On July 31st, 2017, the South Orange Village Center Alliance (SOVCA) joined with the Seton Village Committee and the Township of South Orange Village in a town hall meeting to propose new permitted uses for our commercial corridors. All three parties participated in the Business Code Review Task Force and have been working on these new policies for over a year. Given the changing nature of retail in the last few years, the task force believes that it is important to update our municipal codes to allow for more permitted uses throughout our commercial corridors.
These commercial corridors are divided into four main areas: Downtown- South Orange Avenue and Sloan Street; Downtown- side streets; Valley Street; Seton Village/Irvington Avenue. The task force is recommending changes to our current municipal code that both allows and restricts certain uses on the ground floor as well as the second floor and above. Some uses are permitted on the ground floor only in certain areas, some are permitted only on the second floor and above in certain areas and other uses are prohibited completely in some or all areas. You can read more about the town hall meeting here.
The Business Code Review Task Force is now soliciting further comments on these proposed uses with the goal of introducing a new ordinance in September to reflect these recommendations. Please feel free to send us your comments by emailing us at bizcode@sovillagecenter.org. if you have any questions about how to read or interpret these documents, please feel free to reach out to Bob Zuckerman, SOVCA executive director, at 973-763-6899 or by email at bob@sovillagecenter.org.
