Planning Board Approves Elmwood Gardens Redevelopment Plan

A redevelopment plan for Elmwood Gardens won Planning Board approval Thursday and will be forwarded to the Council for possible approval in January.

The shuttered former public housing complex on West Second Street will be replaced by 60 townhouse or flat units, each with its own front door and a gated front yard for security. The Housing Authority of Plainfield is pursuing three options for financing and will return to the board for site plan approval. The board agreed to a range of 1- to 3-bedroom units and asked architect Henry Myers to design the buildings so that the front doors would be visible from the street.

The emphasis on security came from concerns about the old layout, where apartments shared a common hallway. At times when drug dealers and other criminals invaded the complex, residents became afraid of opening their doors to the hallways.The hallways also made it hard for police to apprehend criminals. The complex is now vacant and boarded up, awaiting environmental remediation and demolition. HAP Executive Director Randall Wood said Thursday the firm of Remington, Vernick & Arango is preparing an environmental study.

The board and Brian M. Slaugh of the firm Clarke Caton Hintz discussed the terminology for the apartments at length. Slaugh first described them as "townhouse over flat" design, citing a plan used in Absecon. It features a two-story  over one-story dwelling, each with its own direct outside access. Planning Board attorney Michele Donato said "townhouse" refers to housing with no "above or below," so it would really be a two-story flat.

After some discussion, the board moved on to ask how many units were proposed. The authority previously talked about 55 units, but now wanted 60, 54 2-bedroom and six 1-bedroom units. Slaugh and Wood called it a "slippery concept,' as the project might include 12 3-bedroom units if HAP received affordable housing credits. The higher number of units will also mean an increase in density to 16 units per acre.

Planning Board Chairman Ron Scott Bey objected to the range, saying the redevelopment plan "shouldn't be open-ended." Councilman Cory Storch, the governing body's liaison to the board, asked "Why not?"

Donato said the plan could be flexible and Storch said, "They need the flexibility."

Bedrooms are not density, Donato said, explaining density as the number of units per acre.

"I'm concerned with the number of units," Scott Bey said. Told it was 60, he said, "I'm done then."

After more discussion, the topic drifted back to what to call the project concept. Slaugh offered the term, "stacked townhouse,' but Donato asked whether there was any reason why he used that term instead of "stacked flats." Myers suggested that "flats" means one family upstairs and another family downstairs.

Whatever they will be called,  they will all be in six buildings, which kicked off a discussion of what kind of view residents will have. The idea was not to have the front of a building facing the rear of another.

Other considerations before the motion was passed included "defensible space" and whether the new complex should be designed as traditional 19th Century architecture. The board decided it should "complement" historic architecture.

After the meeting, Wood hailed the approval as a milestone in a three-year phase of the Elmwood Gardens transition. He said the last residents had only moved out a year ago.

(My recollection was that talk of a change at Elmwood Gardens went back a while, and I found evidence in this 2008 blog post.)

--Bernice