Red Bulls change Morris Township training facility plan for former Honeywell campus
MORRIS TOWNSHIP — The New York Red Bulls soccer club presented an amended development plan for its proposed training facility on the former Honeywell campus off Columbia Road to the planning board on Monday.
The proposal follows an ordinance passed by the township committee on Dec. 21 that changed permitted uses in the non-residential overlay district of the redeveloped 147-acre tract, which already has 235 new residential units constructed on the east and west ends.
"This will be one of the first of its kind in the United States," said Red Bulls Nicholas Racioppi Jr. "I believe this athletic training facility will be a testament not only to Morris Township but also to the surrounding the communities, the county, the state and even the country. This will be, if approved, national news."
The December ordinance 81 acres in the middle of the property, covering two lots owned by or contracted to the club, to be used for "athletic training facilities." Another 14.7 acres of the property is owned by the township and is preserved as open space.
The complex plan shows four professional fields, three academy fields, a competition field, an agility training area, a youth field, an indoor half-field, a field house, pro/academy buildings, a groundskeeping building, various support buildings, academy dormitories, parking areas, equipment storage areas, lighting, buffering and other uses customarily found in training facilities.
"Those of you who participate in rezoning heard that this facility will certainly have a much lesser impact on the surrounding area than the 900,000 square feet of permitted office space and the traffic that comes with it," Racioppi added, referring to the original 2014 rezoning of the vacated property.
Mayor Mark Gyorfy, a planning board member, attended the virtual meeting but declined comment due to ongoing litigation with the Fair Share Housing Center.
The center filed a motion in February asking the state to order the township to recalculate its "realistic development potential" and include the land that was rezoned for the training site in December, according to the center.
“The Mount Laurel Doctrine exists precisely to prevent this type of exclusionary zoning,” said Rachel Lokken, staff attorney at Fair Share Housing Center. “Morris Township’s failure to consider newly vacant land for affordable housing before rezoning it is unlawful.”
Planning board attorney Jim Slate said the fair-share housing litigation "is not at issue before the board at this phase of the proceedings."
"This tract already provides 24 affordable townhouse units with associated credits towards our obligation," Slate said. "This particular 147-acre mixed-use tract always had a residential component and these two lots that are at issue tonight as a non-residential district. That has not changed. This is a proposed alternative use to the nonresidential district."
Planner Michael Tobia, who authored the amended project, stressed the presentation was of a "concept plan, not a site plan, which he hoped would be produced "as soon as possible."
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Giordano said the Red Bulls have already revised their project after receiving feedback at previous public meetings, and that community engagement would continue throughout the process.
The engagement will include scheduled meetings with the neighboring condo association and members of the Rolling Hills neighborhood, he said.
"We will continue to accommodate them going forward as the site plan process is initiated and progresses," Giordano said.
The matter is scheduled for a hearing on June 24 in the Superior Court in Morris County
Alex Staropoli, director of advocacy and communications for the Fair Share Housing Center, said the nonprofit is not trying to shut down the Red Bulls project.
"It's not about the Red Bulls project not moving forward," she said. "It's about the town not fulfilling its affordable-housing obligations. Our position is the township is hiding behind this Red Bulls project. It's about the town not meeting its affordable housing obligations."
The plan calls for three two-year phases of building to complete the project by 2028.
The Red Bulls have based training operations in Hanover since 2013. The club's first team will continue to play its Major League Soccer games at Red Bull Arena in Harrison.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Red Bulls training facility plan proposed for Morris Township amended
