Kensington Senior Development LLC will make what could be its final appearance before the Verona Board of Adjustment on Thursday over its plan to build an assisted living facility on the site of the Richfield Regency.
The proposed three-story building first came before the board in July. There will be 92 units in the building, roughly half of which will be studio apartments, with the rest split between one- and two-bedroom units, for a total of 130 residents. Ten percent of the units will be Medicaid units. Kensington Verona will have a memory care unit for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s, but will not be licensed as a skilled nursing facility.
Much of the previous testimony on the project has focused on how it would affect traffic on Bloomfield and Claremont avenues, as well as stormwater management. The development will cover almost the entire lot where the catering facility now stands, with entrances from both roads. In August, a traffic engineer testifying for Kensington said that the project would have fewer than half those traffic trips now occurring for events at the Richfield. Because of the extent of the development, the Verona Environmental Council has raised questions about what would happen to rain running off the site after a storm.
At the most recent hearing on October 11, it was disclosed that Verona’s engineer has raised questions about whether the project meets the parking requirement. Kensington’s engineer detailed some changes to its stormwater management, the overflow parking lot on Claremont and exterior lighting.
Kensington needs several variances to build at the Richfield site, including one to add assisted living to the permitted uses for properties that are zoned as Town Center. Even if the Board of Adjustment approves the project, the Richfield Regency will continue to book events through the end of 2019.
You can watch the October 11 hearing in full below, beginning at the 24-minute mark:
