NorthJersey.com
Sept 3 2011
Armenian Home testimony to continue in October
Saturday, September 3, 2011
BY KIMBERLY REDMOND, OF COMMUNITY LIFE
Pascack Valley Community Life
Testimony will resume in October on an application before the Emerson
Municipal Land Use Board on the Emerson Armenian Home for the Aged
proposal to construct a new facility and then knock down the existing
building.
Many residents who live adjacent to the Main Street nursing home,
concerned a final vote would be cast on the application during the
board’s Sept. 1 meeting, packed the council chambers to express
concerns over the proposal.
According to the plans filed with the land use board, the new
building, a 2.5 story, 120-bed health care facility, would be
constructed on the left side of the lot on 70 Main St. The existing
86-bed home, located at the right of the property bordering Glenwood
Avenue, would be demolished upon construction of the new facility and
the patients would be transferred. The project, which has been planned
“for at least 16 years,” according to Matthew Russo, the home’s
administrator, is estimated to cost between $13 to 15 million, a
portion of which was the result of fund raising.
Though the board has not yet completed its hearing of the application,
it opened to the public on Thursday evening to allow for residents to
ask questions regarding the plan.
The session, which lasted for nearly three hours, grew boisterous at
some points, with residents cheering those who spoke out against the
application and muttering, “How much did they pay you?” to the two who
spoke positively about the home and the importance of upgrading it.
Richard Massiello, who said he’s lived in the neighborhood for over 50
years, said the proposed location for the new building used to be over
“swampland.” He went on to point to the recent flooding problems that
Hillsdale and Westwood have faced and said that those issues are a
direct result of development upon unstable lands.
Ken Hoffman, a member of the Emerson Environmental Commission and
former borough councilman, said, “The floods that we just saw are very
much the result of an incredible amount of development… creating
impervious surfaces throughout the area. You get flash floods where
you used to have water infiltrating the ground and you have all kinds
of damage as a result of that.”
Theresa Cannata, who resides on Clinton Street, flatly told the board,
“If this plan is approved, you will ruin our entire neighborhood.”
Just some of the concerns voiced by Cannata included increased traffic
and diminished home values.
“I did not buy my house with this [proposed building] in front of my
home. I pay taxes and they do not,” said Cannata, referring to the tax
exempt status of the Armenian Home, a not-for-profit organization. “If
this board approves this, I will take this as high as I can go.”
Alan Bell, the applicant’s attorney, continuously reminded residents
that the home’s tax exempt status carries no bearing on whether or not
the project should receive approval by the land use board. He also
reiterated that the applicant is not seeking any waivers, since it
conforms to all regulations of zoning ordinances and all requirements
of subdivision and site plan review ordinances. In 2006, the Armenian
Home went before the Mayor and Council to request a change to a zoning
ordinance to allow for nursing homes to be a conditional use in
residential zones, Bell recalled. The request, which was reviewed and
recommended by the planning board, was approved by the governing body
and the zoning was changed, since, as Bell said, “it [the home]
existed there since 1938 as a non-conforming use in the zone” and “it
made sense for the mayor and council to recognize that property for
what it was – a nursing home use.”
The request five years ago occurred around the same time that the
Armenian Home sought approval for its original project, one designed
to expand and modernize the facility, which, according to Bell, is a
site that consists of several buildings that were added over the years
“in bits and pieces,” with the oldest one dating back to the 1930s.
“The approved plan proposed to take down another pre-existing
structure so we could put up a building and leave the other remaining
buildings here,” said Bell, adding that the home originally projected
40 more beds than its proposing in its current application. At the
time of the application, the planning board voiced concerns that an
increase in the number of patients at the facility would impose a
greater burden on emergency medical services, which led to the home’s
proposal of a formula to compensate the borough for those services.
For example, if 100 to 120 beds were occupied, the home would pay
$1,000 per bed for a grand total of $100,000 to $120,000 a year.
However, the state ultimately ruled not to grant approval for the
project, Bell said.
“The home is extremely regulated by the state, as any nursing home is.
The state was extremely concerned about the staging of the development
and the impact on the residents while it was being developed,” said
the attorney. The original application planned to keep some of the
home’s residents at the facility during the construction period, he
said.
“Frankly, they did not want us to do it that way. Frankly, we had no
choice but to look for another location on the site to build the
building so we could continue to house the residents,” Bell explained.
The home did go out and seek temporary sites to house residents during
construction; however it was unable to secure a location, which led to
the creation of the current plan, the attorney said.
Kathryn Cornwell, who resides in the area, said the majority of the
neighborhood wasn’t even aware the scope of work had changed until the
applicant appeared at the last land use board meeting in July to
deliver the new plan.
“It was the first time that any of us were aware the original plans
had changed. Plans that we had also considered and approved. I’m sure
all of us were blindsided by the extent of the changes and the
apparent indifference to the impact on the community,” she said.
The concerns of residents that were voiced at the July meeting are
something that prompted a few revisions to the proposed plan, Bell
said.
For instance, in response to concerns about truck traffic, the plan
now calls for the widening and curbing of Clinton Street “by a foot or
so” as a way to help improve traffic flow, Bell said. Also, the new,
larger site, would allow for deliveries to the home to be reduced from
72 per week to 20, Russo said. The delivery vehicles, which would
utilize the site’s proposed back entrance on Broad Street, would
primarily consist of vans and box trucks, however there is a
possibility the home’s food delivery would arrive by a tractor
trailer. The applicant said the home would try and work with the food
vendor to utilize a smaller truck for deliveries.
From: A. Papazian
http://www.northjersey.com/news/129189828_Armenian_Home_testimony_to_continue_in_October.html