Verona Board of Adjustment to Discuss Controversial Development Tonight

The Verona Board of Adjustment will hold a special meeting Tuesday night, Nov. 27 to continue a hearing on a developer’s plan for a 3½-story building.

The developer, DMH2 LLC, plans to build a new structure containing retail stores on the first floor and apartments on the second and third floors, along with two parking lots on a Bloomfield Avenue site.

The plan has drawn an angry response from residents at past meetings.

“This is a very difficult case,” said Board of Adjustment member Michael Zichelli in a previous interview. “Just the lay of the land is so much different than any other property in Verona… special attention is required. Besides the topography, it butts up against residential property.”

More than 50 Verona residents attended an August board of adjustment meeting voicing concerns about how blasting could damage property and create unsafe conditions for the foundations of their homes.

“The proposed project will tear down a 100-year old farmhouse and level a portion of a mountain upon which the foundations of existing homes are built,” said Verona resident Terry Moore in a Nov. 27 email to Patch.

“The developer plans to remove the mountain with blasting and excavation, create a steep drop off and literally retain the mountain with a 26-foot high concrete retaining wall,” he said.

Lawyer Alan Trembulak, who is representing the developer, previously told Patch he has been instructed by his client not to comment on the case to the media.

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Verona Community Center, 880 Bloomfield Ave. in Verona.

An agenda for the meeting is attached to this story.