The Montclair Township Council took an important step in the long-awaited, much-debated transformation of Lackawanna Plaza on Tuesday night when it voted 6-0 to send the township’s draft redevelopment plan for the 8-acre site to the Planning Board for review. Fourth Ward Councilor David Cummings abstained.

The property, owned by David Placek’s BDP Holdings, is the largest site for redevelopment in the community, Township Planner Janice Talley said at a public information session held Nov. 29 by Mayor Sean Spiller, Councilor-at-Large Peter Yacobellis and Third Ward Councilor Lori Price Abrams. Cummings held two information meetings, on Nov. 3 and Nov. 10.

Talley noted that discussions about redevelopment of the site date to 2015. “This is not the beginning,” she said. “Hopefully, this is the final stage. And I say stage because it is a public process. This is the township’s plan.”