Montclair Council Names Placek as Lackawanna Plaza Redeveloper, Approves Remediation of New Park

MONTCLAIR, NJ - The Montclair Township Council passed numerous measures at its September 24 meeting, including various resolutions awarding contracts to various vendors, a resolution rejecting bid proposals received for removal and disposal of vegetative waste, and a resolution certifying the 2023 township audit, all within the consent agenda.  But the measure many residents had been waiting for, was the resolution designating David Placek’s firm BDP Holdings, LLC as the redeveloper for Lackawanna Plaza and authorizing the execution of a redevelopment agreement.

Opinions over naming Placek as the official redeveloper differed among the residents available for public comment.  Charles Rosen found it to be a thoughtful proposal, but Bonnie Fogel reminded Mayor Renée Baskerville and the councilors that there are four lawsuits against the project, including one charging that the plan is oversized and out of line with the master plan and two others meant to counter an attempt by the previous council to re-pass the redevelopment plan.

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In a letter to the mayor and councilors, Montclair Residents for Responsible Development president Martin Schwartz wrote, “It is your job to now determine what is in the best interests of town residents given all factors. There needs to be an appropriate, edited, agreed community-based plan which Mr. Placek or anyone else from the real estate industry can, if you so determine, participate in, and become redeveloper.”

The resolution before the council at this meeting originally required that the redevelopment agreement be executed by all involved parties within 60 days of the resolution’s passage.  First Ward Councilor Erik D’Amato asked what would happen if they could not come to an agreement, and Interim Township Attorney Paul Burr explained that either party could void the designation of a developer.  Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Andersen suggested doubling the allotted time for an agreement by amendment to 120 days, which the council did.  They also extended by amendment stating when a complete application for preliminary and final site plan approval be submitted to the Planning Board.  The original deadline for such an application was April 1, 2025; it was extended by two months, to June 1.  On the subject of a financial agreement for the redevelopment, Anne Babineau, a lawyer for David Placek’s firm BDP Holdings from the firm of Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer, said that there would be an ordinance needed for a financial agreement.

The council further amended the resolution by changing language saying that Mayor Baskerville is “hereby authorized and directed to execute a Redevelopment Agreement with BDP in a form acceptable to the Township Attorney” to say the entire council was so authorized.  The council unanimously passed it with the amendments.

Once Placek was designated the developer for Lackawanna Plaza by council vote, Councilor-at-Large Carmel Loughman asked Babineau when Placek can be expected to submit a plan to the Planning Board.  Babineau replied that she believed that he hoped to submit it before the end of the year. She added that Placek and his team used previous approved redevelopment plans for other projects as templates for a draft copy that they can work from.

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The council also unanimously passed a resolution accepting a grant to remediate the vacant lot at the corner of Orange Road and Pleasant Way, the suite of a former gas station, to prepare the site for the creation of a pocket park.

At the behest of some residents in public comment, the council also passed a resolution expressing support for the option of ranked choice voting in municipal and school board elections, 6-1, with Third Ward Councilor Rahum Williams voting no.

Afterwards, they debated a resolution establishing that a single public comment session to take place before the ordinance and resolution votes on the agenda during regular and conference meetings unless otherwise agreed to by a majority vote of the council.   Councilor Loughman wanted to restrict public comments to council business only, with no allowance for comments on national politics or local events, but other council members pushed back. Fourth Ward Councilor Aminah Toler said that everyone in town should say what they want, and Deputy Mayor Shin Andersen concurred.  The council passed the resolution unanimously with no amendments.

In public comment for this meeting – which was in fact timed at three minutes – residents brought up varied topics.  Resident Anna Grossman, concerned about the chemical PFAS in the artificial turf being planned for Woodman Field, said she had artificial turf independently tested at great expense after the Board of Education conducted a test on the turf using a testing process that has since been debunked to prove the turf was safe.  Grossman said there were high levels of the carcinogenic chemical in her independent test, threatening great exposure of sports players and residents of Essex Avneue to the spread of PFAS and microplastics.

Responding to a case in which a resident and her mother almost got evicted by a HomeCORP property before a misunderstanding was straightened out, housing activist Deirdre Malloy said that HomeCORP has problems in how it operates that should be addressed, and she urged the council to look at what can be done next.  Resident Noah Gale, meanwhile, said he was concerned about the continuous rise in taxes that might make tough it for him and his family to continue living in Montclair.

The council also passed two ordinances on second reading – one establishing an all-way stop zone at park Street and Alexander Avenue and another establishing a speed limit of 25 mph for the entirety of Valley Road.

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