Friday, March 23, 2007

By GIOVANNA FABIANO
STAFF WRITER
NORTH JERSEY NEWS

FAIR LAWN - A controversial project to build 178 town houses on a contaminated site may be in jeopardy now that two more council members have announced they won't support the plan.

Mayor Steve Weinstein and Councilman Joe Tedeschi said Thursday they will not support the zoning change needed to redevelop the Clariant site. The "no" vote from the two Democrats, who are up for election in November, essentially means the project will not happen anytime soon.

The two Republicans on the council, Jeanne Baratta and Ed Trawinski, have been against the development and the zoning change from the start. The lone supporter is Democrat Marty Etler.

The Borough Council introduced an ordinance Jan. 23 to rezone the site from industrial to multifamily residential, accommodating the developer's plans to build a gated, 48-unit building of senior housing and 130 two-bedroom units of traditional town houses.

Though the Planning Board had made some minor changes in the ordinance, it's the Borough Council that votes on a zoning change.

But at Tuesday's public forum, Weinstein and Tedeschi witnessed more than 130 people for and against the proposal crowd into Borough Hall, with many citing environmental concerns.

"To enact a zoning change when the site would not be ready for construction for at least another three and a half years, may be a premature action by the council," Weinstein and Tedeschi said Thursday in a joint statement.

The 13-acre site of the former Clariant factory, which churned out dyes and chemicals for nearly 50 years before it closed in 1992, is among thousands identified by the state as contaminated. It remains in the midst of a lengthy cleanup being overseen by the Department of Environmental Protection.

A Clariant representative said this week that the cleanup is unlikely to be completed before 2010. Trawinski has requested that the council take a formal vote rejecting the zoning request at next Tuesday's work session.

"I'm glad they've seen the light and come to support the decision that Councilwoman Baratta and I have maintained from the inception," Trawinski said.