That’s the question we need to ask our Mayor & Borough Council before they dispose of 58 North Passaic Avenue, right next to Memorial Park.
Hear the answer this Tuesday, October 14 at Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Avenue.
Take the elevator to the upper level. Enter the room on the left at the end of the hall. Make yourself comfortable.
Meeting starts at 7:30 pm, but stop by whenever it’s convenient. Stay only as long as you please. Speaking is optional.
Despite growing public opposition, the Mayor & Council still aim to sacrifice the wooded, Borough-owned lot at 58 North Passaic Avenue – right next to Memorial Park – without having considered the alternatives!
Will you stand for that?
”It’s as green as Kermit the Frog.”
Tell the Mayor & Council:
cdempsey@chathamborough.org jmathiasen@chathamborough.org
kkoronkiewicz@chathamborough.org
jstrickland@chathamborough.org bhargrove@chathamborough.org
Show you care by stopping by the next Council meeting:
What the heck is the above all about?
Last spring, residents flatly rejected a Master Plan amendment, hastily developed behind closed doors, which included needlessly sacrificing the green parcel at 58 North Passaic to help satisfy the Borough’s new affordable housing quota.
Residents urged the Council to consider alternatives that could satisfy that quota, while also preserving that green land for current and future generations.
On June 18th, the Planning Board rubber stamped the take-it-or-leave-it plan. Though the Borough’s experts noted that the Council could later nominate alternative sites, some Council members insisted that the plan was a done deal.
https://chathamchoice.org/2025/08/sworn-testimony/
https://chathamborough.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=396 (See comments starting 1:43:24 and approx. 2:11:00.)
But then two informal Facebook polls revealed that more than 90% of Chathamites want that wooded, Borough-owned parcel preserved for the benefit of current and future generations.
And now a growing chorus of residents is stepping forward to implore the Council to come up with alternatives that could preserve that precious public land. Several attended the September 8th Council meeting.
The looming threat to 58 North Passaic Avenue has become an issue in the current race for Borough Council.
Incumbent Council Member Karen Koronkiewicz (who co-designed the plan) suggested that the Borough might be able to build four apartments on the small lot at 58 North Passaic without chopping down most or all of the trees there.
”If you’re going to build four apartments,” scoffed challenger Joe Barrette, “you have to cut the trees down.”
He’s right about that, as the below aerial views of 58 North Passaic demonstrate. The first shows the site, almost covered what trees, and the second, which shows what the Council aims to build there, states that it will preserve ONE such tree.
At the September 10th debate, first time candidate Miles Gilmore, a member of the Shade Tree Commission, professed little understanding of the housing issue. He proved it by speaking eloquently in favor of protecting the trees at 58 North Passaic, while advocating acquiescence to the Council’s current plan, which will make it necessary to chop down virtually all of them.
Let’s hope Mr. Gilmore will look into the housing plan, and realize that the only way to preserve those trees is to preserve 58 North Passaic and put the new apartments elsewhere in the Borough.
Is it too late to preserve the wooded, Borough-owned lot at 58 North Passaic Avenue, right next to home plate at Memorial Park? No!
In case you haven’t heard, that lovely, green parcel is targeted for development under a controversial Master Plan amendment that also allows construction of up to 206 new apartments on the busy east end of Main Street.
In June, Hundreds of residents protested that plan, but to no avail.
End of story? No.
Once the Superior Court approves the plan, which should happen by the end of December, the Borough can propose substitute sites, according to the Borough’s Professional Planner. https://chathamborough.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=393 (Go to 1:12:20)
If the Mayor & Council choose instead to sacrifice 58 North Passaic without having considered all the alternatives, they will lose the chance to achieve a better outcome for Chatham Borough.
To avoid that fate, the Mayor & Council must begin searching for better options immediately after Labor Day.
What are they doing about that?
