Building height heads to ballot

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS A referendum question asking voters whether office buildings taller than 35 feet should be allowed in the borough will be placed on the November ballot unless the Borough Council repeals a zoning ordinance that currently permits construction of such buildings.

The council unanimously approved the wording of the non-binding question this week. Officials inserted a so-called "escape clause," however, saying that the question should be taken off the ballot if a new proposed ordinance that would return the building height limit to 35 feet is in effect by Aug. 29.

That ordinance, introduced by the council earlier this month, was sent to the Planning Board for review on Tuesday, Borough Attorney E. Carter Corriston Sr. said.

The board has 35 days from the time it gets the ordinance to make a recommendation to the council, which doesn't have to follow it. A public hearing on the ordinance, which had been tentatively set for Tuesday, is now expected to be held during the council's next meeting, Aug. 13. The Planning Board's next regular meeting will be Aug. 14, but Corriston said he hoped the board would hold a special session before then.

Height limits have been a source of controversy in the borough, where LG Electronics USA unveiled plans to construct a 143-foot building as part of its new North American headquarters at 111 Sylvan Ave. Critics say it would be the first building to rise above the Palisades treeline north of Fort Lee.

LG was granted a variance in 2012 allowing it to exceed the borough's 35-foot height limit. Then, after two residents filed suit, the council rezoned the stretch of Sylvan Avenue where LG's campus is located to allow buildings of up to 90 feet on lots between 5 and 25 acres and buildings of up to 150 feet on parcels 25 acres or larger. LG's property is 27 acres.

Opponents have decried the zoning changes, which they say will open the door to high-rise development along the Palisades.

A referendum was first proposed in May by the two Republican candidates in the upcoming council election, Mario Kranjac and Kinga Zamecki.

Kranjac and other Republicans object to the "escape clause," saying residents should have the chance to express their opinion on high-rise development.

They also have raised a concern that, without a referendum spelling out residents' wishes, the council might later decide to once again raise the borough's building-height limit.

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Building height heads to ballot