The first phase of Meridia Brownstones at Elizabeth and West Grand avenues is complete, with some issues to be resolved before the remaining 40% of Temporary Certificates of Occupancy (TCO) are granted.

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During his report to the Redevelopment Agency at its Dec. 8 meeting, Executive Director Robert Landolfi said Capodagli Property Company has effectively completed all 298 units of the first phase of the 487-unit Meridia Brownstones. The Linden-based developer has received TCOs for 184 units and requested TCOs for the remaining 114 units.

“There are some outstanding issues there,” Landolfi said. He said he’s asked Redevelopment Agency Attorney Anne Rowan and Engineer Jacqueline Dirmann to “work through those issues and come up with an agreement” with the developer to obtain the TCOs. “Those are Planning Board issues, not ours, but they do impact the project,” he told commissioners last week.

The outstanding issues are really two issues that evolve into one serious one, Landolfi said during a brief telephone interview this week. The developer made some changes to the courtyard both in the material used and the configuration, which may have an impact on stormwater management regulations, he said.

“They’ve gotta work through that; it’s really not a big deal in terms of aesthetics or functionality,” Landolfi said, but it may have changed calculations of impervious surface coverage, such as more sidewalk, for example. “That and issues surrounding that, are really what’s central to those changes,” he said, adding that TCOs won’t be issued until the issues are addressed. The developer may have to go back to pervious material where it was impervious before and show stormwater calculations are in conformity. “They’re all really very solvable issues,” Landolfi said.

An agreement might grant some portion of the 114 outstanding TCOs and set milestones — such as stormwater calculations or returning impervious surfaces — to grant the remaining ones. “I don’t know what the final formula will be, maybe get a chunk up front and work for the remainder, hopefully they’ll do that in an expeditious manner,” Landolfi said. “It should be a relatively quick process.”

As part of a revised redevelopment agreement approved a year ago, the completion of phase one was to be done in its entirety by Sept. 1, 2021. Capodagli missed that milestone by about 60 days, Landolfi said, but it was out of their control because of an issue with Union County that caused the delay.

The second phase of Meridia Brownstones, now under way, will include the remaining 189 units of the 487-unit, four-building project. The revised redevelopment agreement sets a timeline of December 2022 for completion of the second phase.

In October, City Council instituted permit parking along nearby Price Street, Jackson Avenue and parts of Linden Avenue in response to an influx of parking from The Brownstones.

The concept for The Brownstones first was presented to the Redevelopment Agency in 2012. The Planning Board granted approval two years later.

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