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NEIGHBORS OF BETH MEDRASH GOVOHA'S EXPANSION ASK POLICE DEPARTMENT TO RELAY THEIR CONCERNS REGARDING THE PROJECT


As previously reported here on FAA News, during Lakewood Township Planning Board's public hearing of Beth Medrash Govoha's planned housing project, BMG VP Moshe Gleiberman told the Board that the Yeshiva Administration reached out to the neighbors to ensure that they had no objections to the application.


However, at this week's public hearing, it became clear that numerous neighbors did have traffic safety concerns. As they feared unknown retaliation were they to voice their concerns in person at the Planning Board's public hearing, they instead met with the Police Department and asked them to relay their concerns to the Board.


Due to their work schedule, the letter from the Police Department only reached the Board this week, after they already granted their approval to the application, but just before they memorialized their Resolution of Approval.


The neighbors expressed to the police department concerns with the amount of traffic that the new complex will generate, plus the potential cut thru traffic that will exit on 9th Street and stack up along 9th Street, blocking their driveways and creating a public safety hazard where the proposed drawing for the roadway exits onto 9th Street currently.


In response to the neighbors' concerns, the police department submitted a recommendation to the Planning Board "to try and line up the exit onto 9th Street at Private Way, where the intersection could be controlled better, or restrict left-hand turns in and out of the newly proposed apartment complex."


The Board refrained from adopting this recommendation as their requirement, however they did amend their resolution to say that “the board recommends that applicant address during resolution compliance the police department's recent recommendations."


As the news was very first broken here on FAA News, the project consists of a total of 600 residential apartments, playgrounds, and a child care center and banquet halls.


The application was represented by Attorney Harvey York, Esq., Engineer Robert Curley of Colliers Engineering & Design, Planner Brian Flannery P.P., and Traffic Expert Scott Kennel.


The Site Plan depicts 6, five-story multi-family buildings with 100 residential apartments in each, with a playground with separate equipment for children ages 2-5 and 5-12 outside in front of each building. The apartments will include gated patios, and communal space for strollers on each floor. The basements will contain individual storage lockers.


Each building will contain

24 - 2 bedroom units (total 144 units)

60 - 3 bedroom units (total 360 units)

16 - 4 bedroom units (total 96 units)


One apartment building will contain a management garage.




The project also includes a separate building for a child care center with a capacity of 300 children, and 530 patron capacity banquet halls in the fully finished basement.


The child care center will contain 19 classrooms, tutor rooms, bike rooms, club rooms, a day care lobby, a social lobby, a conference room, and offices for the principals and management.


The basement of the child care center will contain separate entrances, lobbies, men's and women's coat rooms and rest rooms, a 1,300 sq foot kitchen, and 3 undefined rooms with a total of 7,100 sq feet. According to the Environmental Impact Study that was submitted with the application, this area will be used for 530 patron capacity banquet halls.


The road layout proposes a total of 3 new roadways which will be improved separately as each phase of the complex is constructed.


Carey Street will be improved from its existing terminus just west of Forest Avenue. This will connect to Cedarview Avenue which will be improved between its existing terminus at Fourteenth Street and Ninth Street. Both new roadways will be improved with complete curbing, sidewalk, and street lighting. There will also be dedicated off-road drop off areas along each building.


The project will provide a total of 1,295 parking spaces, 1,196 parking spaces for the residential units and 99 parking spaces for the child care center.


No additional parking will be provided for the 7,100 sq foot banquet halls. The Board did not address the lack of parking, or the fact that banquet halls are not a permitted use in the zone or in child care centers.


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3 comments:

Yudel Shain said...

The Administration of BMG has changed.
I sat down with Rabbi Moshe Gleiberman et al, Re: this project and I was able to discuss with them all issues of concern.

They said they will have a traffic light at the corner of Carey St and Forest Avenue among other issues.

They have an open door policy now, no reason to hide and go through other Avenues.

Try it, you'll be surprised.

Anonymous said...

Why isn't it designed with sukkas porches? The shack on the tracks is a disaster.

Anonymous said...

Yudel discussed the Succah porch issues; it's not feasible to them on all of the units. I suggested that they should have them on the larger units, as the smaller ones, they usually go to the inlaws for Succos.