A City-Owned Eyesore Decays

Vacant since April 2007, the old vets hall drags down the neighborhood

Story by Joe Hawrylko

It’s a $3,100 question: what’s the difference between the cracked sidewalk in front of Ellen Woodham’s home and the one just across the street? The city owns the property on the other side of Lake Ave., the former home of the American Legion Post 347 in Botany Village.

The almost four-inch raised slab of concrete has been there since the city purchased the building in April 2007 for $415,000 (Clifton already owned the land on which it sits). Meanwhile, Woodham has fresh concrete drying in front of her home and a large bill to pay awaiting payment inside.

“I saw an old man fall there back in the spring,” claimed Woodham, pointing across the street.
City Manager Al Greco stated on Aug. 25, that the city was moving forward with repairs.
However, the story of the city’s negligence goes much deeper than this issue with the sidewalk. The property has been in disrepair since the city acquired it in April 2007.

“A year-and-a-half ago, we had a bunch of homeless people living over there,” recalled Woodham. She said that the city finally came to board the windows and doors in the spring. “That was the city’s way of dealing with that problem.”

The city also sent out workers to build a fence around the property, as a way to keep out the homeless and children who would frequently play ball in the lot.

According to these residents, the city has been rather mum about what they intend to do. Lee Scobel, Woodham’s neighbor who owns a coffee shop in Botany Village, says that Mayor James Anzaldi told her that condos may be coming in.

“I don’t think anyone wants condos to come in here,” she said. However, Scobel doesn’t believe anyone in government will listen. “We get no attention down here.”

“We’re like the unwanted stepchild of Clifton,” offered Woodham, a resident for five years. “We shouldn’t have to think about them putting something here that’s going to take more parking spots.”

The two claim that most neighbors want the city-owned lot to be converted into either a grassy area for the kids to play in or more parking. “It would be easy for them to patrol,” claimed Woodham. “There is access from both ways (Center St. is on the opposite side).”

Scobel, who has a grown child, says that since School 17 was built in 2004 over the sole playground in the neighborhood, children have no place to go. “Is it better to let them play in the street?” asked Woodham.

Both Woodham and Scobel want their neighborhood preserved, saying that additional housing will ruin the area.

However, other plans are in the works. Officials have designated the area as a location for affordable housing, in accordance with the Council on Affordable Housing. COAH is the state mandate that dictates that each of New Jersey’s municipalities must build a certain number of affordable units of housing. For Clifton, this means 663 new or rehabilitated units by 2018, or developers can sue to force the construction of units.

“Clifton had approved a COAH plan a number of years back and we were well on our way to meeting the requirements,” said Anzaldi. Subsidized senior housing, such as the new project on the former Richardson Scale plant off of Van Houten Ave., gives the city 180 credits towards its pledged goal.

“The concept of buying Lake Ave. was this: encourage others (property owners) in the area to possibly sell their property or home, and they would go into a brand new unit in Lake Ave.,” explained the Mayor. “The developer would continue to take down and rebuild houses.” Anzaldi noted that COAH has recently added new requirements, furthering the city’s burden and delaying the Lake Ave. project. Clifton and other municipalities are actively opposing the changes.

“There was this whole issue of COAH going on, and we had to watch for that too. We have to make a good thing for the city and not a bad thing,” said Anzaldi, who added that as part of the agreement, the city provided Post 347 an office in the Main Ave. Recreation Center.

City Manager Al Greco said Clifton currently has $1.8 million set aside for COAH projects, which is funded by a 2.5 percent tax applied to commercial developments. Clifton, which lacks large swaths of open space, can opt to pay another city to take over its burden of the COAH mandates. “We think we can handle it internally through the rehabilitation process,” said Greco. “But it’s always an option that we’d look into if we needed to.”