A developer wants to put a four-story, 91-unit apartment building on a stretch of North 7th Street in Paterson where current rules only allow one- and two-family homes. Bent Avenue Real Estate Holdings LLC has proposed the project at 18–32 North 7th Street, and the plan would replace several existing buildings on the block with a single large residential complex.
The application, first detailed by Jersey Digs, lays out a mix of unit sizes: seven studios, 43 one-bedroom apartments, 34 two-bedroom apartments, and seven three-bedroom apartments. Ten of those units would sit on the ground floor, with the remaining 81 spread across the three floors above. Because apartment buildings aren't permitted under the site's zoning, Bent Avenue Real Estate Holdings LLC requested an exception from Paterson's Zoning Board of Adjustment to move forward.
Rooftop Space and Parking Numbers
The design includes amenities aimed at making up for the dense footprint. Residents would have access to 13,000 square feet of open space on the roof, plus about 1,000 square feet of shared indoor space on each of the three upper floors, according to the same Jersey Digs report. Parking would total 148 spaces, split between 101 spots on the lower level and 47 at ground level.
That parking count comes in 10 spaces short of what's typically required, a shortfall the developer is attributing to a credit for electric-vehicle charging infrastructure. The project's scale and the parking tally are among several points where the proposal departs from the site's existing rules, setting up the zoning relief request now before the board.
Setbacks Far Below Current Standards
Beyond unit count and parking, the proposal also seeks relief from yard requirements. Bent Avenue Real Estate Holdings LLC is asking to build just three feet from the front property line, where the standard calls for 25 feet. The two side yards would total just 11 feet combined, compared with a 40-foot standard — a gap that underscores how tightly the building would sit on its lot relative to what's normally allowed.
A Paterson zoning-board agenda document lists the site within the RA-1 zone, where one- and two-family uses are permitted, and describes the application as proposing to demolish several existing buildings to make way for the four-story, 91-unit structure, per City of Paterson records. That agenda material confirms the scope of what's being requested but does not indicate how or whether the board has acted on the application.
Not the First Paterson Proposal to Face Pushback
Large residential proposals haven't always made it to construction in Paterson. Just weeks earlier, a developer scrapped plans for 124 apartments at the former site of the city's YWCA after facing strong community opposition, according to a report from NorthJersey.com. That outcome offers a reminder that zoning board approval is never guaranteed, even for projects that have already been formally submitted.
For now, the North 7th Street proposal remains just that — a proposal. Whether the zoning board grants the requested exceptions for building height, parking, and setbacks, or whether the project faces the kind of pushback that sank the YWCA site plan, is not yet known.
