Photo: Third River by Memorial Field



Channel 35 is now taping and broadcasting Bloomfield zoning, planning and council meetings. As this is being posted, the latest council meeting is being aired on Comcast cable Channel 35 (You need to be a subscriber to Comcast Cable to see the programs).



The council, zoning and planning board meetings are all be aired in rotation.



Last Tuesday, March 4, the planning board heard Desimone's request for an amendment to his site plan (originally approved in 2003). The amendment was triggered by the New Jersey DEP's approval of his site plan last year. The originally his approved plans called for 42 units; the NJDEP approval reduced this to 36 or 38 units.



Please bear with this very sketchy,untechnical assessment of one of the issues considered by our planning board during the meeting:

In order to have 38 units, Arthur Fefferman, developer of the neighboring property, ie Scientific Glass, has to build his detention system. If, for some reason Arthur doesn't build his detention system, then DeSimone would only be allowed 36 units and would have to build his own swale.



You will either find it comedic or tragic as the planning board hears the developer and his lawyer talk about the "verbal agreement" they have with Fefferman.

And that this detention system could be built even if Fefferman's project isn't built. In other words, the owner of an adjoining property would be happy to build or allow to be built something to satisfy the needs of the DeSimone. And all so that Desimone can get two more units.



Witness the concern the planning board showed over having two more homes built on a flood plain in an area known for flooding and bordering homes whose basements are seeing increased flooding.



And witness the planning board's intense grilling of the developer and his lawyer about the nature of this verbal agreement and the quantity and detail of the discussions the two parties have had.