Planning Board Weighs Setbacks and Traffic in Bay Street Redevelopment Plan, Refers C-1 Zoning Review (Note: Source Minutes Incomplete for Two Agenda Items)

The source minutes preserved for this meeting are incomplete: agenda items for a memorializing resolution on Dorothy Isecke's appeal regarding solar panels at 15 Highland Avenue, and an appeal by Michael Pensak regarding conditions on an addition at 134 Ridgewood Avenue, are listed by name in the document but no discussion, vote, or outcome text survives for either item in this record.

The portion of the minutes that is intact covers the board's early-stage work on a redevelopment plan for the former School of Nursing site on Bay Street, near Mountainside Hospital. Board members identified setbacks, green space, parking, traffic, Historic Preservation review, and the impact of development in "Area B" on Highland Avenue as their priority areas as the plan is drafted. During public comment, several Laurel Place-area residents -- Daniel Prieur (5 Laurel Place), Jeffery Dine and Deborah Dine (6 Laurel Place), and Christina Gabriel (14 Laurel Place) -- again raised concerns about traffic at the Laurel Place/Highland Avenue intersection. Lynn Scott and Charles Steindel, both of 9 Roswell Terrace, also addressed the board, with Steindel specifically discussing the square footage and aesthetics of a proposed new building as part of the redevelopment.

In new business, Councilwoman Morrow relayed a request from the Mayor and Council for the Planning Board to review and recommend changes to permitted uses in the C-1 Zone; the board agreed to take this up at a later meeting.