Public Meeting Aug. 13 on Muhlenberg Study

NEW DATE TBA

A city-funded study of the 17-acre Muhlenberg site has been completed and a public meeting on the findings will be held at 7 p.m. on Aug. 13 at Plainfield High School, Planning Director Bill Nierstedt said Wednesday at a Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting.

The City Council approved hiring Heyer, Gruel & Associates of Red Bank last October to make the study at a cost not to exceed $48,000. The firm held public meetings on March 27, April 24 and April 29 to gather comments from the community. After the Aug. 13 public meeting, final steps will include a presentation to the City Council, which may refer the matter to the Planning Board. The board may then make a recommendation back to the governing body for rezoning.

The city-backed study was sought after a real estate expert hired by JFK Health System testified in March 2012 that the best use for the former hospital site was a 600-unit luxury apartment complex. The concept met with an intense outcry from residents who objected to its size and from those who want only a medical use at the site.  In December 2013, some members of the clergy came out in favor of the JFK proposal and said they had the backing of many residents.

The Muhlenberg site at Randolph Road and Park Avenue includes the former Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, which closed in August 2008. A nursing school and dialysis center are also on the campus. JFK Health System operates a satellite emergency department on the site and is in the process of seeking final site plan approval to move the SED to Kenyon House at the corner of Park and Randolph. The site was divided into three parcels in 2007 and the SED relocation will leave the largest parcel unused.

The Planning Board gave JFK Health System preliminary site plan approval for the SED relocation in May. Final site plan review is on the agenda for Thursday's Planning Board meeting, 7 p.m. in City Hall Library.

Please note: The Complete Streets item on the agenda has been adjourned to the Aug. 21 meeting.

--Bernice

Camino Takes the Challenge

This building on the southwest corner of Park & Seventh has been vacant for about 10 years. It has been a major attraction for squatters and vandals. Cheers to Mario Camino for taking it over and best wishes for a positive result. Clean-up is the first of many steps to restoring it to usefulness.

--Bernice

Planners to Review Muhlenberg's Final Site Plan

Thursday's Planning Board agenda includes a review of the final site plan for the Muhlenberg Satellite Emergency Department. The meeting is 7:30 7 p.m. in City Hall Library.

For background, see Plaintalker's post on Muhlenberg's preliminary site plan approval.

--Bernice

Photos from National Night Out

I walked over to City Hall Tuesday to take some photos of the 2014 National Night Out and found a very diverse crowd enjoying the crime prevention event. Click images to enlarge or see slide show.

Plainfield Police Bike Patrol members show off their distinctive uniforms.

Public Works Superintendent John Louise mans the grill.

Remember the Yew project? Progress could be seen at the event.

The weather was fine, despite predictions of possible thunderstorms.

Danny Dunn and Council President Bridget Rivers are on the scene.

Face-painting is always popular.

Councilwoman Vera Greaves and the National Night Out Committee organized the event.

See Facebook for photos of the Netherwood Heights Neighbors National Night out event.

Former Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has appeared at many events since leaving office on Dec. 31 and Tuesday's event was no exception. Here she is with political sidekicks Carmen Salavarrieta and Kim Montford and Councilwoman Gloria Taylor.

--Bernice

National Night Out

National Night Out, 2005

National Night Out began 30 years ago and will be observed at 6:30 p.m. tonight in front of City Hall with a basketball contest, a performance by the Plainfield Drill Team and a poetry reading.

Netherwood Heights Neighbors will hold a parade from Netherwood train station to Cook School Park for a neighborhood gathering, a model I hope other groups will be following. All are reminded to turn on porch lights as a way of increasing awareness of crime prevention.

For the rest of the year, I would like to propose a focus on increasing general civility - doing away with those little crimes of littering, defacing buildings with graffiti and riding bikes on the sidewalk. No merch is involved, just a willingness to think of others and how the city comes across to people who might be interested in living here or opening a business in the city.

--Bernice

2020 Visions

Click image to enlarge

It's only five years until Plainfield's 150th anniversary. In 1969, a Centennial Celebration Committee gathered memorabilia and "prophecies for the future" for a time capsule to be opened on Jan. 1, 2020, after the anniversary.

As noted on the plaque, the time capsule was donated by City Federal Savings.The building at East Second and Watchung is now a branch of Investors Bank, but the time capsule is still there.

As intriguing it is to speculate what might be in the capsule, it is even more so to imagine the shape of the downtown in five years if all the proposed development comes about. There could be hundreds of new apartments downtown and even more around the Netherwood train station. By then, there might be a parking deck instead of a parking lot on East Second Street.

One of the city's chronic impediments to progress has been the turnover of administrations every four years or so. During the tenure of the late Mayor Albert T. McWilliams, about a dozen development proposals were in the pipeline. Most were ignored by the Robinson-Briggs administration in favor of new ones, but the only major completed project was The Monarch, with 63 condos over senior and veterans' centers. The units are now largely rentals and the veterans' center has yet to be occupied by city veterans.

The administration of Mayor Adrian O. Mapp has pledged to revisit several redevelopment plans in addition to welcoming some new ones. I hope the study led by Dr. Roland Anglin will be considered also.

From a 2013 blog post:

Currently, the city is receiving guidance from The Anglin Group on economic development. I have read the 148-page document on "Promoting the Community and Economic Development of Plainfield" produced by Anglin and associates at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and can recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. It outlines five strategies for Plainfield that could be applied in the next four years. If they are being applied now, somebody should be able to tell the public how and give specific examples.

The key to progress appears to be a shared interest among all "stakeholders" including elected officials in a positive outcome. If the administration and governing body are at odds, developers will likely go somewhere else. This is not to say Plainfield has to agree to any scheme that comes along without proper vetting and controls over development, but there has to be more welcoming and less territoriality from officials. A developer can't be expected to intuit the turfiness of a city and pick one faction over another, hoping it is the right one to get things done.

Anglin advocated for a written plan to establish "Plainfield 2021," a process for improving the city's economy and quality of life. Whether one aims for 2019, 2020 or 2021, the impending milestone seems reason enough to cooperate on laying groundwork for the city's future decades.

Meanwhile, I wonder what is in that time capsule from 1969. If you had made one then, what would you have included?

--Bernice 

One for Jackie

I thought of Plainfield blogger Jackie Schnoop today when I came across a curious wildflower on the grounds of the main train station. Jackie is always coming across interesting plants on her travels to and from work. Many are in plain sight, but go unnoticed by most people. Those of us who have cameras and blogs tend to be scanning the landscape a little more closely.

You can tell by the leaves that this plant is related to clover. It is part of the huge family that includes peas, beans, kudzu, vetch, golden chain trees and many more. This one is called Birdsfoot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, also known as Crowtoe.

A look at the seedpod will explain the latter nickname.

Jackie posts her Plainfield blog every Sunday and includes lots of flower images. It's always good to see aspects of the city through another person's eyes, so check out Jackie's perspective.

--Bernice