Towns, medical school hammer out parking plan

Planning for a medical school in Nutley is starting from the ground up, as its representatives seek parking for the facility.

In January 2016, Seton Hall University and Hackensack Meridian Health announced a medical school for part of the Hoffmann-La Roche campus, closing on the border of Clifton and Nutley. When Bloomfield-based Prism Capital Partners bought the Roche property last October, the parties signed a lease for the medical school in Building 123 and its 123A wing.

The application, which the Nutley Planning Board is considering, represents only the medical school site plan, specifically pertaining to traffic and parking. Prism is marketing the entire redevelopment as On3 with an emphasis on life sciences.

At this point, the applicant for the “Seton Hall and Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine” and Nutley officials aren’t seeing eye-to-eye on parking proposals.

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The site plan for the medical school, as well as the partners’ other entities sharing Building 123 and its wing, calls for 1,387 parking spaces, including 951 in Nutley, according to testimony. However, the school and Nutley officials dispute what should be considered permanent and temporary parking.

Based on redevelopment documents, Nutley Planner Paul Ricci deemed much of the parking as temporary. He interpreted the three parking lots, as presented, would only be used for parking, with no permanent or accessory use.

The applicant disagreed.

At a July 12 board meeting, in an effort to ensure permanent parking, Seton Hall and Hackensack Meridian’s attorney Kevin Coakley offered to reduce the parking spaces from 1,387 to 1,162, but contingent on all 1,162 being permanent. Mayor Joseph Scarpelli, a board member, countered that a draft resolution designate 465 as permanent and the rest temporary.

“The planner’s report is replete with omissions and deficiencies that cannot be relied upon,” Coakley contended before the board. “There was never an illusion to have temporary parking.”

“Ninety-nine percent of parking is permanent, especially in this case, when it is an accessory,” the attorney told The Record. “Who would invest all this money and not have permanent parking?”

Temporary parking is “a frightening proposition to the user,” Coakley said. The municipality would lose too, if limited parking resulted in less building occupancy, he added.

The plan’s 1,387 spaces seeks to avoid potential overflow parking into Nutley neighborhoods, the attorney said. The applicant's proposed reduction to 1,162 permanent spaces are per ordinance, he said.

Regarding the board’s resolution, expected Wednesday, Aug. 16, Coakley said, “The board has the discretion to reconsider, and we intend to follow that avenue.”

Parking garage

There is a floating consideration for a garage on the redevelopment’s Clifton side that could help resolve parking concerns. It could possibly “move” some 400 spots from Nutley land, officials discussed.

While the medical school partners are willing to consider building a parking garage, contingent on finances as well as Clifton’s approval of such a plan, the entities are not obligated to do so, Coakley said at the meeting.

Since the building is split between Clifton and Nutley, each town’s representatives also expressed concern about a fair split of the parking.

Jaime Placek, special counsel for the City of Clifton, cautioned that the two town governments take a team approach to divvying up parking proportionally.

Meanwhile, Nutley Revenue and Finance Commissioner Thomas Evans suggested, if 40 percent of Nutley’s building occupancy is to represent 40 percent of Nutley parking, that would allocate 555 of the 1,387 spaces to Nutley.

Email: proctor@northjersey.com