Verona township officials were notified today that the developer of a proposed apartment complex on Grove Avenue has withdrawn its application for the project.
The project for 21-25 Grove Avenue would have replaced two frame buildings that have been used as small business offices with a 35-unit apartment building. The site is just to the north of Verona Animal Hospital.
The initial project, which was filed in October 2019, had called for a four-story, 54-unit building. But hearings on the project were suspended after the pandemic broke and, when they restarted, the project had been scaled back. The developer, 21-25 Grove Associates, was not party to any of Verona’s affordable housing settlements.
It is not known why the project was withdrawn. It would have required a large number of variances to be approved, including a major “D” variance because the property was zoned for commercial use, not residential. It also needed 11 “C” variances to address the amount of the lot that was going to be covered by the building, its height and its proximity to residential structures, among others. The Verona Environmental Commission had raised numerous concerns about the proposal over its potential environmental impact.
