Coming Soon - Veterans Park

With the Franklin Lakes Commuter Parking Lot moving to Parsons Pond Road on Monday, September 2, you may be asking what the Borough is going to do with the current lot, located at Veterans Plaza on Franklin Avenue. Early in September, the Borough will start work on the transformation of Veterans Plaza to the new Veterans Park, which will include the following amenities: 
  • Safe extended pick up and drop off area for Franklin Avenue Middle School students;
  • New Veterans Park along the full length of Franklin Avenue;
  • A new memorial park in the middle of Veterans Park, fronting on Franklin Avenue;
  • Additional parking for seniors and emergency services; and
  • Much more green space and green elements.
Preliminary Concept Plan of Veterans Park 
 
As those of you that have or had children that attended FAMS will attest, pick up and drop off can be quite perilous at the corner of Franklin Avenue and Pulis Avenue, the busiest intersection in Franklin Lakes. The most critical new feature of the new Veterans Park will be a pick up and drop off area for FAMS students from the current corner park (with the "V" monument) to Bender Court. Parents will be able to pick up and drop off their children in a pedestrian friendly area, which will provide safe sidewalk access to the crosswalk at Pulis Avenue and Franklin Avenue.  

Along the full length of Franklin Avenue will be a landscaped Veterans Park, approximately 30 feet wide. The Park will be a place to relax, with benches and a gazebo. Students, while waiting for their rides, can wait in the safety of the Park. In the middle of the Park, the Borough will be moving the veteran's memorials that are currently located next to the Emergency Management building. This will be a more fitting tribute to those Franklin Lakes residents that have lost their lives while serving for their country.

Seniors, firefighters, Emergency Management volunteers and Ambulance Corps members will benefit from the substantial parking area that will still be left on the other side of the Park and pick up and drop off area. This much needed parking will eliminate the need for commuters, seniors and our emergency service workers to park on adjacent roads.

The parking areas in Veterans Park will include green elements, including islands with trees and bushes, that will transform what is currently a vast field of asphalt into an attractive landscaped parking area. With each of these elements acting as a visual screen, it will be difficult to even see the parking areas from Franklin Avenue.

Mayor Bivona comments, "The Veterans Plaza parking lot was not large enough for commuters. It overflowed onto local streets and created safety issues for FAMS students. With the generous donation by Express Scripts of the much larger lot on Parsons Pond Road, the Borough is able to address the deficient parking for commuters, improve student safety and beautify the Franklin Avenue downtown. In the coming months (some of the plantings may need to be done next Spring), you will see the transformation of this area from blight to parkland."
 
8/28/19