March 23, 2015
Dear Verona Community,
Again, we must ask you to please consider attending a Planning Meeting on March 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center to fight DMH2 LLC, the developers planning on ramming for the third year their ill-conceived project into our town on the corner of Westview and Bloomfield Avenue.
To remind and update you:
Throughout the past three years, so many changes have been added or subtracted that the very nature of the project is Frankensteinian. Add an arm here, stitch the leg to the body but forget about the abnormal brain (the main plan). Three stories, two stories, storm water drainage, wall size, bigger wall size, traffic problems and more–all to satisfy the town variances on a project that will have no benefit to the town itself.
Although we have a great deal of respect for the Planning Board’s service to our town, shouldn’t their main role to Verona residents to act as overseers, recommending projects that are beneficial to our town and protecting us from badly planned and managed ones? Yet this year they seem to be navigating the developer plan at the expense of the people in Verona.
One of the main peculiarities is that neither the Zoning Board nor the Planning Board has any say or jurisdiction concerning the blasting part of the project. The developers submit their proposal; the blasting is approved. The actual blasting company will not even be revealed preapproval. We can’t check their record or reputation.
Therefore, there is no consideration of the unknown results of said blasting in such a tiny area surrounded by homes over 110 years old, the health problems of the residents due to noise and dust/air pollution or the structural integrity during the blasting. During the construction, large rock carrying trucks will block Bloomfield Avenue, cause traffic jams in an already congested area and endanger the children crossing the streets to go to school or playing in the adjacent park.
When will this nightmare end? March 26 promises to be the last meeting (if we are not further jerked around) with open mic for anyone to comment. There is a clear consensus in the town that nobody wants it. Many aren’t even aware that the monster still lives. So, apologies for extending the metaphor around a very serious matter, but please attend the next planning meeting and stand up for the people of our town.
Terry Moore and Kim Shafer
973-239-7132
