Route 23 Luxury Apartment Application Carried To March Meeting

WAYNE, N.J. — A controversial application to bring 232 luxury apartment units to an undeveloped plot of land on Route 23 South has been carried to a Board of Adjustment meeting in March.

The application has been going before the Board of Adjustment since August. Owner Galreh LLC has been trying to develop the property since 2008 and has talked to several retailers, including ShopRite, Whole Foods and CVS, about building on it, but to no avail. Trader Joe's plans on building a store there even though it already has a store in Wayne.

Wayne Lincoln Mercury, located across from the property, stores vehicles there. Nearby Wayne Hyundai expressed interest in purchasing the property, but the deal never happened. Sales representatives and dealership employees also park on nearby Court Lane, aggravating residents.

The property is in a floodplain bordering the Pompton River. Galreh had to rework its stormwater management plan to ensure that not only will it not contribute to area flooding, but to actually help reduce it.

Mark Semeraro, the lawyer representing Galreh, previously said the plan reduces the 100-, 10-, and two-year floodwater runoff by 29, 46, and 56 percent, respectively. Galreh was only required to reduce the runoff by 50, 25 and 20 percent in for those years.

Parents are concerned that class sizes would increase if the apartments are built, but Galreh has said that, at most, 17 additional children would attend the Wayne Public School District if the apartments are filled to capacity. That projection is based on a Rutgers University study.

A jitney bus would run between the property and the NJ Transit train station down Route 23.

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