Dear Editor:
On November 10, the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Council, with a proverbial gun to their heads, unanimously voted to approve a settlement agreement in which RD Reality would be permitted to raze and develop 16 acres of the Waterview tract. This represents the beginning of the end of a decades-long battle to preserve this land as best as possible.
In the 1980’s, a group of Intervale residents worked with the town council to preserve a 200 foot buffer along the edge of the property and zone the land as planned office development (corporate campus), minimizing the impact on the neighborhood, versus the strip mall and apartments that a developer had planned.
In 2005, Intervale residents stopped a rezoning of the land and prevented a town center. Shortly thereafter, a 55+ development was prevented. In 2013, a large complex of townhouses, Target, Whole Foods, and various other stores (leaving only a 50 foot buffer for the neighborhood) was defeated. And finally, a smaller, high-end strip mall with a 9.2 acre buffer was stopped. And while the latter was clearly the best deal in front of the residents at that time, we felt we could do better – so that’s what we did. We continued to fight.
During the summer of 2015, one of the principals from RD Reality reached out to me and said he wanted to work directly with us to find something that was amenable to everyone. We met numerous times, apparently unbeknownst to the township administration, and C4HS&W did its best to negotiate the best possible deal we could for the neighborhood and the (At that time, we were also continuing concurrently aggressively exploring ways to preserve the entire tract as open space.)
Through discussions, we were able to increase the preserved acreage to 10.6, though we were adamant about wanting more. We ensured that Intervale Road was off-limits, insisted on a treed buffer to help shield the neighborhood from noise and lights, and pushed the project as close to Route 46 as we could. While we didn’t get everything we wanted, we did everything we could. To be fair, the representative from RD was honest, approachable, and treated us far better than any of the other RD representatives who minimally dealt with us in 2012.
Did we get everything we wanted? No. But given that we were staring down the barrel of the builders’ remedy, perceived or real, our options to fight were quickly becoming limited. As the president of C4HS&W, I’m saddened that we weren’t able to preserve more, and certainly not all, of the land. As a resident of the Intervale neighborhood, I think the council’s vote last night, given the totality of the circumstances, was their best option and I thank each one for their vote.
I would like to specifically thank Councilman Brian Stanton, former Councilman Jonathan Nelson, Council President Paul Carifi, Jr., Councilman Lou Valori, and Council Vice President Robert Peluso for listening to the residents who strongly felt that we could do better than any deal that had been in front of them prior to November 10. They had the courage to trust a group of citizens who knew a better deal was out there, and represented their interests. I consistently told them that if the point came when I felt that there was no more fight left, not one more tree to save, then I would prefer a settlement rather than risk losing the entire tract – but that I would fight until the last possible minute. For me, that point came about 1 hour before the council meeting.
Mike dePierro, who curiously publicly chastised me prior to his November 10 vote, clearly believed that the COAH threat was real, and voted to prevent the town from being exposed to high density housing – though for some reason, attempted to make me feel badly for fighting for as much as possible until the very end. No citizen should ever be humiliated for doing what s/he feels is right for the community. In the end, his vote to preserve 9.2 acres was ultimately defeated in lieu of another vote to preserve 10.6 acres, with the additional acres being negotiated by common citizens who felt they could make a difference, several months earlier.
To be clear though, I thank all public officials, who do what they believe is right, for giving their time and making hard decisions. It’s also important to thank the Mountain Lakes council members for working so hard to protect Intervale Road. They were definitely very influential in making that happen.
It has been an unforgettable experience getting to know so many great people through this process over the past several years. Residents joined arms, exchanged ideas, had difficult conversations, held to their convictions, donated time, donated money, attended meetings, and fought for what they believed was best. I would also like to thank the current and former board members of C4HS&W: Len Cipkins, John Garrison, Margaret Gossett, Michele Tuscano, Jackie Bay, Nancy DuTerte, Gretchen Fry, Ron Owens, Dick Young, and John Beehler for their dedication to this cause.
There is no way to calculate the number of hours spent on this enormous task, and their leadership was impressive.
Dave Kaplan
President
Citizens For Health, Safety, & Welfare
