Letter to the Editor: Neighborhood Character Sense of Place or Home Threatened by Developer

We are now in a state of suspended animation concerning the GTP Acquisitions, LLC proposal, for the Saint Christopher Landscape, for a senior care home which will change the character of the immediate neighborhood forever. The fact that the past administration took no action to save this landscape or neighborhood smells of influence in favor of outside corporate developers. The Parsippany Board of Education, not the Township itself made a substandard offer to the Church. Their plan was some ball field, rather than simply land preservation itself.

The present plan calls for the removal of 13+ acres of trees for a 150 unit senior assistant living arrangement; none of which counts against our affordable housing obligation. The Church itself in allowing this is violating Pope Francis Laudato Si; Care For Our Common Home, human roots of the ecological crisis, and the earth as our home; ecology as a common good. Therefore if Parsippany Board of Adjustment rejects the rezone, it is possible to acquire this landscape and save it from destruction. Our new status of Highlands Conformance as part of the 2004 Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act surely warrens our support and potential in defending our home, in this case, the Saint Christopher’s immediate neighborhood.

These supporting factors can be in any argument.
1. Neighborhood Character is a factor in determining permanency any development proposal would need to show the character of the neighborhood has changed to such an extent as to justify rezoning and a public need exist for rezoning. A for-profit senior living facility is not as the GTP developers would allege the same, as a public need for a school or hospital. In this age of privatization, these may also not be what they seem serving not the public but the interest of private for profit. The fact that the Property in question Block 166 Lot 96 is for sale does not amount to a change in the character of the neighborhood.2. The landscape is a groundwater recharge area 13.2 acres of its 21.9 acres, including all three tiers of a Wellhead Protection Area. Parsippany has not in the past protected or considered it’s Ground Water Recharge Areas, although 65% of our potable water comes from the aquifer, which is in a permanent deficit due to depletion and consumption; requiring Parsippany to have contracts with other water supplies.

3. Trees are now realized more than ever for their “ecological services” free of charge in water retention, pollution control, noise abatement, and carbon sequestration.  Removal of the 13+ acres of unknown trees will surely make a dramatic change and add to the already numerous trees lost in recent developments.

4. With the coming Affordable Housing onslaught, Parsippany owes it to itself to preserve as much sensitive land as possible, and this should have begun years ago. The loss of Waterview remains an example of unnecessary and deceitful practices by the Town in cahoots with corporate developers, rather than save this natural resource, it was given over for more senseless speculation overdevelopment, where no need existed and fear of housing was used, falsely.

Resident Homeowners and taxpayers must decide their neighborhood destiny, not outside forces; what good is Home Rule; when your master plan is determined by corporate outside interest?

With the COVID-19 how will Parsippany fill the Halls as before to show their opposition to the destruction of another landscape for no just cause? Read the recent articles on what these senior care homes are actually like, and how they make their money. They are not in the Public Interest.