Essex Green Project In West Orange Is 'Lipstick On A Pig': Op-Ed

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The stage is set for a big facelift at the Essex Green shopping center in West Orange. But while some local residents are cheering the zoning board’s recent decision to approve the redevelopment plans, others are holding their noses.

During their April 11 meeting, the zoning board voted 5-2 to allow Clarion Partners to carry out a large renovation at the property, which has seen a mix of tenants that include ShopRite, Macy's Backstage, AMC Theatre, Petco, TGI Fridays, Panera Bread, GameStop and GNC.

The board's approval came over the objection of the project's opponents, who have claimed that there are "numerous safety, aesthetic and environmental issues" with developers' plans.

Clarion Partners spokespeople have disputed local activists' allegations. Managing Director Lauren Holden said earlier this month that the last major renovation at Essex Green – which was built in 1957 – took place in 1991. “The goal is to revitalize it, give it a facelift,” she said.

“The feedback from the public has been very positive,” Holden added. “The community is eager to see something happen.”

• See related article: West Orange Zoning Board Approves Plan For Essex Green
• See related article: Debate About Essex Green Shopping Center Heats Up

After the April 11 hearing, multiple West Orange community members offered Patch letters criticizing the zoning board decision and the Essex Green redevelopment plan. Three of those op-ed pieces are reprinted verbatim below.

A spokesperson for Clarion Partners declined to offer Patch a response for this article. Read the company’s most recent statements in support of the redevelopment project here.

'LIPSTICK ON A PIG'

The following letter comes courtesy of Gary Van Wyk.

Despite weeks of reasoned and principled questioning by concerned citizens with higher aspirations for Essex Green, the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) approved Clarion’s applications for variances to our town’s zoning laws, dashing hopes for a more creative, people-centered, and enlightened design.

"No" votes came from two appropriately qualified ZBA members, Jerome Eben, an architect and town planner appointed by Town Councilman Joe Krakoviak, and Jonathan Redwine, a lawyer appointed by Councilwoman Cindy Matute Brown. Board member Alice Weiss made the most notable contribution to the outcome, having announced several weeks ago that unless Clarion nixed its proposed 48-foot sign looming over Route 280, she would vote “no.” At the start of the next hearing Clarion withdrew that sign. Presto! That is the power of ZBA members, but only she deployed it and only to wrest that benefit from Clarion.

Nobody on the Board insisted that this $45b corporation apply its own corporate sustainability principles at Essex Green. So, we will not have the “waterwise landscaping” that Clarion’s CEO trumpets in Clarion’s Corporate Responsibility Report. We will have neither bioswales nor permeable surfaces to absorb stormwater runoff, as Harvey Grossman, our town Public Advocate requested, knowing how residents below Essex Green got flooded after Sandy. Global warming marches forward inexorably, but we are not matching that with foresighted design. Regular attendees of the West Orange Environmental Commission—a citizen advisory board that the ZBA must hear—were told that Chairman Mike Brick would deliver an official report at the final public hearing. He failed to do so. So, you will not even be getting a parking lot that follows the EPA’s “Green Parking Lots” guidelines. Don’t expect solar roofs. Electrical vehicle charging stations? Nope! Green walls? Fuggedaboudit! Not even a fountain!

We will not get several pedestrian-safety measures the public requested. We will not get raised pedestrian walkways. We will still park nose-to-nose and walk between two-way car lanes to reach the stores. The “speedtrack” around the stores, linking the parking lots, stays. We will still have cars cutting through parking lots between parked cars. Despite a recent fatality off Rooney Circle, this $45b corporation won’t be building adequate sidewalks around its property to encourage the walkability stipulated in West Orange’s Complete Streets Resolution.

The Pedestrian Safety Commission chairman, Jerry Guarino, who is also Town Council President, claimed he’d secured in meetings with Clarion 90% of his requests, but they fall well short of our Complete Streets targets.

Will the Board now sign off on plans that omit items promised? Will we enforce that all the “conditions of approval” are met?

But let’s follow the money and get to the heart of the matter, which was Clarion’s application for a variance to build two fast-food drivethroughs, easily leasable and a lucrative boost to Clarion’s bottom line. However, drivethroughs are “d)1) use variances”, and to grant them here runs afoul of the law in several ways that were set out in public testimony (see Our Green West Orange for video of the hearing and relevant documents). In approving the drive-throughs, the Administration appointees on the ZBA handed Clarion a big favor without receiving anything in return. What kind of deal is that? Caffeine addicts might appreciate drive-thru coffee—I get that—but we could’ve received much more.

