Planning Report Zinnia Health West Orange NJ

Planning Report – Zinnia Health November 8, 2024 33 Mount Pleasant Avenue, West Orange NJ John McDonough Associates, LLC Land Use Planning · Landscape Architecture 2 101 Gibraltar Drive, Suite 1A, Morris Plains, NJ 07950 · Phone: 973.222.6011 · Fax: 973.786.6537 Overview and Project Description This planning report is submitted in support of an application filed by Zinnia Health, LLC for adaptive reuse of the former Canterbury nursing home as a residential mental health care facility. The application includes a rider which describes the nature of the proposed facility’s operations, which is attached to this report as Appendix A. In general, people receiving treatment at the facility will reside on the premises for approximately 30 to 60 days. Substance abuse treatment is included. The subject site consists of a single tax lot identified as Block 88 Lot 26 with an address of 33 Mount Pleasant Avenue. The property is currently developed with a one-story building that was formerly utilized as a nursing home (Canterbury Village) and related parking. The site is located near West Orange town hall and police station, and Route 280. Surrounding land uses are varied and include residential, commercial, and civic. The area is transforming with new construction across the street from the site. Maps and photographs are provided below. Zoning Considerations The site is in the OB-2 Office Business District. The zone “nests” permitted uses in the R-1 and OB-1 zones. Permitted principal uses include office buildings; single-family detached dwellings; water reservoir; well tower; filter bed; federal, state, county or township buildings; golf courses and clubhouses; farm, nursery, greenhouse and similar uses; and hospitals. Permitted conditional uses include, among other uses, nursing homes; congregate care facilities; assisted living facilities; and long-term care residential health care facilities. The application includes a request that the board consider an interpretation pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70.b. to establish which use category (and associated statutory test) should be applied to the proposed facility. To assist the board in its interpretation, below is a summary of the uses that may be considered. Notwithstanding the ultimate interpretation of the actual use category, it is the position of this report that the application meets any or all the statutory tests

of the uses that may be considered. Notwithstanding the ultimate interpretation of the actual use category, it is the position of this report that the application meets any or all the statutory tests that would apply for approval. • Hospital. The board may find that the use is a hospital because it meets New Jersey Department of Health definitions provided by the zoning officer and applicant’s attorney that, in para, the facility provides treatment or care of individuals suffering from illness for periods exceeding 24 hours. If the board determines that the application aligns with this use category, then the use may be treated as a permitted principal use in the OB-2 zone. • Long term-residential health care facility. The application includes a summary of prior approvals for the site and at least one of the approvals (ZB-95-16 in 1995) concluded that a licensed residential healthcare facility was a permitted use in the OB-2 zone. The board’s former planner rendered the same conclusion in this regard. The current planner has rendered a conclusion that the application may be adjudicated by the board on the basis of it being a permitted conditional use as a long term-residential health care facility. There are eleven (11) conditional use standards that apply to this use, they are all bulk conditions, and to the extent the existing build-out does not meet any of those standard, then conditional use relief pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70.d.(3) would be required.