Mountainside Board of Adjustment to Again Discuss Triboro Sports Complex Tonight

Tonight, Mountainside’s Board of Adjustment will consider the by Triboro Sports near the Springfield border.

As they have in the five prior meetings concerning the project, Springfield residents with homes near the border are urging them to vote no. 

The proposal calls for a new 80,645-square foot sports center to 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. Mountainside’s zoning laws do not specifically permit the construction of this kind of facility.

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. Opponents will be able to give testimony. At the January hearing, three Springfield residents spoke against the project. More are expected to follow tonight.

In previous hearings, the developers contend the residents are overestimating the facility's impact. 

"We are concerned about everything from traffic, to noise, to safety, to crime, to the value of our homes," Springfield resident Brenda Bucci said in an email. "This is a neighborhood that they are plopping a very large building into an area that is not zoned for this business."

The opposition is both vocal and visible in Springfield. Lawn signs dot numerous properties in the neighborhood that would be impacted. Several residents have written to the Mountainside planning board and dozens have attended the Mountainside BOA meetings to protest the facility. Springfield resident Richard Blecker, whose property adjoins the site, called the proposed 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.”