Planning board approves revised Chestnut Ridge Road planting plan after mistaken tree removals

The Planning Board approved a revised landscaping plan Tuesday for 300 Chestnut Ridge Road after the applicant acknowledged contractors accidentally removed 14 trees in the townhome portion of the redevelopment site.

Landscape architect Thomas S. Carman, of the firm Malo Bower Carman, told the board the applicant is proposing more — and larger — plantings to compensate. “We’re actually proposing 225 trees,” Carman said, and added that the submission upsizes many specimens to five‑ to six‑inch caliper stock so planted trees will be about 22–25 feet tall at installation.

The board heard that the project’s grading and additional engineering allowed designers to save six additional existing trees in the multifamily zone but that one crab apple is dead and two other trees are in poor condition and will be removed. Carman said the berm where the 14 trees were removed will be raised by roughly three to four feet in that area to permit taller plantings and faster visual screening.

Carman also described a change in stormwater design: after additional perk tests and engineering review, the team revised a below‑grade detention basin to an above‑grade planted bioretention basin (roughly 50 feet by about 160 feet). The basin will be planted with species tolerant of intermittent inundation (Carman cited river birch, red maple and wet‑tolerant shrubs) and enclosed with a four‑foot tubular aluminum fence with gated maintenance access. The engineering reviewer Neglia was referenced by board members as having reviewed the revised design.

Board members asked for details about irrigation, staging and maintenance. Carman said the planting areas are irrigated, the developer is tagging and securing plant material at nursery, and will update planting plans to reflect the exhibit package. The applicant agreed to a two‑year establishment review during which borough representatives will walk the site with the developer; plants that fail during that period are to be replaced.

Diego Santos, a representative for the applicant, said construction sequencing aims to protect the perimeter and that the team’s goal is to install the berm plantings in the spring planting season of 2027. “Our goal is to get those trees … spring of ’27,” Santos said. He described the overall project as roughly a three‑year build from current site work.

Board members and staff noted residents had expressed concern about the removals; several members said the applicant had met with municipal officials and the mayor and that the applicant should resubmit the revisions to the shade tree commission as a courtesy. The board also asked that conditions discussed in the hearing — including emergency access (Knox/knockbox), site stabilization, a two‑year establishment walk and that the details be memorialized — be included in the resolution.

A motion to approve the modified Chestnut Ridge Road berm planting plan as submitted passed on voice vote. The board recorded several members voting yes. The board directed that the comments from the hearing be captured in the resolution and that the applicant provide a high‑level estimate of incremental cost for the revised landscaping.

The board closed the public hearing on the item after testimony and moved to memorialize the discussed conditions in the resolution.