Demolishing Homes In Maplewood
Geez… I wonder if all those apartment buildings along valley has anything to do with the congestion. Just concentrate 100 apartments on an acre of land, on a two way street that was designed for single family homes…you can’t even sprawl your legs properly because of the congestion…
Another 10 years and valley will be one way, academy will be one way and prospect will be one way… Parker, elmwood… make them all one way… then we can sprawl.
Jaytee said:
Geez… I wonder if all those apartment buildings along valley has anything to do with the congestion. Just concentrate 100 apartments on an acre of land, on a two way street that was designed for single family homes…you can’t even sprawl your legs properly because of the congestion…
Another 10 years and valley will be one way, academy will be one way and prospect will be one way… Parker, elmwood… make them all one way… then we can sprawl.
They've done Origin-Destination surveys for the traffic on Valley Street.
Well over 50% of the traffic is people passing through our towns who don't live here.
But keep blaming the apartments because it "feels right" to you.
mrincredible said:
A noble idea. Hard to implement withouy very strict enforcement.
I think it’s also complicated by the fact that the county manages Valley.
Yes, the County is a problem though I believe that this is one of the intersections that it is working on to address safety and other problems there. As for enforcement, if the County were to go along, post a police officer there rather than a crossing guard and that problem is resolved pretty easily (I suspect).
The house in discussion is located 57 St. Lawrence Avenue at the corner of Ridgewood Road. Our family lives across the street and our side property and sunroom overlook this house. Because of the work going on (ripping off the roof and second floor), many of our friends and neighbors have emailed or called us. We were friendly with the previous owners - been neighbors and co-parishioners at OLS for the past 25 years. The developer has done other work in Maplewood and has received high resale on those flipped properties - just doing the basic math mandates that this will need to happen at this location. Of course high resale is good for comps, but this developer (I don't know their name) evidently has done very generic renovations and additions in other neighborhoods - "2020s" as I call them: black windows, white boxes... so that's pretty depressing - but luckily they've kept the existing beautiful privet hedge (so far). Hopefully the developer makes good choices considering this is a corner lot across from the historic Washington Park gate. I was hoping to see the drawings of what they have planned, we provided our plans to our neighbors when we did work on our house.
jimmurphy said:
They've done Origin-Destination surveys for the traffic on Valley Street.
Well over 50% of the traffic is people passing through our towns who don't live here.
But keep blaming the apartments because it "feels right" to you.
valley has always been a through way from union to the oranges. It’s the people trying to get onto valley from the cross streets where the parking lots for the apartments are located, that are creating the congestion. I’ve been driving around here for 31 years, I’ve seen the changes, you can’t justify the concentration of apartments from Parker to south orange avenue as not having any effect on the traffic situation. Why isn’t millburn building tremendous apartments around the train station? It’s going on in the urban areas around east orange, orange Bloomfield all around the train stations. Those are cities. It’s suited there.
Jaytee said:
valley has always been a through way from union to the oranges. It’s the people trying to get onto valley from the cross streets where the parking lots for the apartments are located, that are creating the congestion. I’ve been driving around here for 31 years, I’ve seen the changes, you can’t justify the concentration of apartments from Parker to south orange avenue as not having any effect on the traffic situation. Why isn’t millburn building tremendous apartments around the train station? It’s going on in the urban areas around east orange, orange Bloomfield all around the train stations. Those are cities. It’s suited there.
I can only claim 24 years, but I'll take planning studies and data over anecdotal evidence every day of the week.
Jaytee said:
Why isn’t millburn building tremendous apartments around the train station? I
Any idea what's being built on the lot between Essex Street, Douglas Street, and Millburn Avenue?
It looks like it shows up as 27 St Lawrence on the maps. Sold in December.
The real estate listings (which are still online) show a quaint bungalow. The second floor was under a sloped roof so the upstairs rooms must have been small. I didn’t see any photos online of the upstairs. It also looks like a few trees were removed that were crowding the house.
https://www.compass.com/listing/27-st-lawrence-avenue-maplewood-nj-07040/1161534020968246217/
It looks like the house was empty when it was listed.
I grew up across the street on st Lawrence-sad to see it go - I did a walkthrough before it sold - it was a tough layout - especially on the second floor
The Gleason's site developers got a 30 year PILOT. It looks like there is still some money passed to the town and county via another vehicle. I admit, I don't really understand this convoluted money-passing, and if it really is a good idea, or if it's a 3-card Monte:
jimmurphy said:
I can only claim 24 years, but I'll take planning studies and data over anecdotal evidence every day of the week.
The wife just reminded me it’s 32 years, not 31. Technicalities…
The studies are probably done assuming that the apartment population walk to the train stations? There’s at least one car for every apartment, and people hardly walk around these days. Look at the parking around the shops at south orange station, majority local people. I do see a lot of people from Jespy house walking around, and it’s scary for them, so they mostly stay on academy.
At some point this business of stacking people will defeat the entire purpose of people coming to this area in the first place. Reason I left Brooklyn. It has to be controlled.
ridski said:
Any idea what's being built on the lot between Essex Street, Douglas Street, and Millburn Avenue?
no, do you?
jamie said:
I grew up across the street on st Lawrence-sad to see it go - I did a walkthrough before it sold - it was a tough layout - especially on the second floor
looks like they will keep the first floor. This is not a complete tear down, I am sure it will end up looking better when it’s finished. That original roof design was not practical, very tough layout indeed.
