Photo Credit: Jarmel Kizel Architects and Engineers via Township Planning Board
Six months of hearings. Two variances still unresolved. Still no vote.
That is where things stand for the proposed SwimQuest swim school at 580 Valley Road, the vacant Chase Bank building a block from the Upper Montclair train station. The Montclair Planning Board has weighed the application since February 23, and the holdup has nothing to do with whether Upper Montclair wants a swim school. It mainly has to do with where everyone is supposed to park.
What’s being proposed for 580 Valley Road in Montclair?
BG Valley LLC, an entity affiliated with Montclair-based Greenwood Development, wants to tear down the vacant drive-through bank and put up a roughly 7,800-square-foot swim facility. The plans call for a 3,860-square-foot pool, changing areas, showers, storage and a dry bar, a lounge area where parents can wait and watch without sitting poolside. It would be the fifth New Jersey location for SwimQuest, which already runs schools in Whippany, Millburn, Livingston and Westfield.
Greenwood’s founder, David Genova, has pitched the project as a neighborhood asset, not just a swim school. “We wanted to do something that we thought added to the vibrancy of Upper Montclair,” he told the planning board, arguing that parents dropping off kids would linger nearby, get coffee, run errands, get a haircut. The plan looks good on paper. The math is the problem.
Why is the Montclair swim school stuck on a parking variance?
That math starts with parking. A variance is official permission to deviate from the town’s zoning rules, and this application needs two of them. Township code requires 39 parking spaces for a building this size. The applicant is proposing 11. That gap is the reason this application has outlived three seasons of hearings.
In July, Gerard Giosa, a parking consultant hired by the township, testified that Upper Montclair does not have the slack to absorb the difference. He pointed to the recently reopened Bellevue Theater as new competition for the same limited supply, the Upper Montclair Plaza lot, the Bellevue lot, the train station and metered spots along Valley Road and Cooper Avenue. The application also seeks a second variance, for 95 percent impervious coverage, meaning the portion of the lot covered by roof, pavement or other surfaces that rain cannot soak through, on a site that currently sits at 88.3 percent.
Who’s fighting the Upper Montclair swim school, and why?
That combination of concerns has organized real opposition. The Upper Montclair Business Association has led the charge since May, when it circulated a flyer titled “Save Upper Montclair.” Its argument is more specific than generic parking anxiety: the group says overlapping class schedules will create a pickup and drop-off bottleneck that standard traffic studies fail to capture, because those studies tend to assume cars clear out the moment a class ends. Some residents have gone further, questioning whether the applicant’s traffic study was even conducted during the school year or at peak hours.
Genova has pushed back on the idea that the business community should be wary of more foot traffic. He told NJ.com in May he was surprised local businesses were not more enthusiastic, given what a swim school could funnel their way. Whether the planning board finds that persuasive is the question the next hearing will answer.
What’s next for the Montclair planning board vote?
For now, the answer is still unresolved. The board is scheduled to take up the application again on September 14, when the applicant’s attorney has said he plans to call a final witness. Whether that testimony is enough to break six months of stalemate remains to be seen.
Residents with a stake in the outcome can attend the September 14 planning board meeting in person, or follow along through the township’s Land Use Board application page, where the full SwimQuest filing and prior testimony are posted.
Image credit: SwimQuest
