The proposed purchase of the World of Wings property by AvalonBay Communities represents a real opportunity for Teaneck to increase its tax intake by approximately $800,000 a year, thus reducing the ever-increasing burden of property taxes on single-family homeowners.

While our elected leaders have been working to match tenants with large vacant properties in a pro-development mindset for close to the last decade, they have been strongly pressured against supporting this proposal by external
special-interest groups. There are a variety of objections to AvalonBay specifically, and others who are opposed to any development on the site, largely due to the site’s proximity to the longstanding Bakken Crude Oil line that runs through the area (but seven schools as well as a dozen other community institutions have existed peacefully, and thankfully uneventfully, next to these tracks for eons). Objections keep pouring in from unions and their designees even as numerous residents have informed us that they have personally inquired about AvalonBay’s proposed apartment complex as an alternative for families who wish to downsize to an apartment, while staying near their beloved shuls and friends. One resident even told us that she has received daily robo-calls for the past week, urging her to call her councilmembers to object to the proposal.

The potential benefits to the community for a new, modern apartment building in the neighborhood seem endless. Young families can live within a stone’s throw of their parents while having easy access to shuls, schools and multiple kosher amenities, and older couples will be able to “age in place,” continuing to attend the shuls they helped build instead of moving to Fort Lee or other communities for upscale apartment living.

The tax advantage of such a property in the neighborhood has other benefits for residents, this time in actual reduction in property taxes. The alternative, i.e., the risk of not zoning the property to multi-family housing—a measure which will be voted on this Tuesday at Teaneck’s council meeting at Teaneck High School (8pm)—is that the property will likely become vacant or will be sold to a non-profit. In either scenario, no resident will benefit, either from enjoying a new apartment or seeing a reduction on their tax bill.