Sound familiar?

There are eerie parallels between a brewing controversy in Fair Lawn and Teaneck's own wrangling over the future of the old soap factory property behind Herrick Park. From the circumstances (a proposal for dense residential development on a polluted former industrial site), to the arguments in opposition (increased traffic and the potential strain on local services), all the way down to the planned sale price per condo unit ($450,000 to $650,000), the two Bergen County communities appear to be dealing with the same thing at the same time in the same way.

Coincidence? I think not. At the tail end of a prolonged housing boom, it's not surprising that developers are rushing to cash in before it's too late (though it may already be too late). With all the activity of the last few years, little is left but the least promising and most undesirable plots. Couple those circumstances with overcrowding and the heightened sensitivity to taxation issues in most New Jersey municipalities, and you have a recipe for acrimony.

In a posting on this site, Alan Sohn has argued that many of the problems that lead developers and residents to clash in Teaneck can be traced to the Master Plan, now 5 1/2 years old and showing its age. While this argument is persuasive, even its proponents must admit it does not go far enough. Even a revamped Master Plan will fall short of resolving the underlying issues that Teaneck (and other nearby towns that are overwhelmingly residential) confront as they attempt to preserve a quality of life that has become very expensive to maintain. No document can alter the many fateful decisions already taken in prior years that have placed Teaneck and other suburbs into the difficult situation they are now in. Creativity and resourcefulness in development are but one piece of the puzzle. At this point, there is no palatable way to develop our way out of the mess we are in.