Village Unveils Downtown Vision Plan

The Village unveiled a Vision Plan for development in downtown South Orange over the course of the next five to 20 years to a full house at the SOPAC Loft on Thursday evening. Representatives from The Cecil Group, the Boston-based planning firm hired to develop the plan—the result of more than a year of study and four public feedback sessions—said the goal was to identify opportunities that were both imaginative and feasible.

According to Village President Douglas Newman, the idea for a Vision Plan began to germinate in May 2007, when he and four of the current Trustees won the municipal election and reflected on how building in South Orange had historically been reactive to proposals put forth by developers rather than cohering to a plan.

Though a redevelopment study had been conducted by The Atlantic Group in 1994, it predated the Midtown Direct, SOPAC, and the shift toward more Seton Hall students opting to live in South Orange. Newman and his colleagues also felt that a plan should draw more from the public. A request for qualifications was sent out two years ago, and The Cecil Group was chosen from the initial 22 respondents, in part because of their excellence at community outreach, Newman said.

Steven Cecil and Ken Buckland of The Cecil Group, who were introduced by Newman, presented "opportunities" for different downtown areas, which were largely the same as what was presented in their draft plan last spring. One notable omission was the idea for a hotel to serve the Seton Hall community, which "started to look impractical in terms of economic potential," said Buckland.

According to the plan, the potential private investment to execute the proposals would be $121 million, representing 4 percent of South Orange's $2.9 billion total rateables—90 to 91 percent of which are currently residential, Newman noted. The needed infrastructure improvements come to $14.3 million, which would be paid for through bonding—gradually, as the projects are rolled out—and eventual taxation on new development.

Here are some of the highlights contained in a four-page brochure distributed at the meeting; the Village intends to make them more widely available:

• Sloan Street: Construct a commercial building opposite the train station to extend retail into the current Sloan Street lot from where it currently ends at Stony's; build a tree-lined walkway to extend from the current lot to a proposed new one at the site of the Rescue Squad on Third Street; relocate the Rescue Squad to a spot adjacent to the firehouse.
• South Orange Avenue, West: Either construct a building in keeping with the redevelopment plan or put in a public parking structure on the Beifus site; restructure the NJ Transit lot to allow for more pedestrian access to the river and a better pick-up/drop-off area for the train station, as well as shopper parking behind some of the South Orange Avenue storefronts; possible structured parking on the west side of the lot. (According to Jon Vogel of South Orange's Development Committee, who's been active in the Vision Plan process, NJ Transit is amenable to changes so long as the parking spaces are provided for elsewhere nearby.)
• Third Street: Build a parking structure on the current Rescue Squad site to replace spots taken from the NJ Transit lot, and move the Rescue Squad next to the firehouse; build a mixed-use development on the Village-owned parcel at Third and Valley streets, which would function as a gateway to downtown.
• Valley Street, South: Implement mixed-use residential zoning to discourage auto-oriented commercial lots on Valley Street from remaining; build residential units around Memorial Park.
• Irvington Avenue: Possibly create a public garden behind new residential development on undeveloped land between Tichenor and West Fairview avenues; add some retail to make the area more inviting to the Seton Hall community.

Some of the "opportunities" envision dramatic changes to privately owned land; for example, the rendering for Irvington Avenue shows the Cleanway carwash replaced with residential development. Cecil and Buckland emphasized that their plans don't call for the Village to acquire new property, but to urge property owners to think of a better use over time.

Over the past four months, they've focused on an implementation plan, including regulatory incentives—facilitating the process of applying for parking for developers who commit to mixed-use buildings of a certain mass is an example—and economic development strategies. Also proposed is an incentive for green building, through which developers would pay a fee for a pre-construction analysis, which would be refunded once the finished building received a green certification.

While the Vision Plan isn't intended to be a legally binding document, Newman explained, there are immediate steps the Board of Trustees or the Planning Board could take to abide by its spirit. The zoning ordinance could be amended to encourage proposed development, and the Parking Authority could also act to amend its standards in certain areas.

The assembled crowd, which included a number of Seton Hall students, was invited to comment following the PowerPoint presentation. Robert Chandross, an economist and frequent commenter at Board of Trustee meetings, stated that in light of the economy, it's a bad time to be proposing the addition of more retail space in South Orange, given the number of vacancies. He also questioned the strategy of bonding for infrastructure improvements to support the desired private investment.

Cecil responded that a recession is the perfect time to plan for the future and have projects in the queue, since getting necessary approvals and zoning for major sites could be a five-year process. He also emphasized that the bonding wouldn't happen all at once, since projects outlined in the plan would potentially be rolled out over years.

"It is the right time to be thinking about the future for reinvestment in those communities that are prepared for it," he said.