Wayne to get housing for disabled war vets
WAYNE — A developer from Bergen County will build an affordable housing facility exclusively for disabled war veterans on Route 23 south.
The 6,847-square-foot facility, with access only from Meadow Road, will have six apartments for the veterans and their families.
It will be near the highway exit for Alps Road and a quarter of a mile north of the Mountainview Boulevard overpass.
Luciano Bruni, the managing principal of Nouvelle, a limited liability company in Franklin Lakes, said his firm has developed or is in the process of planning similar facilities in Midland Park, Mountain Lakes and Wanaque.
Accommodations for veterans are scarce in this area, said Bruni, the first of four witnesses who testified on the project in front of the Zoning Board of Adjustment at a recent meeting.
“We’re trying to create some housing stock for them,” he said.
The zoning board was fond of the project. One board member called it a “great thing” in a “perfect spot,” and it was unanimously approved.
But it was opposed by some neighbors, who told the zoning board that they were concerned about stormwater runoff and the uprooting of trees. The developer will take out 44, but at least that many will be planted before construction is finished.
Nouvelle needed a use variance because the 1.6-acre property is zoned for single-family homes.
Complicating the plan was that the oddly shaped site is occupied by a fourbedroom group home, owned by Nouvelle but operated by Children’s Aid and Family Services, a nonprofit in Paramus.
The zoning board approval included the subdivision of the property into two lots.
The facility for veterans will be on the larger parcel, facing the highway. It will have 12 parking spots, including two accessible spots.
Yogesh Mistry, an architect who designed the structure, testified that it will appear from the outside like a 21⁄2-story home. And that was his objective, he said — to have it blend in with the neighborhood.
The 29-foot-tall facility will have two one-bedroom units and four two-bedroom units on three floors, with the bottom floor partially underground.
Mistry said the design of the facility will include burgundy shutters, gray siding and a band of stone veneer at its base.