Summit Residents Protest Broad St. West Design Ahead Of 6-Hour Meeting

SUMMIT, NJ — Wednesday was a busy day in Summit, as "Residents for Summit" gathered outside of St. Teresa's Memorial Hall to protest the proposed Broad Street West redevelopment design, which was followed by a marathon six-hour long Common Council meeting.

Wednesday night's meeting, which went until around 1:30 a.m., featured a presentation from the city planner and project engineers on revisions to the current Broad Street West project.

Residents Rally For Change

About an hour before the meeting began, around 150 t0 200 residents gathered at the Chestnut parking lot — where Subdistrict 3 is planned to be built — and held up signs, protesting the large scale of the project.

Several residents held up signs, with messages like "Mayor & Council, Vote 'No' On Broad Street West" and "Shame on Council."

One resident told Patch that he feels the new development doesn't fit the character of Summit and will exacerbate existing problems.

"We already have a traffic problem and it's just going to cause more traffic problems," the resident said. "There's a lot of unanswered questions. Almost everyone here is okay with redevelopment in the area in question. It's just the way [council] has gone about it has not been satisfactory to the residents. We're just asking for more time and more understanding."

The resident added that the revision that has been proposed is only "a slight modification" and is not enough of a reduction in size.

The rally also featured many speakers from the "Residents for Summit" group, including leader Dorrie Gagnon, Guy Hazelman, Deborah Oliver, Kevin McGoey, as well as several former council members.

Hazelman encouraged everyone at the rally to show up at the council meeting later that night and voice their opinions during the public comment section.

Oliver said over 1,400 people have signed a petition against the current design of the development, as well as 952 Facebook followers on the "Residents for Summit" page.

The full rally, featuring all the speakers, can be viewed in this YouTube video below:

City Planners Present Revisions At Meeting

In summary, here is a breakdown of the primary revisions to the project proposed by the city's planning firm, Topology:

• Reducing the building's retail space to a minimum of 8,500 square feet (previously 10,000 square feet)
• Capping the district at 133 residential units (previously 140 units)
• Allowing 5 stories, or 70 feet tall (previously could be either 4 or 5 stories)
• A two-foot yard set back (previously 5 feet)
• Added parking spaces within 250 feet of redevelopment area, new on-street parking spaces
• Removing the Post Office parking lot to add a parking garage

Matt Seckler of Stonefield Engineering and Design, who is also the traffic engineer for this project, said that the Chestnut lot on the site of the building would hold 140 parking spaces. This is on top of additional spaces along the south and north sides of Broad Street.

He calculated that the project requires a minimum of 229 parking spaces for the entire building.

If the council and developers decide to build a parking garage where the current Post Office lot is, Seckler said this would hold between 250 to 350 parking spaces.

Seckler also spoke about a number of traffic improvements in the new proposal, which includes reducing the length of the crosswalk across the length of the north leg of Maple Street. He said that Union County will not support any curb extensions or bump-outs at county intersections.

The document that fully outlines all the revisions can be viewed here on the city's website.

Developers outlined that the next steps in this process would include a July 19 vote, where the Council would potentially adopt a redevelopment agreement. From there, the adoption of a financial agreement could occur sometime between July and September.

They expect the earliest possible Planning Board Site Plan application could be done in the fall of 2022.

However, several residents urged council to push this vote and wait until summer is over to make a decision.

"I humbly request that we have a Town Hall in September and we put this whole thing on hold," resident Hazelman said at the meeting.

To view the full presentation and comments from residents and council members at the meeting, check out the recording on YouTube below.