POST OFFICE PROJECT DEVELOPERS GET ANOTHER GIFT: OUTSIDE GARBAGE

JMF Properties, the firm building the new retail/housing complex at the site of the former Maplewood Village Post Office, has gotten a lot of gifts from the Township since they first began their venture.

First, they bought the land for more than $1 million from the Township and were allowed to build the 20-apartment, five-retail shop project without the usual 10% affordable housing requirement. (The sale price included a $100,000 payment to the Township's affordable housing fund instead.)

Then they received a five-year property tax break to the tune of about $325,000.

More recently, the Township began installing a new sewer line needed for the building that will cost taxpayers more than $90,000 for easements and construction - as well as parking loss for weeks.

Now they want to change the terms of their plan approval to allow an outdoor garbage dumpster. When the project was being reviewed by the Planning Board and the Township Committee, one of the stipulations was that garbage would be stored in the building's basement.

Apparently that will not work if a restaurant is among the five businesses in the complex when it opens sometime next year.

So JMF requested that the plan be altered to allow the outdoor dumpster, which will be placed in a enclosed concrete structure near the entrance to the train track walking tunnel that connects Dunnell Road with the Village Coffee parking lot.

This is near an area where many dumpsters for Maplewood Avenue eateries such as Village Coffee, Arturo's, Bagel Chateau and Mt. Fuji already exist.

The Township Committee on Tuesday approved a resolution, 4-1, granting the easement needed for the dumpster. TC Member Greg Lembrich voted against the proposal.

See the resolution and updated site map HERE.

"We think that having a full service restaurant/bar there will be a huge plus for Maplewood Village," Mayor Deluca said at the meeting. 

But Lembrich and TC Member Nancy Adams said some kind of monetary payment should be required from JMF.

"I think asking for some kind of compensation would make this easier to swallow," Lembrich said.

So the TC added in a stipulation that a $5,000 payment be required in exchange for the easement.The issue will now go before the Planning Board.