What else will change now? There will be more buildings (although the existing ones aren’t fully occupied), more traffic, bigger signs everywhere. Are those benefits in terms of the Municipal Land Use Law? Do they serve the public good and provide more light, space, and air—criteria the law looks for? Were this brought before a judge, I expect the answers would be “No.”

Citizens would like to see Clarion renovate Essex Green’s half-empty buildings before building new ones, for example by carving interior atriums into the empty hulks and having smaller stores open onto a central open space, say, an incubator café / bar area. We want more places for people to gather safely inside and outside, for example in the courtyard between the AMC and the other large buildings, and on the sidewalk all along the façade. We want buffers between traffic and people, whether sitting or walking.

Many West Orange residents crave the “town-center” experience you get in an Italian piazza—that offers an experience that online shopping online can’t match. That “piazza” experience is our community’s common-sense understanding of what “town-centered” planning should deliver. But Clarion’s concept of “town-centered” is a “tenant-centered” parking plaza with unobstructed views of excessive advertising. These two visions of a town center— piazza vs. plaza—are diametrically opposed. Apart from a redesigned entrance with a sliver cut off Panera’s side, Clarions’s renovated plaza is a disappointingly superficial facelift. Essex Rising Steering Committee member Soma Sinha described it as “lipstick on a pig.” Joyce Rudin, a member of Our Green West Orange, described it as “Essex Gray.” It’s just “meh.” More of the same…

What really stood out for many observers during these hearings was the abrasive chairmanship of Phil Neuer, enthroned under President Trump’s portrait on the wall, presiding over the proceedings like a tin-pot dictator, and presenting to the world the face of our town’s administration, supercilious and condescending toward citizens. Reader’s Digest once hailed West Orange as “America’s Friendliest Town” but arrogant officials don’t make anybody feel warm and fuzzy.

'I WANT ESSEX GREEN TO SUCCEED'

The following letter/image come courtesy of Sally Malanga.

I want Essex Green shopping center to succeed.

The proposed plan, touted by the applicant’s planner’s report as a town center design, but revealed through the Zoning Board hearing process to be just marketing talk, is the outcome of a vision that undermines West Orange’s own Master Plan which uses the word sustainability seventy times and the word pedestrian 36 times.

This plan which was approved by the Zoning Board 5-2, is automobile-centered. It is a great destruction project that leaps the center backward doubling down on the discomforts that shoppers experience that keep them home.

In the attached rendering the red lines show every which way a pedestrian can be injured in the proposed new parking lot at Essex Green Shopping Center.

The parking lot is the de facto entrance to the shopping center. It is what people experience first, it is and will remain a place where pedestrians are defensive from the moment they step out of their car. There will be no shade for ten years and the one raised sidewalk with mature trees was illogically approved by the Zoning Board to be removed.

An approved building G with its fast food drive through particularly concerns me. It is massive for the site. It dwarfs the TGIF restaurant and the bank nearby. It is the center of pedestrian, auto and truck conflict. It required a C variance in setbacks and in building coverage and a D variance for a drive through, which is not to be taken lightly. On one side it faces a retaining wall eliminating a portion of a nice natural slope. In violation of the Master Plan its massive size and position along the roadway destroys the light and air and space that their expert pIanner claimed in his report to create!

I urged that the Board require building G to be smaller and eliminate the drive through. They chose otherwise, 5-2.

At the hearings, a resident pointed out that the successful Short Hills Mall does not use excessive signage, but the Zoning Board granted the C variance 5-2 for excessive signage.

This applicant believes that exposing the stores to traffic by cutting trees and eliminating the deacceleration lane will bring consumers. Yet consumers stated that we are not comfortable with this plan which is confirmed by this study,

Consumers report being willing to pay 9% to 12% more for goods and services in districts having a mature tree canopy.

Shoppers indicate they will travel greater distance and a longer time to visit a district having high quality trees and spend more time there once they arrive. 1

The approval also violates the tree ordinance which states that its purpose is to….demand innovative design and grading to promote the protection of existing trees, and to prevent indiscriminate, uncontrolled and excessive removal and cutting of trees.

There will be no bioswales as requested in the township sustainability checklist so the parking lot will continue to send polluted water directly to the Rahway River.

