ENGAGE MAPLEWOOD AND THE POST OFFICE

Still not sure what to make of Engage Maplewood, the outspoken group that seems to be opposing the Post Office Redevelopment plan, but also had its own stake in the process as one of its members had submitted interest in the project.

As a reminder, the last word was the Township Committee had chosen L& M Developers of Larchmont, N.Y., to construct the rather large retail housing mix on the site of the current Maplewood Village post office.

The Township also recently announced the post office would remain open on that site until early May.

See background on L & M's proposal HERE.

Engage Maplewood raises some good issues in their latest release (below).

We also find the large-scale plan a bit overwhelming for the Village. Perhaps something without apartments and fewer stories would work best.

Still, Engage Maplewood's obvious conflict of interest makes their efforts at least a bit less credible. A portion of their latest release below:

OVERVIEW and SCHEDULE

L&M, is the preferred developer for the Post Office site at this time.   There is an agreement in place approximately through March under which L&M will seek to present a plan and business terms that are acceptable to the Town.  If an agreement cannot be reached, the Town may decide to seek an alternate developer, or may decide to continue negotiations.  

L&M showed initial design concepts to the Village Alliance, the Chamber of Commerce, and the general public during the last week of January.   Mayor De Luca has stated that they will present updated plans to the Village Alliance and Economic Development Committee in early March.   There are no announced plans for further review with the Public at this time.

Following the second set of reviews, L&M will do further updates in preparation for site plan approval at the Planning Board, but the date for this are not clear right now—the Newsrecord (2/5/14 edition) reports this will happen in early March, L&M has stated they hope to do so by early May, and Mayor DeLuca has stated that he does not know.

Public input from residents, merchants, and community organizations (Village Alliance, Chamber of Commerce, etc.) is very important now, before Planning Board review.  Input now will have more immediate impact on the design.