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 3 101 Gibraltar Drive, Suite 1A, Morris Plains, NJ 07950 · Phone: 973.222.6011 · Fax: 973.786.6537 • Non-permitted use. To the extent the board interprets that the application does not align with the use category of hospital or long term-residential health care facility, or any of the permitted uses in the OB-2 zone, then use relief pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70.d.(1) would be required. As stated above, notwithstanding the ultimate interpretation of the actual use category, it is the position of this report that the application meets any or all of the statutory tests that could apply, whether the board ultimately determines that the use is a permitted principal use (hospital), or permitted conditional use (long term-residential health care facility), or requires “d(1)” use relief or “d(3)” conditional use relief. The practical reasoning is that the zone allows a wide variety of medical uses and the proposed use is clearly a medical use. Therefore the use, if not a permitted use per se, is certainly akin to permitted uses. Planning Justifications for Relief Land use planning operates within a legal framework. The statute recognizes that land use regulation is not meant to be rigid and inflexible and gives zoning boards authority to grant “adjustments” if specific criteria are met, commonly referred to as the statutory positive criteria and the statutory negative criteria. “d(1)” Use Relief If the board interprets that “d(1)” use relief is required for a non-permitted use, the application satisfies the statutory criteria for grant of such relief as established by N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70.d.(1) and Medici v. BPR Co., 107 N.J. 1 (1987). The statutory positive criteria are satisfied because the site is particularly suited for the use, by virtue of its condition as a former nursing home readily able to accommodate adaptive reuse with minimal site alterations, and its context which includes a nicely comingled mix of uses including residential, commercial, civic, and transportation. The project further satisfies the statutory positive criteria because it advances one or more fundamental purposes of the municipal land use law at N.J.S.A. 40:55D-2, including: • Purpose (a), the promotion of the general welfare,

the statutory positive criteria because it advances one or more fundamental purposes of the municipal land use law at N.J.S.A. 40:55D-2, including: • Purpose (a), the promotion of the general welfare, because it delivers a beneficial use that caters to persons suffering from mental illness. The board may also find that the use is “inherently beneficial” which means the positive criteria are automatically satisfied and the simplified Sica standard applies. Case law on this point is discussed later in the report. • Purpose (g) to provide for a variety of uses in appropriate locations according to the needs of all New Jersey citizens because the site is particularly suited for the use for the reasons set forth above and because the use caters to persons in need. • Purpose (i) to promote a desirable visual environment because the project is for adaptive reuse of an attractive building and attractive site and the application retains that which is already there and familiar in the public eye. • Purpose (m) efficient use of land because the project involves adaptive reuse of a former nursing home as opposed to new construction, and no tree removal or earthwork.