There are only three houses for sale in M/SO for less than $550,000, nothing under $460,000. Is that a problem? Can your kids afford to move here?
Jaytee said:
jimmurphy said:
I can only claim 24 years, but I'll take planning studies and data over anecdotal evidence every day of the week.
The wife just reminded me it’s 32 years, not 31. Technicalities…
The studies are probably done assuming that the apartment population walk to the train stations? There’s at least one car for every apartment, and people hardly walk around these days. Look at the parking around the shops at south orange station, majority local people. I do see a lot of people from Jespy house walking around, and it’s scary for them, so they mostly stay on academy.
At some point this business of stacking people will defeat the entire purpose of people coming to this area in the first place. Reason I left Brooklyn. It has to be controlled.
Are you from Brooklyn or did you move there?
sprout said:
The Gleason's site developers got a 30 year PILOT. It looks like there is still some money passed to the town and county via another vehicle. I admit, I don't really understand this convoluted money-passing, and if it really is a good idea, or if it's a 3-card Monte:
The town makes out well under the arrangement but no money goes to the school district. Since the school taxes are the major portion of what we pay, the rest of us end up paying their share. Argument being made here is that the site is heavily polluted. The PILOT is incentive for the developer to do the remediation work. Some argue that the condition of the lot is reflected in the purchase price.
kthnry said:
There are only three houses for sale in M/SO for less than $550,000, nothing under $460,000. Is that a problem? Can your kids afford to move here?
I’ve lived here for 19 years and I can’t afford to move here.
kthnry said:
There are only three houses for sale in M/SO for less than $550,000, nothing under $460,000. Is that a problem? Can your kids afford to move here?
Well, she’s 14. And babysitting pays pretty well these days but she hasn’t saved the down payment yet. 
When my wife and I were first married we could not afford a house in MapSO. We ended up buying a condo in Somerset County in 1996. It was only after we’d accumulated some equity through paying our mortgage and the price increase that we were able to buy a fixer-upper in Maplewood.
My point is I don’t know how many people are able to buy their first home in these two towns. But I’ll agree to your point that housing prices have gotten very problematic in the last (fill in the blank) years.
A 30 year PILOT for the Gleason redevelopment? Vic Deluca said that this was definitely not going to happen. What the hell happened? Why do the taxpayers of Maplewood get hosed for every developer who cries poverty? If it is too expensive to build there, then you shouldn't be building there!
The township should not be giving my tax dollars to fund some developer's hope for personal financial gain. This nuttiness has to stop.
Jaytee said:
Why isn’t millburn building tremendous apartments around the train station? It’s going on in the urban areas around east orange, orange Bloomfield all around the train stations. Those are cities. It’s suited there.
The NIMBY crowd in Millburn has much more money and power than those other towns.
The Summit Medical building by the Short Hills station is coming down. Haven’t been by in a while so it may already be down. I heard apartments or condos are being built. This would be an okay build unless it is a high rise which doesn’t seem likely.
yahooyahoo said:
The NIMBY crowd in Millburn has much more money and power than those other towns.
^^This
mrmaplewood said:
A 30 year PILOT for the Gleason redevelopment? Vic Deluca said that this was definitely not going to happen. What the hell happened? Why do the taxpayers of Maplewood get hosed for every developer who cries poverty? If it is too expensive to build there, then you shouldn't be building there!
The township should not be giving my tax dollars to fund some developer's hope for personal financial gain. This nuttiness has to stop.
there are a lot of reasons for pilots, and they are not usually cash giveaways. After all, the P stands for payment. Granting a pilot is a negotiation.
And unfortunately you and I are not included in the negotiation and we only get the short end of the stick. The answer is only at the ballot box.
Or maybe the administration is seeing this and will change the planned course of action.
mrmaplewood said:
And unfortunately you and I are not included in the negotiation and we only get the short end of the stick. The answer is only at the ballot box.
Or maybe the administration is seeing this and will change the planned course of action.
I had that as my first thought - but then I read the Village Green article. There is still some type of annual payment that will be paid instead. I just don't understand if it makes fiscal sense.
DanDietrich said:
mrmaplewood said:
A 30 year PILOT for the Gleason redevelopment? Vic Deluca said that this was definitely not going to happen. What the hell happened? Why do the taxpayers of Maplewood get hosed for every developer who cries poverty? If it is too expensive to build there, then you shouldn't be building there!
The township should not be giving my tax dollars to fund some developer's hope for personal financial gain. This nuttiness has to stop.
there are a lot of reasons for pilots, and they are not usually cash giveaways. After all, the P stands for payment. Granting a pilot is a negotiation.
Our town government tends to default to the maximum allowable PILOT, even for very wealthy developers. The TC is not good at negotiating. The developer of the Clarus paid virtually nothing for the property and got a very nice PILOT agreement as well.
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A noble idea. Hard to implement withouy very strict enforcement.
I think it’s also complicated by the fact that the county manages Valley.