PRESSURE MOUNTS TO PUT THE BRAKES ON THE PROLIFERATION OF DENSITY HOUSING HERE IN NORTH ARLINGTON!
HOMEOWNERS SUPPORT SINGLE-FAMILY PROPERTIES VERSUS MULTIPLE DWELLING UNITS TO PREVENT FURTHER URBANIZATION OF THE BOROUGH!
Council challenger Tom Bradley emerges as a New Voice for Homeowners and longtime Borough Residents!
A proposal for a 20-unit high density housing complex on River Road that was to be considered by the NA Planning Board on Monday night was postponed at the very last minute – leading to speculation about the mayor’s support for the questionable project.
The delay in the hearing – which was advertised on the borough website as late as Monday afternoon, follows an embarrassing rejection of yet another high-density project last week that was proposed for the corner of Schuyler and Park avenues. That project – a 14-unit monstrosity that would have required 8 variances by the NA Zoning Board of Adjustment, was blasted by neighbors as inappropriate for the neighborhood.
That project, presented with expensive and intricate details by applicant’s attorney William Rush, who has a reportedly close business relationship with Mayor Daniel Pronti, is seen as an embarrassing defeat for the mayor, who is real estate professional whose income is subsidized by a hefty taxpayer- funded disability pension from his previous public sector job in Montclair NJ
The hearing scheduled for Monday night would have asked the Planning Board to approve a 20-unit residential project on the east side of River Road, a designated flood zone. The high density project is proposed by Gambarini Inc.
Borough insiders have speculated that Pronti, still reeling from the embarrassment of the Schuyler Avenue rejection, worked the back channels to have the project postponed until the citizen anger generated by his support for high density projects throughout the town subsides.
“The Schuyler Avenue hearing was an embarrassment for the mayor,” said one borough insider source who asked not to be identified. Mayor Pronti didn’t want that to be followed up by another hearing where angry residents would be allowed to vent their displeasure with another high-density project that he green-lighted,” said the source.
Also, of great concern for the mayor is the fact that four members of the borough council and the mayor participated in last Thursday’s online zoning board meeting, which may be a violation of state law since a quorum of the borough’s governing body participated in a public meeting without proper public notice.
Monday night’s Planning Board meeting would have introduced high density housing to an area bounded by Eagle and Stover streets. And would have continued Mayor Pronti’s efforts to support the proliferation of high-density rental units into what has long been a quiet town of middle-class single and two-family homes.
As an example of how much of a “hot button” issue overdevelopment under the Pronti administration has become, a spirited exchange between the mayor and council candidate Thomas Bradley occurred this week.
From Tom Bradley in Response to Mayor Pronti: “Don’t lie to people about what I said. It belittles you and makes people lose respect for you. I am going to run a campaign on ideas that I think will benefit the people of our town. As a lifelong resident, I think I have a perspective on that. I also think I have some ideas our taxpayers may like. And like I stated in my previous response to you, I will be sharing them with the taxpayers during my campaign. I wish you well sir. And, once again as a homeowner I have every right to question my elected officials. I’m sorry you feel threatened by me offering ideas for the betterment of our community and disagreeing with yours. But that’s what makes our country great. The ability to speak our mind! To debate the topics and let voters decide.”
There will be a real campaign in 2020 and local Democrats represent retaining our values as a community that is small, safe and suburban versus the Republican position of overdevelopment and urbanizing North Arlington into an extension of Hudson County and Harrison!
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