We need sidewalks. Adding painted crosswalks is a cheap and unsatisfactory concession.

The owners were unwilling even to install a plant wall, a simple and effective device to beautify an ugly wall by the AMC theater.

This was approved 5-2 despite all the arguments against it. We as a community are working against ourselves, counteracting our own exertions in having created a progressive Master Plan. Such a shopping center if designed to be tree and pedestrian friendly instead of auto-centric could become the new heart of West Orange. It would be profitable and a destination for consumers, not just for a fast cup of coffee and speed away, but to stay, relax, shop, eat and return. Surprisingly, this applicant did not respond to its own West Orange consumers. Will consumers support this shopping center when it is easier to shop on line or go to another town, rather than be badgered by cars in a parking lot with no shade or sidewalks?

'MORE THAN JUST A MERCHANDISING CENTER'

The following letter comes courtesy of Joyce Rudin.

West Orange is far more than just some merchandising center. Our town has a history, a character and a deep heritage. Our places should tell a story. The beautiful spaces like Eagle Rock and South Mountain Reservations were designed to highlight natural beauty and community. They were designed with intent by Frederick Olmsted, the same visionary architect who created America's great vistas including Central Park and the Niagara Falls Reservation. The historic Edison laboratory and Edison’s residence, Glenmont, are also town treasures and national draws. Many people don’t know that Glenmont is located in Llewelyn Park which was America’s first planned community. Yet, visitors to these sites generally leave West Orange to shop and dine in more charming neighboring locations.

West Orange deserves beautiful spaces that reflect our township's unique character. We do not a cookie cutter strip mall especially when neighboring Montclair, Maplewood and Millburn all boast charming walkable shopping and dining areas. We deserve the same accessibility and cache that other townships have sought to achieve in designing commercial spaces that highlight nature, multi- generational appeal, community gathering and more.

The designers of this mall also need to keep in mind that, in the age of buying on line, the role and function of commercial space is changing and evolving. Modern spaces in towns reflect different ways of conducting business including more than just stores. Performance spaces and venues as varied as yoga and fitness studios, art galleries and workshops, small restaurants and even entertainment spaces like escape rooms and children's play areas, a fountain where people can gather, a stage for performances and live music can bring the community together. That is the definition of a true town center, not just national chains owned by international conglomerates, some with shady pasts.

The developers of this property sought variances to for drive-thrus which increase greenhouse gases and raise pedestrian safety concerns. Mall owners love drive-thru because they drives in traffic and profit, but only for that specific business. Restaurants often close early and keep the drive thru open 24 hours leaving our township with few controls over hours, noise levels and security. It makes the mall less walkable and less safe.

But, permitting drive-thrus drives us in the wrong direction. Municipalities across the US and in Canada, concerned about sustainability livability and the visual impact in urban design ban these drive throughs and WE SHOULD TOO.

Clairon Partners boasts of continued investment insustainability in their own corporate reports. But, in this project, they have failed to enact even the basics in green architecture which include:

1. Conservation of natural resources

2. Reduction in environmental damage

3. Increasing the energy efficiency of the building

4. Improving air quality (inside and out of the building)

Their spokesman told the West Orange Patch that they were “evaluating” socially responsible investing in solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, and landscaping. But the plans they presented show none of this. And if it’s not in the plans, it’s not going to happen. No rooftop gardens are going to appear where none are promised in their plans or in their budget. No recycling plans. The only natural ventilation promised are the windows open at the drive throughs passing out the fast food.

Clarion Partners knows how to create sustainable projects. They know how to install solar panels. Their tenant Amazon has solar panels on the roofs of five Clarion properties. Six of Clarion’s properties have LEED certification.

We should be thankful that Clarion is the new owner of Essex Green and is qualified to make such improvements. But they are choosing not to and putting profits before people.

The first view of the new Essex Green should not be an enormous parking lot devoid of green. We can attract buyers and consumers by offering a more aesthetic, human centered and not car-centric appearance. We can build a town center that reflects West Orange's character - a character that is diverse, engaged and dynamic. This plan is not that. It is not environmental, it is not sustainable and it is far from green.

A town center should be inspiring, relaxing and profitable and be surrounded by authentic nature and not choked by stunted trees shoved onto tiny islands surrounded by concrete. Imagination, sensitivity and dialogue are what is needed to design a fantastic Essex Green, not an Essex Gray.

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