Sierra Club Speaks Out Against Avalon Bay Project

The Sierra Club and a group of Wayne residents are opposing the AvalonBay housing project because the project will increase traffic, contribute to urban sprawl, and pollute local waterways, including the Passaic River.

Several residents and a lawyer representing the club are expected to attend a Board of Adjustment meeting tonight in opposition to the project.

AvalonBay has applied to build a 422-unit complex on Totowa Road in the 2nd Ward. The property has a 345,000 square foot office building on it and it is currently zoned for industrial, not residential, use.

“This is the wrong project that is in the wrong place. Wayne already has enough traffic, flooding, air pollution, and overdevelopment and this project will just make things worse,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, a non-profit that has a long history of opposing overdevelopment and protecting open space and flood-prone properties.

Approving the development will mean granting a use variance for the zoning, another variance for building the four-story complex about 18 feet higher than is permitted, and another for its floor-area ratio.

“This is zoning through variance and it’s wrong,” Tittel said. “There is not legal justification for intense and low-rise development in this neighborhood. It violates the town’s Master Plan and there is no public benefit.”

The Naachpunkt Brook, which feeds into the Passaic River, borders the flood-prone property, which, Tittel argues, will increase flooding the area and hurt water quality.

“It’s a surefire way to put the waterway, and community, at risk,” Tittel said.

AvalonBay has also been heavily criticized since a five-alarm fire destroyed a similarly-designed project to the one proposed for Wayne. AvalonBay applied to construct the Wayne facility two days before the Edgewater fire in January.

The Sierra Club will be represented by Stuart Lieberman, a noted land-use attorney who, according to the group, has a long history of protecting the environment and preventing over-development in New Jersey.

The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Wayne Municipal Complex. The meeting will be broadcast online and on cable channel 77.