Residents on County Avenue who circulated a petition this summer to protest a planned affordable housing development will have an opportunity to learn more about the plan at a meeting scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 21.
The meeting will be held at the Washington Hook and Ladder firehouse, at 272 County Ave., at 7 p.m.
The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) is considering an application from Burke & Associates, LLC to build eight units of affordable housing at 158 County Ave. The units, according to the plan, would be townhouses, rather than single family homes or apartment units.
In a letter and petition sent to the NJMC in August, 36 residents of County Avenue, Helen Street, and Blanche Street wrote: “We undersigned property owners and residents within the immediate vicinity of the subject property object to the highest degree possible the issuance of variance for a proposal to construct an eight-unit affordable housing development on the premises of the property. The development will further lower down the quality of life that we now have in this area of Secaucus.”
“The development will further lower down the quality of life that we now have in this area of Secaucus.” – Residents’ petition
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The residents request that the NJMC – a state agency that has zoning jurisdiction over much of the land in Secaucus – reject the application from Burke & Associates.
“One of the biggest issues we’re facing in the 1st Ward is traffic and crowding on County Avenue,” said Town Councilman Gary Jeffas, who represents the ward on the governing body. “The heavy traffic back there impacts the residents’ quality of life. With development comes the hardship of dealing with things like parking and traffic congestion.”
After receiving a copy of the petition and attending a public hearing at the NJMC on the project, Jeffas requested that the Secaucus Housing Authority and NJMC have a public hearing in the 1st Ward to further explain the project to current residents in the area.
“The mayor and council want the residents to be informed about what exactly is going there – and what could go there if the [property] owner opted to sell to someone else,” Jeffas added. “This [site] is in a mixed-use residential-commercial zone. It has other uses and other things could go there.”
The NJMC held an earlier public hearing on the development, which was attended by six residents, according to the councilman. But this hearing was held during work hours and took place at the NJMC’s campus in Lyndhurst, not in town.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.