Rain isn’t the only thing coming down this morning: Demolition has begun on the former Bahr Lumber site to make way for a new Lennar Corp. townhouse development.
According to Tom Jacobsen, who heads Verona’s Buildings Department, demolition permits were issued last Thursday for the project. Work on the site was put on hold after a lawsuit was filed by Durrell Street residents against the Township of Verona, the mayor and Town Council and the Planning Board over the change in zoning on the site from M-1 manufacturing to A-3 residential. The 3.6-acre property was home to the Charles Bahr & Son lumber business from 1924 to 2011. (Bahr Oil has moved its headquarters to Bloomfield Avenue.)
Terms of the lawsuit settlement are confidential, but Verona Township Manager Joe Martin expressed satisfaction that work was beginning on the site. “This is an important project for Verona,” said Martin, who will be meeting with Lennar officials on Tuesday to review their construction plan. No building permits have yet been issued.
Lennar’s original plan called for six buildings set perpendicular to Durrell with street-front facades that will look like a single-family home. The buildings will contain 33 attached townhouses with two bedrooms and a total of 2,600 square feet of interior space. 
Wow – another piece of the past disappearing!
I am a former resident of Lynwood Rd right below the Bahr’s Lumber yard property. I hope they consider the water that runs down the hill from Bahr’s onto the properties on Lynwood Rd. That could be a definite problem. Also the fact that the oil fill up for the oil trucks use to be on the side of where of the office was near the old train tracks. Pollution problems could exist!
Pat, There was an extensive analysis of the run-off when the project was before the Planning Board. As a lumber yard, the ground had become very compacted. The Lennar project would reduce the impervious cover on the site to 51.5% from 90%, and it includes drainage swales on the south side. You can read more details here: https://myveronanj.com/2012/04/28/durrell-development-inches-forward/