Proposed apartment complex fails to win OK

The Hardyston Joint Land Use Board voted 4-3 against developer SMS Hamburg’s Woods at Hamburg apartment complex project at its meeting Monday, May 13.

On Friday, May 17, SMS Hamburg attorney Antimo Del Vecchio of the Beattie Padavano law firm said he did not know if his client would appeal.

SMS Hamburg won approval of the project from the Hamburg Land Use Board earlier this year.

The proposal called for four three-story buildings with a total of 36 two-bedroom dwelling units on Route 23 near Airgas and Penny Rock Estates.

The main portion of the development would have been in Hamburg, with a stormwater basin built directly behind the project on Fairview Avenue in Hardyston.

Hardyston resident Julie Lacatena, who lives on Fairview, has been an outspoken critic of the project. She was concerned that the stormwater basin would affect her backyard among other issues.

Neighbors Maryann and John Jervis, who live on Fairview Avenue in Hamburg, also were against it.

Lacatena praised the board’s decision.

“We were ecstatic,” she said. “Everyone was in shock because we didn’t think Hardyston was going to say no.”