Jon Vogel, who chairs South Orange's Development Committee, addressed the Board of Trustees on Monday night to discuss steps being taken to ensure that the Vision Plan, presented in finalized form by Boston-based consultant The Cecil Group in November, doesn't wind up collecting dust.

"We're here to kick off the implementation process," said Vogel, who works for the developer AvalonBay Communities. He said that his committee's work fell into three areas: identifying development sites on Village-owned parcels of land or parcels that could be acquired, including the Beifus site; identifying infrastructure improvements; and defining needed regulatory changes in zoning and other areas.

One site that's been the focus of interest is the Village-owned parcel at Third and Valley streets that's currently used for commuter and employee parking, said Vogel. The Vision Plan recommended that it be redeveloped into a mixed-use site comprised of multi-family dwellings, retail and a public parking deck. There have been talks with NJ Transit to discuss swapping the agency's commuter spots in the SOPAC lot for spots in the proposed parking deck to free up parking for patrons of businesses on West South Orange Avenue and SOPAC. However, he noted that NJ Transit conveyed it couldn't sponsor construction of the deck due to its own budgetary constraints.

Another site being examined is a section of municipal parking lot 9 on Sloan Street, across from the train station and adjacent to Stony's. The idea put forth in the Vision Plan is that retail could be extended down Sloan Street to make that corridor into more of a shopping destination. "That's something else that could be put up for an RFP/RFQ at a future date," said Vogel.

Examples given of possible infrastructure improvements were creating a right-turn lane onto Church Street for east-bound traffic on South Orange Avenue to reduce congestion and improving the underpass at South Orange Avenue under the train track to improve the connection between the east and west sides of downtown.

Possible regulatory changes include rezoning sections of Irvington Avenue and Valley Street to permit residential uses.

While Vogel observed that the general idea is to have groundwork laid for when the real estate market heats up again, Village President Douglas Newman also noted that "we tend to get better deals" during a construction slowdown.