130 Homes, Retail Space, Community Center Proposed in Downtown Long Valley

If one developer gets approval from various local and state boards and committees, the center of Long Valley would take on the face of a bustling downtown.

Developer Ray Rice has proposed to the town a sweeping change in the landscape and grounds on West Mill and Fairmount Roads that would consist of more than 100 new residences, two retail buildings, a community center and new firehouse for the Long Valley Company.

The development was discussed by the Washington Township Planning Board Monday night, and Rice is scheduled to present the concept to the Washington Township Committee Wednesday night.

Town planner David Banisch discussed the town’s requirements and possibilities of pursuing a process for development in downtown Long Valley under the current Highlands Town Center designation, according to member Bill Leavens.

“The board adopted a measure to advise the Township Committee that we have a real interest in planning which will conform to that designation, working with the Highlands Council staff under a grant that the town has applied for,” Leavens said in an email to Patch.

While there currently is no application for development before the board, the town has a “real opportunity to do some actual planning so that we are not always merely reacting to proposals which may or may not be suitable to the character of the town and in accord with the expectations of the people who live here,” Leavens continued.

A preliminary overlay sketch of the area – attached to this article – puts the majority of the development on the open land behind the Long Valley Middle School. An entryway from West Mill Road would be established a few hundred feet west of the school’s entrance, with a community center – flanked by two parking lots – on the left side.

Across the roadway from the community center is a proposed group of townhomes, 44 in all.

Behind the townhomes, or to the south of the development, is an oval shaped roadway with 72 single-family homes. Forty-two of the properties would wrap around the roadway, with the additional 30 on an island in the center of the loop.

The development carries across Fairmount Road with two proposed retail buildings of 2,200 square-feet and 1,500 square-feet, respectively. Those buildings would be the southernmost and easternmost structures in the plan.

To the north of the retail buildings would be a six-bay firehouse amounting to 13,575 square-feet, directly entered from Fairmount Road. Finally, a two-story, 20-unit apartment building would be constructed to the north of the firehouse to fulfill the state’s Council on Affordable Housing requirements.

New sketches have already been prepared, according to township administrator Andrew Coppola, and will likely be presented to the governing body Wednesday night. The meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at 43 Schooley’s Mountain Road, is open to the public and residents are encouraged to attend.