Resolution 231-17 at the August 17th Mayor & Council meeting appointed Neglia Engineering to conduct an Area In Need Of Redevelopment Investigation of Hunter Building Supply, located next to the little league fields at 140 West Webster Avenue. The contract amount in the resolution is $10,500.
This resolution is the complement to July’s Resolution 184-17 which authorized the Municipal Land Use Board (MLUB) to undertake a preliminary investigation to determine whether Hunter Building Supply – officially listed at Block 506, Lots 2 through 5 – meets the criteria for an Area In Need Of Redevelopment.
At the July 20th Mayor & Council meeting, Third Ward Councilman William Fahoury pulled the resolution for discussion and asked if the property owner had a development in mind or would the municipality be going out to solicit developers.
Mayor Carl Hokanson responded, “He’s developing the property himself.”
“Do we know what he wants to do?”, asked Councilman Fahoury.
“From what I understand it’s mixed-use. I don’t know if it’s going to be 5, 10, 100,” said Mayor Hokanson, “He did come [in] and that’s why we’re doing this . . . What the final plan is, that will eventually come back to us when he presents it to the Municipal Land Use Board. This is just to do the study to see if it’s an Area of Redevelopment.”
Hunter Building Supply is the third property that has had such an investigation approved since 2015. The other two locations were Sullivan property (link) located at Westfield Avenue at Chestnut Street and Meridia @ Roselle Park (link) on Westfield Avenue which was approved this year and will have a groundbreaking ceremony in September. Sullivan property remains without any planned development and Meridia @ Roselle Park has demolished pre-existing structures. Although Meridia was approved as designated mixed-use, there have been no details as to what commercial property will go on the ground floor even though a restaurant was mentioned. That property was also approved for PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) (link).
Once the report is conducted, it is set to be presented to the MLUB for review and then to the governing body for approval.