Planning Board Reviews Glen Ridge Library Addition Plans, Offers Design and Security Recommendations

The Glen Ridge Planning Board's September 18, 2019 meeting centered on an advisory site plan review for an addition to the Glen Ridge Public Library at 240 Ridgewood Avenue, since the borough-owned Municipal Complex site required Board comment as a public project. Library Director Jennifer Breuer and project architect Daniel Kopec presented a 21-by-12-foot addition intended to provide new meeting and study space, along with reconfigured interior areas, book drop lockers, and revised exterior lighting and means of egress. Kopec noted the plans would also need review by the Historic Preservation Commission and, eventually, the State Historic Preservation Office.

After questions about security and access, the Board voted to forward five specific recommendations to the applicants: installing a card reader on the after-hours locker space, adding more interior and exterior cameras, adding more glass around the new entryway door for sightlines into the lobby, examining whether stairs could be added alongside the ADA ramp, and ensuring the parapet wall around the new rooftop HVAC unit is tall enough to screen it visually and acoustically. No members of the public spoke, and the Board separately adopted its August 21 minutes with Ms. Ratnow-Meyer abstaining.