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WANAQUE - Valley View developer wants age restriction lifted
(by Teresa Edmond - Staff Writer - October 15, 2008)
WANAQUE - The developer of a pending active adult housing complex is reworking its site plans and asking borough officials to approve them.
Such revisions include forgoing the Valley View at Wanaque residents’ age restriction of 55 and above and bumping up the project’s number of units from 114 to 117.
George Capodagli, owner of Capodagli Property, approached the Borough Council at the Oct. 6 meeting to ask “humbly” if the borough could lift Valley View’s age restriction.
In development for two years, Valley View lies where the American Candle Factory once existed on Fourth Avenue.
The American Candle Factory was a candle-production company from 1966 to 2005. Having become an eyesore as a defunct industrial site since then, the factory was demolished between late 2006 and early 2007.
Borough officials are eager for the money coming in from Valley View to help offset the investigation costs of the U.S. Aluminum site, also on Fourth Avenue. Somerville-based environmental consultant J.M. Sorge is investigating whether contamination remains on U.S. Aluminum soils from its days as an industrial site.
As Valley View’s developer, Pompton Plains-based Capodagli Property Co. has already started on the complex’s foundation.
Likewise, Capodagli said he noticed a statewide trend where developers are asking municipalities for permission to chuck the age restriction on flourishing housing projects.
Borough officials including Mayor Daniel Mahler and Borough Administrator Tom Carroll said that they want to see the Valley View project “move forward,” with Carroll suggesting the Borough Council should vote on introducing the amended project within the next few months. The Planning Board also has to review and approve the revised plans before Capodagli Property could move on.
The borough is already home to one active adult community, Wanaque Reserve on Warren’s Way.
“We’ve got a good mix of the 55 and over (age group) here already, so this is not the first project to come along and service the 55 and above,” said Borough Attorney Anthony Fiorello.
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