Letter To The Editor: 'The Sophia' Is Unnecessarily Bulky

WESTFIELD, NJ — The following letter to the editor was submitted by Westfield resident Carla Bonacci.

To the Editor:

The proposed Sophia apartment building at Prospect Street and Ferris Place is obtrusive and out of scale with its surrounding residential neighborhood. At a height of 50 feet and a footprint of 35,000 square feet, the bulk of the Sophia building would overwhelm the adjacent
single-family houses at this prominent corner location.

Hundreds of Westfield residents have already spoken and petitioned against the size of the Sophia – but the recent spate of rushed approvals by the Town Council of the Prospect+Ferris Redevelopment Plan and Town Ordinance 2231, does not suggest that Westfield’s elected officials, appointees or professionals responsible for negotiating and approving the Sophia development will advocate in the Public Interest to downscale the Sophia to be more compatible with the
suburban character of Westfield.

Absent further (new) information on the level of Public Benefits or even a direct planning vision for this area to justify or offset such a massive change in local zoning and density at this location – the Sophia building would be an unnecessary intrusion that will reduce the quality of life for Westfield residents, particularly those of us in Ward 1, who would be experiencing this building on a daily basis.

Moreover, the advancement of the Sophia project could be an unsettling harbinger of rushed, opportunistic, and opaque decision-making by Town officials that will ignore direct public input and discount public costs and community impacts of other proposed Westfield redevelopment projects.

The Town Master Plan as adopted is a broad stroked policy document. It does not clearly identify the parameters that would be used to evaluate changes to the existing zoning ordinances for specific parcels or any parcel in the ‘area of redevelopment’. The Master Plan process
did not lay out specific development options for various sites. A few conceptual blocking diagrams that would identify options for uses and density would be key.

As a Westfield resident for more than 30 years, I can say this building would be a jarring visual statement that conflicts with the proclaimed vision of a “classic town for modern families.” The Town and Developer have continued to obscure the visual impact of the Sophia building – publishing just a single small rendering of the building by itself in the 70-page Redevelopment Plan that was apparently adopted in its entirety . . . by the Council in Ordinance 2231. Even recently
released renderings at the Council’s meeting on May 10th, do not sufficiently depict the Sophia with its surrounding buildings or provide any appropriate context for the designated historic building.

As a professional architect and planner, I know that context is everything in creating a built environment. Even though the Developer has failed to properly present the visual impact of the Sophia project – one can envision the Sophia as comparable to the Westfield Arms, a
pre-zoning apartment building that is a few blocks away at a less prominent intersection. There are simply better ways to handle multi- family housing alongside two-story houses. Even the Chelmsford condominiums or townhomes at the corner of Elm and Copperthwaitenearby, are examples of much less bulky developments and buildings that would be appropriate at the Prospect and Ferris location. This building density for the Sophia is 4-10 times larger than exists for any RM or RA zone in the current Westfield Zoning Ordinance.

Also, the “traffic study” accompanying the Sophia redevelopment plan does not include any analysis of pedestrian impacts – which is puzzling for a new development containing 64 units. This area presently has many pedestrian and vehicular conflicts. The dense pedestrian and
vehicular traffic at the YMCA on Clark Street, as well as at Prospect and Copperthwaite, where a pedestrian fatality occurred in 2014 in the crosswalk. Was there a VISSUM traffic model prepared incorporating pedestrian analysis and impacts at surrounding streets? There should
be some consideration of mitigations that may necessitate rerouting of vehicular traffic.

I also have questions regarding the extent of Public Benefits that the Town will gain from this development that would be a massive override to existing zoning. I recently served on the Town’s Board of Adjustment – where there are always precise measurements for zoning variances. And as a matter of due diligence, zoning variances are granted on the basis of a clear statement of hardship – sometimes physical, sometimes economic – that justifies an override to public requirements. The Sophia’s bulk appears to be driven primarily by private economic considerations, and the only discernible Public Benefit seems to be additional units to help satisfy Affordable Housing requirements and preservation of a historic structure.

The intent and expectations of Westfield’s Master Plan re-examination cannot be distorted into a “blank check” (in the case of the Prospect+Ferris site, a single tautological expression), allowing Redevelopment Plans that disregard and legitimize extreme overrides of the current Zoning ordinance. The Master Plan should not be leveraged against older single-family houses which the re-examination had also hoped to preserve to maintain Westfield’s charm. Without informed and transparent planning deliberations or articulated Master Plan vision, the Prospect+Ferris location appears as targeted (spot- zoned) for overdevelopment, taken at the first development opportunity, with no other options adequately explored or design modifications negotiated for Public Benefit.

While the Town’s approval of a final Redevelopment Agreement for the Sophia remains pending – Town officials should be reminded that its residents clearly and viscerally believe that Westfield deserves better than the type of transformation the Sophia apartment building will bring to future generations. The Sofia would be a permanent reminder as a kind of symbolic barricade and chokepoint – I’m afraid that every time I go downtown, it will simply feel like I’m not in Westfield
anymore.