Thursday, July 23, 2015

VILLAGE ALLIANCE BOARD APPROVES POST OFFICE PLAN AGAIN

The Maplewood Village Alliance board on Wednesday once again approved the design and site plan for the proposed Maplewood Village Post Office redevelopment plan, which will now go to the Planning Board for its review on Aug. 11.

"We approved the building plans with the deviations and the building site plan with the deviations and then we added seven conditions of approval," said John James, Alliance board chair. He said those conditions include two on the site and five on the building.

The project is for a three-story building with 20 apartments and five retail outlets. Some have opposed the project, claiming it does not fit in with the Village design, while others oppose the five-year tax abatement plan.

The MVA board had initially approved the project in May, but agreed to review more specific site plans after a lawsuit was filed by Village Keepers Inc., which opposes the project. When the MVA agreed to the second review, the lawsuit was withdrawn.

"We had always been reviewing plans, but it wasn't the same site plan with the elements that the planning board would review," James said. "We had not reviewed all of the technical drawings."

The board also took up the question of whether the developer, JMF Properties, and the Township had shown enough of a hardship to require the demolition of the former post office rather than seeking a way to keep the building in use. The board voted unanimously that that hardship had been shown, James said.

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