Senior Living Company Advances Plan to Build 144-Unit Facility

The Shelter Group received permission Thursday to build a 35-foot-tall senior living facility on Forest Avenue.

Construction won't start until the site plan for the property gets approved, but it's a step forward  for the facility.

"Paramus should really be happy to have the Shelter Group here," Stuart Liebman, attorney for the company, said.

Shelter Group plans to build on nine acres of land, taking over part of the land owned by , which is staying open, as well as three lots occupied by single-family homes. The 144-unit facility will include 70 independent living units, 48 assisted living units and 26 dementia care units.

Liebman said 10 percent of the units—15 to be exact—would be set aside for affordable housing, a compromise reached as a result of the jumbled state of the New Jersey affordable housing law. The state Council on Affordable Housing rules say that 20 percent of developments should be set aside for low-income residents, but Gov. Chris Christie eliminated the council in 2011, putting the affordable housing mandate in limbo.

Though the Zoning Board of Adjustment granted the Shelter Group unanimous approval to use the lot for senior housing, residents living behind the property on Spring Valley Road complained that the facility would diminish the neighborhood. Bernard Nickel, 84, was one of them.

"This application would change the character of the community," he said. "It would bring in additional traffic on to our local street, namely, Spring Valley."

There will be no left turns from the site onto Forest Avenue, which Nickel said would lead southbound traffic from the site onto Spring Valley Road.

Francis Cacciato, another Spring Valley Road resident, said she would prefer that the site be developed with single family homes, which she said would generate more revenue for the Borough and require fewer services.

Liebman argued that the staff at the facility would reduce calls for emergency services.

"There are people there that can help take care of them and it will actually reduce the amount of this type of service," he said.

Richard M. Preiss, the planner for the project, summarized the benefits of the facility. Because of the mixture of independent, assisted and dementia units, residents can "age in place," moving among the different units as their needs dictate.

There is a growing need for senior housing in the community, Preiss said. Almost 5 percent of Paramus residents are 85 or older, he said, citing 2010 Census figures.

That figure was 2.5 percent in 1990. He noted a similar trend in the population aged 75 to 84.

"If you just look at the demographics themselves we believe there is a substantial demand for these facilities currently and that demand is only going to grow," Preiss said.

Preiss added that there is at least 68 feet between the planned facility and the nearest resident, and that the home won't add to the school population.

John Harter, traffic engineer for the project, said county officials had acknowledged that the site would benefit traffic by reducing the number of driveways along Forest Avenue. He calculated that the site would produce little traffic, estimating that 22 cars would leave the site during peak evening hours.

The Shelter Group plans would also reduce traffic coming from Greenland Landscaping Company, which will operate on a smaller lot. The senior facility will supplant six greenhouses and three sheds and reduce traffic from Greenland by about 80 percent, Harter said.

He expects that only about 40 percent of the residents of the facility will drive.

Preiss said Greenland has a larger impact on the neighborhood than the senior facility, whose operation will mostly be indoors.

The Shelter Group will return to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for site plan approval "soon," Liebman said.