The historic restaurant could not be replicated. It was reopened as Larison’s Turkey Farm Inn in 2002, then closed in 2005. Opend as Puddingstone Inn in 2007, closed shortly after followed by Larison's Steakhouse, which opened in 2008 and closed the next year.

Chester's historic Larison's Turkey Farm, which for generations served family-style turkey dinners with all the trimmings, may be razed to make room for a mixed use development.

The future of the farm, restaurant building and property will be discussed at a public meeting Sept. 18.

Plans for the 19th century complex include a new restaurant, a CVS pharmacy, office and medical buildings, 20 town homes and 36 units of affordable housing.

A rendering of the proposal does not show the current buildings on the property, but the final disposal of the historic structures has not yet been determined, according to Mayor Janet Hoven.

The proposal, however, does state that "It is acknowledged that the existing restaurant building does not have to remain."

"There are some blanks in the terms," Hoven said. "We hope to have all those blanks filled in so that on Tuesday, we can give an overview of it, have a discussion publicly, and take a vote on it."

Edward Ng, president of the Chester Historical Society, said the restaurant building and the circa-1873 "Sunnyside" residence are in the borough's historic district and warrant preservation. The society also has outlined an adaptive reuse proposal for Sunnyside.

A petition by the developers to demolish Sunnyside is awaiting decision from the Chester Land Use Board.

"Sunnyside is in limbo," Ng said. "If the Borough follows the historic-preservation ordinances, the turkey farm Inn would be preserved, but should be adaptively reused. However, I see there is a move to rewrite ordinances, which might mean a weakening of historic preservation ordinances."

Hoven said some residents have expressed objections to the proposal, some related to traffic.

"But if the council agrees to this, the developer will still have to come in front of the land-use board. They will still have to provide traffic studies and all of that," she said. "They still have to meet all the other regulations for what they are doing."

The Chester Historical Society has an online petition on its website with 900 signatures, urging the preservation of Sunnyside.

Chester history

Plans to redevelop the land at the corner of Routes 206 and 24 have been discussed since 2000, but none had progressed as far as the current proposal.

Arthur McGreevy, who purchased the property in 1974, closed the Larison's Turkey Farm restaurant in 2001 and sold the parcel in 2002 to Harold Wachtel, according to a timeline published by the Chester Historical Society.

Family-style turkey dinners, with all the trimmings, was the lure to Larison's offered by the McGreevy family, owners of the popular Arthur's Tavern steakhouse in Morris Plains, and operators of long-gone, top-end Morris County restaurants including Llewellyn Farms in Parsippany and the Black Bull Inn in Mountain Lakes.

Arthur McGreevy died in 2011.

Thwarted by resistance to redevelopment there, including regulations set by the 2004 New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, Wachtel sold 44 acres of the property to the borough in 2007, for $3.74 million, to be preserved as open space.

While the development proposals were debated, several operators tried and failed to revive the restaurant. Lou Mont reopened it as Larison’s Turkey Farm Inn in 2002, then closed it in 2005. Theresa Gaffney opened it back up in 2007 as the Puddingstone Inn. That also closed, giving way to a final establishment, Larison's Steakhouse, which opened in 2008 and closed the next year.

Roughly 25 acres of the parcel remain in the hands of Turkey Farm Acquisitions LLC, which is teaming with the owners of an adjoining Route 24 property known as the Mill Ridge tract.

The town home portion of the project would be built on the Mill Ridge tract.

Emboldened in 2015 by the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision to move oversight of Mt. Laurel housing obligations from the Council on Affordable Housing to municipal courts, the owners in 2016 submitted a new development plan that included a 144-unit apartment complex, 28 units of which would have been designated as affordable housing under Mt. Laurel.

The borough council rejected the proposal, but the owners were granted intervener status in court, leading to litigation between the borough and the owners regarding how the property could be developed.

"They came to the court and said the borough has an affordable-housing obligation, we have property, we can provide affordable housing for them, so we should be in on the discussions with the courts as to how they fulfill their obligation," Hoven said.

The current proposal is a result of more than two years of negotiations between the borough and the owners, which Chester officials say has already cost more than $300,000 in legal and professional fees.

The public may comment at the Sept. 18 meeting.

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Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@Dailyrecord.com.