Council To Hire Planners For Muhlenberg Study

Six hundred luxury apartments or maybe something else for Muhlenberg?

JFK Health Systems, owner of the former Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center campus on Randolph Road at Park Avenue, is actively promoting its plan that includes 600 apartments and is asking the City Council to approve zoning changes for it. See an animation of the development here.(Note: Video was deleted)

Meanwhile, Monday's City Council agenda includes a resolution to award a professional services contract to a Red Bank planning firm for a study of the Muhlenberg tract at a cost not to exceed $48,000. Bloggers will be checking the packet at the Plainfield Public Library today for more details.

At a March 2012 town meeting, residents and officials rejected the 600-unit apartment plan, but last month Rev. Gerald Lamont Thomas of Shiloh Baptist Church urged the council to accept JFK's proposal. See Plaintalker's follow-up Q&A with JFK's Adam Beder here. Beder, JFK's vice president for governmental affairs, said, "JFK does not object to the City hiring experts to help them in this process, but will not support added delays to this process."

The optimum result - restoration of a full acute care facility - appears to be fading as hospitals across the nation are facing the same issues that caused Muhlenberg to close in 2008, leaving only a satellite emergency room with links to JFK. That facility had been expected to close in August, but remains open as the debate on Muhlenberg's future continues.

The agenda-fixing session is 7:30 p.m. Monday in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Ave.

--Bernice

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