February 22, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 7 Mahwah Planners decline to vote on Crossroads hearing by Frank J. McMahon The Mahwah Planning Board has declined a request from several residents who wanted the planners to vote as to whether they would hear the application by Crossroads Developers, LLC. The applicant seeks permission to develop the 140-acre International Crossroads property at the intersection of Routes 17 and 287 into a retail mall. Current plans call for 600,000 square feet of retail space with 200,000 square feet of that total in retail shops along a pedestrian oriented corridor and the balance in a larger format. When the township changed the zoning for the property to retail, Crossroads was proposing a total of 750,000 square feet with 600,000 square feet of retail, a 100,000 square foot hotel, and 50,000 square feet of professional office space above the retail shops. However, the hotel and professional office space were never part of the proposal submitted to the planning board. Michael Richards, a resident and a leader of the Committee to Stop the Mahwah Mall, asked Planning Board Chairman Todd Scherer to take a vote of the board members before the public hearing began. Richards wanted to see if the majority of the board members would refuse to hear the application in order to test the state law that permitted the Crossroads developer to submit plans for the property for retail even though the council had rescinded its own ordinance that rezoned the property from office to retail use. Joey Bourgholtzer, another resident and member of the Committee to Stop the Mahwah Mall, also urged the board to reject the application. “The council said ‘no mall,’ the people voted ‘no mall,’ and you found it was inconsistent with the township’s master plan. The decision is yours: Accept it or ignore the elephant in the middle of the room,” Bourgholtzer said. Resident Gottardo DiGiacopo appealed to Mayor William Laforet, who is also a member of the planning board, for bold action. The citizen cautioned that, if the Crossroads application were approved, Sharp Electronics, which owns the adjacent property, could also be motivated to seek a change of zoning to permit retail use. “I’m asking you to act with courage,’ DiGiacopo told the board. Jean Marie Herron told the board she has lived in the township for 13 years, but she does not want to stay anymore because of the flooding and the proposed mall. She said many other residents agree with her. The state’s “Time of Submission Rule,” which recently took effect, requires planning and zoning boards to consider a development application according to the zoning that is in effect when an application is submitted. Crossroads Developers, LLC submitted its plans to the township one day before the council voted to repeal a previously adopted ordinance that changed the zoning of the Crossroads property from office to retail use. Under state law, the planning board must consider the application according to the zoning that was in effect when the plans were submitted, which was for retail use. The previous state law, the “Time of Decision Rule,” considered the zoning applicable to a developer’s proposal as the zoning in effect when the planning or zoning board reached a decision on an application. An exception to that rule permitted an applicant to have his or her application considered according to the zoning in effect when the plans were submitted if the applicant could show a municipality changed its zoning in haste to “beat the clock” before the applicant could submit plans. Objectors to the Crossroads retail plan want to apply that exception to the current application. If upheld in court, the developer would have to seek a use variance from the zoning board of adjustment. The Time of Submission Rule has never been tested in court to determine if that exception applied, and the Crossroads objectors wanted the board to force the court to make that determination. In November, Planning Board Attorney Peter Scandariato filed a petition for a declaratory judgment in Superior Court to get a determination from a judge if the exception applied to the Crossroads application. Superior Court Judge Alexander Carver declined to do so, claiming he had no controversy before him on which to make a ruling. Carver said the planning board would have to decide if they wanted to invoke the exception in the law. If the board refused to hear the Crossroads application, objectors believe the applicant would have filed a lawsuit against the board, thereby placing a bona fide controversy before the court and allowing a judicial decision. Chairman Scherer told Richards that the board started the public hearing at the previous meeting, and the board could not now refuse to hear the application. Then the board began to hear testimony from a Crossroads civil engineer, who described the site plan for the project and provided his testimony about the proposed development. The public hearing will continue, according to Scherer, with three hours of each board meeting devoted to testimony and one half hour devoted to public questions about that testimony. Registration for the Mahwah Ice Hockey Association’s spring 2012 season is under way. Registration and payment may be completed online. Register for spring hockey program For additional information, visit the organization’s website at mahwahhockey.com or contact the association via e-mail at mahwahicehockey@yahoo.com.