Hearing on Harrison Avenue redevelopment continued after landscape and traffic experts address plantings, parking and driveway access

The Waldwick Planning Board continued the public hearing on the Harrison Avenue redevelopment to June 4 after testimony from the applicant's landscape and traffic experts and a broad round of public and board questions.

Landscape architect William Moore said the planting plan includes a streetscape motif of Greenspire lindens, Princeton Century ginkgo and paperbark maples, an irrigation system for new plantings, a two-year planting guarantee and a no-dyed-mulch stipulation. Moore said planting selections were chosen to provide year-round screening and to comply with the borough's landscaping performance standards; he also testified that roughly half of the 22 trees identified for removal were dead, declining, or invasive Norway maples and that the project proposes more trees than it removes (he cited 18 new deciduous and 11 evergreen plantings across the project footprint).

Traffic engineer Douglas Poliniak presented a traffic impact assessment dated April 22, 2025, which used ITE trip generation and NJDOT growth factors to model morning and evening peak hours. Poliniak said the site (21 townhouses and 21 apartments plus 3,000 square feet of retail) would generate about 46 peak-hour movements and that adjacent intersections (Harrison with Frederick and Harrison with West Prospect) would operate at level-of-service C or better with the development. He reported driveway access designed to 25-foot widths and a parking supply of 87 spaces, which he said meets the redevelopment ordinance's requirements, and forecast limited queuing into adjacent intersections.

Board members and residents raised several operational concerns: the loss of four to six on-street parking spaces on Harrison because of new driveways (which could affect lunchtime retail customers), how the 1.5 spaces-per-unit parking ratio accounts for snow and households with two cars, and whether a 46-foot ladder fire truck or 30-foot rescue apparatus can safely enter and fully pull into the proposed driveway. Poliniak said emergency-vehicle turning templates were not modeled for the driveway and that, if cars are parked on the street at the driveway, a ladder truck could not fully pull in; board members suggested the governing body consider a no-parking zone near the driveway entrance if needed.

Board members also flagged discrepancies between testimony and plan documents — including garage height and parapet measurements — and requested corrected drawings and confirmation exhibits (including the traffic assessment as an admitted exhibit). The applicant counsel and experts agreed to provide confirmatory letters, corrected plans, and the requested traffic exhibit. The board carried the hearing to a continued date of June 4 and granted extensions needed to admit the additional materials.