Twp. Developer Promises No Road Closures

The developer for a housing development proposal, which has been under the scrutiny of the planning board and current residents for the past few months, in Chatham Township was made available for questioning for the first time during the board’s Monday night meeting.

Ronald Gunn, owner of Fenix-Chatham LLC, is planning to develop seven houses around Ormont Avenue, Longview Avenue, Mountainside Drive and River Road that would cover seven subdivisions – lots 2, 6 and 8 in block 32 and lots 1, 14, 17 and 20 in block 33 – and equates to approximately 6.3 acres.

Timeline of Development Project

Gunn informed the planning board that the project should not take more than two and a half years to complete.

First, laying down the infrastructure for all seven properties will take about five months. The company will then begin building the first two houses, which Gunn said should take seven to eight months.

“Depending on sales, we might start building the third and fourth houses while the first two are under construction,” Gunn said.

Board member Jonathan Cohn asked what kind of damage would be done to the properties of the residents who currently live at the bottom of Ormont Avenue, saying that two and a half years of “trucks accelerating and decelerating at that intersection could be a strain.”

Gunn conceded that there could be some strain, but that since that intersection is what he referred to as a “T-corner,” trucks should naturally be slowing down and taking the 90-degree turn with care.

Martin Blumenthal, who lives at 99 Longview Ave., asked Gunn how his company plans to keep access roads open during construction so that current residents can come and go freely.

“I don’t want someday that [the construction workers] are going to knock on my door and say, ‘You can’t come out for two days,’” Blumenthal said.

Gunn assured that situation both can’t and won’t happen, saying that all residents will receive fair notice of any construction and disruptions taking place nearby.

“And at the end of [the work day], we are going to backfill the areas and put plates down to make sure there is safety for you coming up and down the roads,” Gunn said. “We’re going to water, and make sure there’s no dust.”

Gunn said, due to construction, it might take residents slightly longer than usual to get back and forth on the roads from time to time, but they will never be blocked from traveling.

Next Meeting

The application will next be discussed in front of the planning board at its Sept. 12 meeting, where the project’s. The planned discussion topics – though subject to change – are slated to be a geotechnical analysis of the land and a possible fire marshal report on the width of the roads.