From the Daily Record:
Morristown townhome plan to get second chance
The planning board will decide this month whether to take the recommendation of a professional planning firm to create yet another redevelopment zone in town.
The firm of Phillips, Preiss and Shapiro on Monday recommended that a swath of properties, leading from the west side of Elm Street to the east side of Ford Avenue, should be redeveloped.
The planning board will discuss the recommendation and likely vote on the issue on Dec. 18 at 6 p.m.
The PPS firm was hired by the town to study the area and determine whether it was in need of redevelopment, an effort that would effectively reverse the zoning board’s rejection of a 59-unit townhouse application from earlier this year.
That application, dubbed the Carriage House Estates, envisioned 59 townhouses in 10 buildings and the renovation of an existing two-story home for a total of 61 dwelling units.
The proposal called for the project to include six affordable units, while the developer would provide for two more affordable units somewhere else in Morristown.
The Carriage House project would have been built on five lots, including 171, 173, and 174 Morris Avenue and 10 Ford Avenue. The properties included the Eggert Oil Company and the former Cipolini junkyard.
also from the article….
———————-
The inclusion of more properties has irked some of the property owners, who now wonder if they will lose their land.
Among the properties that were added are Mesler’s Auto Body, an establishment founded on Morris Street by Fred Mesler Sr. more than 40 years ago and now run by his sons, Fred Jr. and Harold.
Fred Mesler Jr. said that in the last year, the family has invested about half a million dollars improving the property, including repaving the back lot, a new retaining wall, a $200,000 upgrade of gas tanks and a $25,000 new roof.
The improvements were spurred by overtures from the town to beautify the property. Now, Mesler said he is wondering if all the work and expense was for nothing.
“My father was here in 1964 he started it,” Mesler said. “Me and my brother came out of college and now we run it. We need it. We need it to survive.”
———————-