Key Videos from Avalon Bay’s site plan hearing on its Windsor Road project – Right for Teaneck?

Published On May 5, 2016 » 4253 Views» CSX Bakken Risk and New Residential Plans, Development Options, Slider

 

Ladell and the project On May 12, 2016 the Teaneck Planning Board met to consider Avalon Bay’s 248 unit site plan for the World of Wings site  in Teaneck, NJ! Only one issue got resolved during the month of May 2016 – the issue of what % of the facility’s units the Township will require the developer to make available for affordable housing. The following video captures how that issue was resolved:

As to almost everything else about the site plan, the next step is a new hearing scheduled for the evening of June 9. What were the key issues raised at the May 12 meeting? What occurred during and immediately following the testimony from the developer’s architect is captured here in three videos addressing 1) the proposed construction and location of firewalls in the project building; 2) whether the facility will have emergency generators for its elevators, and – perhaps most important – 3) from what materials (plastic or metal pipe) will the sprinkler system be constructed.  Of special note: Senior executive Ronald Ladell [not on the agenda] found it necessary to be sworn in as a witness to restate key positions taken by architect Mark Drake, his own witness. The clear impression was that architect Drake had had almost no preparation and fielded almost every question with one of two answers: “We will meet the code” or “I don’t know”.  Question – What level of professionals will Avalon be bringing to this project if  after nearly 5 months it cannot send and  defend a better site plan than what it exhibited on May 12?  Indeed, does Teaneck understand what it is being asked to approve?  You decide!

https://youtu.be/beloua0QxIw

(The remainder of this post – following the 3 videos from the Planning Board meeting – provides most of the limited background data available about this major project and the risks/opportunities it presents as seen from various perspectives.)

Firewalls: a 14 minute video

Sprinker System Materials – a 14 minute video

Emergency Generators – an 8 minute video

Information to help residents prepare for the next (June 9) Planning Board site plan session is sparse.  No site plan information of any sort had been on the website until TTT pressed the Board and got 14 pages of expert review up on the website page. click here and then click the document called 1775  Windsor Road Application – Avalon Bay.  You can get some additional information – by inference – about departmental evaluations of the submitted site plan if you click here , (the pdf of one or both of these reports may well  not come up on your screen – but will be available if you go to your “downloads” file and click the top item. Then you it should open it and you can save it to wherever on your computer).

Here is the totality of what the Town’s website agenda said about the 5/12 Avalon item at the 5/12 Planning Board meeting:

1. PB2016-01 – Avalon Bay – (Doug Bern, Esq.) – 1775 Windsor Road – Block #5201 – Lot 1 & 2 – L/1 Zone
Applicant seeks a new 5 story 248 unit residential building with attached 5 story parking garage & pool.
Variances required: Preliminary & final site plan approval, combined height of the retaining walls, cumulative height of fences & retaining walls.
How will fall protection be provided? Size of garage parking spaces not present on plans. The handicap parking layout is different on site plan & building plan. There are no designated affordable units.  ( 2-page agenda packet is found by clicking & going to your downloads file to bring it to your computer)

 So, then, where is the information about what Council has already done in changing the Master Plan and zoning?  Well, click here for that Ord. 46-2015. But do not be surprised when you read the Ordinance. It does not identify what it is that is being described with anything but Block and Lot numbers – because, of course, Teaneck may well not want you to know on what it is legislating!

The vote on December 15 for that Ordinance 46-2015?  4-2 vote [Parker and Castle, voting no; Sohn unavoidably absent]  What had for the 4+ subsequent months since December 15 been said about Avalon Bay in either the Council or the Planning Board – NADA/GORNISHT/NOTHING/RIEN

Because it appears that nothing significant has changed with the basic Avalon proposal since LAST FALL, the remainder of this earlier TTT Post is likely to be your best source of information.
The best media summaries of  situation involving the Township’s consideration of an AVALONBAY-proposed 248-unit residential development at the current World of Wings site on WINDSOR ROAD in Teaneck remain 1) Megan Burrow’s 9/17 Suburbanite story on Council’s 9/8 resolution on idling trains (see other TTT post) that also details the substantial citizen input opposing the AvalonBay development (click here) as indicated by the circular stickers (see inset) worn by many in the Council chambers; and 2) Mary Diduch’s earlier Local page 1 story about an August 13 Planning Board meeting that appeared in the Saturday, August 15 2015 Record (Click here to access it ).  Coverage by TTT of the evolution of this proposal as it got to the Planning Board in late Octovber can be seen by clicking here:   http://www.teanecktransparency.com/?p=1244

Here is the “Avalon” amendment – that Teaneck officials still clearly do not want you to see

 

 

World of Wings

Video information available here on TTT’s website: TTT has provided some (not all) step-by-step video coverage of the public meetings where Teaneck’s governing board and statutory boards consider the AvalonBay proposal. The initial videos (1 and 2) show AvalonBay’s initial presentation to Township Council on May 19, 2015 and Council’s June 9 passage of resolutions that sent the proposal to the Planning Board – after a sharp critique of the proposal and the developer’s practices during Council’s  public input period at that meeting.  Subsequently, AvalonBay Senior Vice-President for New Jersey operations, Ron Ladell, and a group of the firm’s consultants informally described this proposal to the Township’s Planning Board on August 13. Videos 3, 4 and 5 provide  taped excerpts from that Planning Board meeting.

Video 1: 22 minutes. AvalonBay’s entire presentation and the discussion of it between Council members and AvalonBay representatives on June 9, 2015.

Video 2: 10 minutes. After a sharp critique of the AvalonBay by labor representative, Julie Diaz, proposal during its G&W session, Teaneck Council discusses and passes resolutions that send the proposal to the Township Planning Board and approve a contract for a planner to support the Board’s review of the proposal: The short form of the key resolutions passed can be seen by clicking here or going to the Township website and opening this link and scrolling to resolutions described both as L,M, and N or as 122-123-124.

Video 3: 10 minutes. On August 13, questions are raised by Planning Board members and the public about what plans AVALON BAY has to protect residents living in the proposed complex from an accident involving Bakken Oil-bearing tank cars traveling along the CSX lines immediately adjacent to the back of the property – and the terse answers provided by the firm’s Ron Ladell.

Video 4: 5 minutes. August 13 descriptions by PB Chair Bodner and PB Planner Preiss of the several processes through which the Avalon Bay proposal must go before actual final Township approval of the project.

Video 5: 26 minutes. August 13 video of nearly the entire August 13 Planning Boar presentation of the company and the project by AvalonBay Senior Vice-President Ladell and then his answers to PB member questions that together provide a good overview of the project.

Expect to find in the space below more data as TTT identifies links to additional information and official actions taken by the Township’s Council or Planning Board, and information in major media concerning concerns and steps in the process as well as media reports of AvalonBay’s experience with fire-safety issues and their aftermath.

On August 25, the Record published an editorial calling for state legislative action to create stronger building code requirements – citing the fire at AvalonBay’s residential community in Edgewater and the call by Bergen County fire officials., The proposal being made by AvalonBay to Teaneck is cited. click here

On August 24, the Record published a lead story on the Bergen County Fire Chiefs call for legislative action to tighten the state’s fire safety standards citing the AvalonBay’s  “disaster” in Edgewater. click here

On August 12, a Record story saying Teaneck’s Emergency Manager says 8,000 would need evacuation if oil trains exploded click here

On august 5, the Record reports continuing opposition to AvalonBay proposal for development in Wayne NJ click here

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