Massive Westfield Redevelopment Plan Approved At Council Meeting

WESTFIELD, NJ - The Westfield township council has officially approved plans to redevelop the former site of a Lord & Taylor and adjacent buildings into age-restricted apartments, office and retail space.

One Westfield Plaza, an ambitious (albeit controversial) plan to construct 138 55-and-older residential units (including 21 affordable ones), 16 age-restricted townhomes with a public dog run, 16 non-restricted townhomes with a public community garden, 100,000-square-feet of office space and 33,000-square-feet of retail space at the former Lord & Taylor site, was approved in a 7-1 vote Tuesday during a Westfield Council meeting.

Other plans for One Westfield Plaza include 29 market-rate and six affordable loft-style apartments and 2,110 square feet of street-level retail space on North Avenue, as well as two office buildings totaling 10,000-square-feet with private parking and 12,000 square feet of retail along South Avenue, per planning documents.

The planned parking structures - comprising 352-spaces and 208-spaces, respectively - were notably controversial in the meetings leading up to the approval.

"I think an open parking lot is a major advantage for Westfield," Resident Tony Laporta said at a December meeting. "I commuted for 37 years into New York City, and one of the beauties of having an open parking lot is you drive in, you park and you go.

"When you're a commuter, the most important minutes of your day are commuting... I truly believe that if we add parking decks, it's going to add 20 to 25 minutes in total every day to a commuter's life. That's really, really bad," he said.

He also argued that the town should put the redevelopment project to a referendum vote, claiming that back in 2004, there was a non-binding referendum on a parking deck in Westfield that was voted down by 77 percent.

Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle, however, has argued that both binding and non-binding referendum votes for a redevelopment are illegal. She said another issue with a referendum vote is that it is "all or nothing."

"The concern was if they only developed the Lord & Taylor property, which they had intended to do, we were going to end up with one of two things — a Walmart ... or high density residential," Brindle said. "What we're trying to do is look at what can be in the best interest of our downtown to make sure that our downtown is vibrant and sustainable and can weather future economic downturns."

Local advocacy group Westfield Advocates for Responsible Development has been one of the more significant voices in the development’s pushback, having collected roughly 2,300 signatures on a Change.org petition citing problematic traffic, pollution and congestion should the plan move forward. Another frequent complaint among residents who opposed the project was that the development is "too big in scope and size" and will alter Westfield's "small town character." Read more: Residents Launch Petition To 'Rethink' One Westfield Place Development

As traffic and parking is also a common concern among residents, the developer previously revised its parking plan to include drop-off spaces for ride-share services, as well as create 16 on-street parking spaces on South Avenue for retail businesses.

“The plan for One Westfield Place was shaped by years of dialogue with residents, small business owners, and civic leaders," previously stated Carolina Simon, Vice President of Development, HBC | Streetworks Development. "These changes reflect our continued commitment to listening to, and collaborating with, our neighbors. As long-term landowners in Westfield, we care deeply about the future success and economic vitality of this community."