Parking Lot or Park? Which Should Montclair Choose?

In the environmental anthem "Big Yellow Taxi," Joni Mitchell sings, "They paved paradise to put up a parking lot." 

In Montclair, a controversy is brewing over just the opposite.

Pinnacle Properties, developers of the CentroVerde complex, has offered to dig up the pavement and sod a parking lot at the corner of Bloomfield Avenue and Valley Road.

The caveat? The developers get to add two-stories to a six-story building planned for across the street.

The proposal for the eight-story, mixed-use building is currently before the township's Planning Board, which is mulling whether or not the trade-off is good planning.

Board member Carol Willis put it bluntly. Willis said the town could choose to construct a park without giving up the air-rights. "What are we gaining other than the price of the trees?" 

Planning Board Chairman John Wynn said what the township has to gain are "funds" to construct the park.

What would the one-acre park look like? What would it be used for?

That would be decided by the vision and needs of the community, developer Brian Stolar, President and CEO of Pinnacle, said.

Do you think the township should take the developers up on their deal? What is your vision for a public park on Bloomfield Avenue? Tell us in the comments.

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