Developer applies to build affordable housing at Waterview

Thwarted in attempts to build a mixed-use or retail-only complex at Waterview Plaza, a developer submitted an application Monday to the Parsippany-Troy Hills Zoning Board of Adjustment to build 120 units of affordable housing there instead.

According to documents obtained by the Daily Record, New York-based RD Realty submitted the application on behalf of the Bellemead Development Corp, owners of the last 26.6-acre parcel of land at Waterview, which is zoned as a Professional Office District.

Robert Kasuba was listed on the documents as the applicant attorney.

RD Realty previously proposed an overlay zone to permit a mixed-use development on the site, calling for 72 townhouses and a retail plaza anchored by a Whole Foods grocery store. That proposal met with fierce opposition from Parsippany and Mountain Lakes residents living near the site, which borders Intervale Road off Route 46.

A revised proposal, which cut the number of townhouses to 60 and included other concessions based on public feedback, was ultimately voted down by the township council in October 2013. RD Realty responded by suing the township, with Kasuba arguing that the Professional Office District zone “arbitrarily prohibits residential and retail uses,” and that court intervention was necessary for “adoption of appropriate zoning for the property.”

But Superior Court Judge Thomas Weisenbeck, in Morristown, dismissed that suit in February, saying that RD Realty had failed to exhaust its administrative remedies by not filing a variance application before the zoning board.

Yet another RD Realty compromise proposal, calling for a retail-only complex, also failed, as did a township application to obtain a $3.5 million Open Space Grant from Morris County to purchase a portion of the property as a buffer zone between future development at the site and the neighboring residential neighborhood.

Weisenbeck’s decision also stated that the township had achieved substantive certification of its affordable housing plan, but that assertion is unclear after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in March that judges will take over the regulation of affordable housing in New Jersey after Gov. Chris Christie’s administration repeatedly failed to obey an order to establish a new set of guidelines for the Council on Affordable Housing

Township Attorney John Inglesino, however, said RD’s new proposal could bypass COAH completely because the application calls for affordable housing only, opening the door for a “persuasive argument” that it could be approved by a judge as “inherently beneficial use” of the land.

Calls to Kasuba and RD Realty’s corporate office were not immediately returned. The township council was expected to discuss the application at its meeting on Tuesday night.

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-428-6627; wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com