of public open space but that much of it will be unusable. Topology countered this information, stating that there will be 20,392 square feet of new open space that does not include public roads or St. Teresa's.

Toplogy said the space will be usable and filled with amenities, such as public art, green infrastructure, seating and more.

In response to Rodrigues's shadow study, Topology argues that shadows cast from the building will not be as drastic.

For instance, the firm wrote that the building would only cast a shadow on St. Teresa's Memorial from 6 p.m. until sunset during the summer, and it is only the back half of the building.

"Streets are often in the shade for parts or most of the day, especially in cities that do not have a traditional grid aligned with the sun’s path in the sky as its main axis—which few are," Topology said.

A full shadow study can be viewed on the city's website.

Lastly, Topology said Rodrigues provided an inaccurate length estimate of the building of 480 feet. According to Topology, these are the measurements of the building by frontage:

1. Cedar Street: 147 feet
2. Broad Street Bend/Corner: 62 feet
3. Broad Street: 346 feet

Potential Improvements

Instead of building one five-story building, Rodrigues proposed breaking the project down into two, four-story buildings, separated by a pedestrian plaza lined with retail.

This South-facing plaza would create a pedestrian link, or outdoor space, between the Vito Gallo building and Morris Avenue, connecting through the grounds next to St. Teresa's.

He also proposed reducing the number of housing units to 72, as the original plan proposed, with a possible bonus of 16 units if there is meaningful investment in the public realm. In keeping with the original plan, Rodrigues said developers should maintain the 285 parking spaces.

In addition, Rodrigues said developers should make sure any streetscape "improvements" to Cedar Street do not interfere with routine operations at the YMCA or the library.

"The proposal is to privatize Cedar Street, to sell the right-of-way to developers who will then turn it into something different," Rodrigues said. "To my knowledge, there's been no analysis of the implications of this in terms of circulation [and] the operations of the Y and the library."

Lastly, Rodrigues said developers should plan for the area as a whole, not piecemeal. Decisions made now will either facilitate or negate the success of later phases, he said.

A lengthy public comment session then followed Rodrigues's presentation, with residents asking questions and voicing opinions about the proposed development.

The full Residents for Summit town hall meeting can be viewed below on YouTube:

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