On Wednesday, June 17, the Verona Planning Board will hear closing arguments on the months-long quest to turn two steeply wooded lots on Bloomfield Avenue into a mixed-use development. It will also be the last opportunity for the public to make comments on the project.
The prospective developer’s company, Dennis Handel’s DMH2 LLC, has twice been turned down by Verona zoning authorities. It began the latest application last October with a plan that it asserted is completely conforming with Verona code and needing no variances. The Planning Board has debated variances in the ensuing testimony, but has not required any.
Even so, the Board could reject the plan if it feels it is not in Verona’s best interest. At the Board’s last meeting in May, Jennifer Critchley, a Planning Board member who is also a commercial litigator by profession, sought to have Planning Board Attorney Greg Mascara set forth the rules for its deliberations, but he demurred until the June 17 meeting.
The meeting will be held in the ballroom of the Verona Community Center, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
