Mountainside Approves Triboro Sports Complex

The Mountainside Board of Adjustment has approved the application for the by Triboro Sports near the Springfield border.

The vote came despite the wishes of Springfield residents with homes near the border, who urged the Mountainside officials to vote no. 

The 80,645-square foot sports center will be built at 270 Sheffield Street in Mountainside. The sports center would include fields for soccer and lacrosse as well as space designated for retail sales and a café.

Opponents to the facility, by and large residents of Springfield, fear it will bring more traffic to and increase the likelihood of accidents in their neighborhood.

In hearings, the developers contended the residents overestimated the facility's impact. 

Lawn signs dot numerous properties in the neighborhood that would be impacted. Several residents wrote to the Mountainside planning board and dozens attended the Mountainside BOA meetings to protest the facility. Springfield resident Richard Blecker, whose property adjoins the site, called the  31-foot building a “monstrosity” and said the footprint of the new construction would be unreasonably close to his property in letters to the Mountainside board.

Triboro Sports, LLC rested its case at the December meeting after calling for additional testimony from traffic engineer Elizabeth Dolan of Dolan and Dean Consulting at the BOA December meeting. Dolan estimated the Triboro facility would attract 20 more cars per hour during peak hours to the nearby Springfield streets.

Blecker believes the facility would attract as many as 1,600 cars per day to the neighborhood on peak weekend days.

They said that while drivers approaching the facility from the North East on Summit and Mountain Aves. during weekday evening peak hours may use residential streets to access Sheffield, it would add about 20 to 25 more vehicles per hour to the area, and would therefore “not have a perceptible impact on Charles Street, Possum Pass or Briar Hills Circle.”