The rapid pace of development in Orange is actually quite strange because most of these new construction projects are happening in quiet, residential historic districts.
Century-old single-family homes are being torn down and replaced with five-story buildings.
This isn’t what the city’s preservationists envisioned when they banded together to form the Historic Preservation Commission in 2013.
But slowly they have seen their powers whittled down – and Jody Leight wants to change that.
Leight was named the chair of the Historic Preservation Commission replacing Troy Simmons who stepped down in January.
Unlike her predecessor, Leight isn’t an architect, she is a real estate lawyer – and that’s an important difference because most of the problems local preservationists have, she claims, are legal.
Take, for instance, the two new buildings on Lincoln Avenue that were approved without her commission’s review, despite being located in the Seven Oaks Historic District.
The HPC’s power is a matter of local law – the ordinance dates back to 2013. The way the city gets around that law is by designating certain plots of land a “redevelopment zone.” It’s essentially a legal form of spot zoning, Leight claims.
“The point of that was to side step the zoning and historic preservation rules,” Leight said. “We have state laws that let municipalities get away with murder.”
The latest project to weasel away from the HPC’s oversight is Orange Memorial Hospital, where a developer, SYMREC, is proposing to demolish seven of the nine National Register-listed historic buildings there and construct 1,005 new apartments.
This proposal hits closer to home, literally, because Leight has lived across the street from the abandoned hospital for about a decade. In fact, her husband has been on the receiving end of the catcalls of sex workers who reclaimed these empty structures after the hospital closed in 2003.
As Leight would have predicted, Orange Memorial Hospital was also designated a redevelopment zone leading up to the Planning Board’s approval in February.
Still, the fight to save the hospital isn’t over. Preservation New Jersey believes the developer’s partnership with the city – Mayor Dwayne Warren wants to move City Hall to the hospital site – requires a Section 106 review, which in turn would land the proposal back at the local HPC’s doorstep.
At a February community meeting, Terrence Murray — managing partner at Gateway Merchant Banking, one of the investors in the project — denied that the project is a private-public partnership, but he wouldn’t divulge the nature of the developer’s agreement with the city – so it’s impossible to verify whether his claim is true.
Leight is also different from the previous HPC chair in her willingness to criticize city officials, including Planning Board attorney Joseph Wenzel, whom she credits as the architect of the city’s current development strategy.
Wenzel, however, denies any fault in delegitimizing the HPC. “To say that I am ‘at fault’ connotes that I have some unique obligation to the HPC, which I do not,” he said. “I play no role with the processing or scheduling of applications – that is handled by the city’s Planning Department.”
When a development proposal within a historic district comes to the city planner’s desk, it has to be referred to the HPC. Those referrals aren’t happening, but Wenzel claims he isn’t orchestrating that.
Wenzel, who is one of West Orange Mayor Susan McCartney’s candidates for municipal attorney, believes that the weakness lies in the way the HPC ordinance is drafted. “The city code is clear that the lack of the HPC’s involvement in the process does not invalidate the application, hearing, or approvals received by an applicant,” he said.
Leight disagrees with his reading of the ordinance – and this is where her experience as lawyer might hold more weight than an architect’s would.
“Of course, even if we were to assume for the sake of argument that Mr. Wenzel’s interpretation has some validity, wouldn’t it make sense for the Planning Board to seek the advice of the HPC on matters where we have particular expertise or experience?”
Leight’s vision of reviving the local preservation movement is going to take some work – but she believes it could result in smarter development and a windfall of state aid that could go into homeowners’ pockets. Plus, it’s not exactly in her nature to stand by and do nothing.
“Too often in my life I’ve been persuaded to keep quiet and let the process work – the frequent result was bad actors continuing to get away with acting badly,” Leight said. “Now I’m old and I’ve survived enough stuff that I don’t get intimidated easily.”
STORIES ABOUT ORANGE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
