Woodland Park to review zoning change for Bank of New York land to allow housing
WOODLAND PARK — The borough's Planning Board is scheduled to review the amended zoning of a 30.4-acre parcel where the Bank of New York sits off Rifle Camp Road.
Once the board's review Monday is completed, the council is expected to adopt the zoning change at its Feb. 21 meeting. The change will make the land eligible for housing, specifically a project of about 370 residential units, 54 of them for low-and moderate-income residents, officials said.
How many of those units can and will be built remains to be seen, said the borough's planner, Darlene Green. The state's current efforts to overhaul its stormwater regulations may affect the site's future.
The property with the bank sits on a hill between Rifle Camp Park and Garret Mountain Reservation, close to the Garret Mountain Equestrian Center.
The zoning change, Mayor Tracy Kallert said, is something the municipality has been required to enact since a 2018 settlement with the Fair Share Housing Center of Cherry Hill.
The settlement stemmed from a lawsuit Woodland Park filed in the summer of 2015 in hopes of convincing the court it had complied with its affordable housing obligation. The Bank of New York property was just one of several properties the borough had targeted as future affordable housing sites.
By using a formula that 15% of all units would be set aside for low- and moderate-income families, the plan allows developers to build higher-density housing such as townhomes, in exchange for providing affordable units. These units would be deed-protected as affordable for 30 years.
Because of the settlement, the borough is shielded from future lawsuits through 2025, Kallert said.
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"We need to do this to retain control," Kallert said. "This is something we need our residents to know."
Bank of New York goes on the market
Kallert said the borough was caught off guard when in recent weeks it heard that the Bank of New York property was on the market.
"We were both saddened and surprised to learn the Bank of New York has decided to sell its property on Rifle Camp Road," Kallert said in her State of the Borough address last month.
Before learning that the property was up for sale, the borough was in discussions with the bank to permit the addition of solar panels in the parking lots. No mention of a sale was brought up, she said.
Green said no one is sure what the bank's plans are. "The Bank of New York has not told us anything," she said.
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The property currently contains a multistory office building that was built as a secure data site after 9/11, officials said. On the bank site, there are three parking lots.
The property is assessed at more than $21.6 million and pays more than $700,000 a year in property taxes, according to NJParcels.com.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Woodland Park to review land zoning to allow for more housing
