The Maplewood Village Alliance Board of Directors will hold a public hearing and vote on the proposed site and building plans for the Post Office Redevelopment project, on Wednesday, July 22 at 7:30 p.m at Maplewood Town Hall.
The agenda will include:
- A presentation by the applicant, Maplewood Redevelopers, LLC (an entity created by JMF Properties)
- Members of the public presentations
- Board member deliberations
- Board motion and vote.
The full agenda is attached here as a PDF document.
Witnesses will present sworn testimony, and Alliance Board members and attorneys representing the involved parties will be able to question witnesses. Members of the public also will have the chance to question witnesses.
The proposed Post House project has been contentious, with opponents objecting to its height, mass, economic incentives, and failure to re-use the existing structure. The project would demolish the old post office and construct a mixed-use retail and residential building.
Village Keepers, Inc., a non-profit entity that last month filed a civil suit against the township of Maplewood and the MVA, announced on Thursday it was dropping the suit because, it said, the township had complied with its complaint. Mayor Vic DeLuca declined to comment, saying the township had not yet been notified whether the suit was being dropped. Read more in this article.
On its website, Village Keepers said the MVA will be reviewing a site plan “that has never been made available to the public, hearing from ‘expert witnesses’ hired by the developer that have not been disclosed, and voting on a hardship requirement that it earlier failed to demand of the town.”
Village Keepers also protested what it called the “woefully insufficient notice” of the MVA meeting.
The updated site plan is currently under review by the consulting engineer for the Maplewood Planning Board, according to a July 11 email from board chair Tom Carlson. “This review determines whether the site plan application is complete in a procedural sense and thus ready for the board to schedule a hearing,” said Carlson. “The most recent update to the site plan was submitted by the developer on July 1st.”