What substantive steps have our Mayor & Council been taking to prepare to identify better alternatives to developing 58 North Passaic Avenue?
cdempsey@chathamborough.org. jmathiasen@chathamborough.org
kkoronkiewicz@chathamborough.org. itreloar@chathamborough.org
jstrickland@chathamborough.org bhargrove@chathamborough.org
khay@chathamborough.org. mayorcouncil@chathamborough.org
UPDATE: On June 18, the Planning Board rubber stamped the proposed Housing Element with only a minor adjustment, over the vocal objections of hundreds of residents, including petitioners and the overflow crowd in the Council Chamber. Five days later, several detailed the outrage at a Council meeting: https://chathamborough.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=396 (See multiple public comments starting 1:43:24 and Member Justin Strickland’s dissent starting approx. 2:11:00.)
We all love our Memorial Park, the green stretch behind our library, with its playground, pool, benches, lawn, and ball field, lined with big trees.
But now our Park is threatened by a Borough Council plan to sacrifice the green, vacant lot right next door – which the Borough bought for recreation – to build four apartments and a parking lot.
Here’s how that Borough-owned lot next to the ball field looks now:
Here’s what the Borough Council aims to build there asap:
Will that project pay property taxes to the Borough? No. It’s tax exempt.
That plan will also allow construction of 223 new apartments on the east end of Main Street, backing up traffic and jeopardizing the water supply in a wellhead protection zone that also includes Summit and Millburn.
What’s worse, despite having had at least fifteen months to come up with alternatives, our Mayor & Council never considered any. They left it until the last minute and dropped it on the Planning Board, half of which knows this is wrong, but may be steamrolled into accepting it for lack of a handy alternative.
Now the proponents of this nightmare simply insist that that Plan was the only way to meet a June 30 deadline set by state law.
That’s pure nonsense. NJ law does not require the Borough to make any such sacrifices.
And yet, that’s exactly what the Planning Board will do on June 18th unless you act now:
cdempsey@chathamborough.org jmathiasen@chathamborough.org
kkoronkiewicz@chathamborough.org itreloar@chathamborough.org
jstrickland@chathamborough.org bhargrove@chathamborough.org
khay@chathamborough.org mayorcouncil@chathamborough.org
Thomas Belding Sophia Calcaterra-Hull Susan Favate William Heap
Susie Robertson Matthew Wagner Jonathan Wilcox Gregory Xikes
For background, sources, hot links, and news, please visit ChathamChoice.org
(Let’s hope our Planning Board won’t!)
NJ law requires every town to provide for affordable housing. Chatham Borough does that.
NJ law does NOT require the Borough to pave over the green, wooded, Borough-owned, .3-acre, vacant lot at 58 North Passaic, right next to our Memorial Park, for a parking lot and four apartments, nor to impose an overlay zone allowing 220 more apartments on the east end of Main Street without having considered any alternatives.
But that’s what the Planning Board is going to do on June 18th unless you act now:
Thomas Belding Sophia Calcaterra-Hull Susan Favate William Heap Susie Robertson Matthew Wagner Jonathan Wilcox Gregory Xikes
Facebook or c/o Clerk, Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Avenue, Chatham, NJ, 07928
For background, sources, and news please visit ChathamChoice.org
Who is responsible for the Master Plan amendment our Planning Board won’t see until June 6, but is under pressure to adopt on June 18, setting Borough housing policy for the next ten years?
Why did our Borough Council let someone concoct such a plan 100% behind closed doors, without any public input?
Why does that plan include developing a vacant, green, woodsy, Borough-owned lot right next to Memorial Park?
Was it ok for our Borough Council to skip presenting that plan in public, skip voting on it, skip running it by the Shade Tree Commission or Environmental Commission, and instead simply pay a hired planner to present a summary to our Planning Board?
Did the Council have an obligation to explain, release, or disclose the actual plan BEFORE turning it over to the Planning Board?
Did having the planner tell the Planning Board about the plan really muzzle the Borough Council as claimed?
Is the Planning Board required to approve the plan, which it won’t even see until at least June 6?
If the Planning Board is required to rubber stamp the never-before-seen plan, which the Council has never voted on or even discussed in public, then who is responsible for the policy decisions that will guide local decision making for the next ten years?
Why does the Council President say answering questions like that would expose her to “legal risk”?
Ask her: Jmathiasen@chathamborough.org
Ok with you if the Planning Board votes to develop that green, vacant, Borough-owned lot right next to the park without having justified or explained that choice?
Share your views:
mayorcouncil@chathamborough.org
shadetree@chathamborough.org
Ever notice that each NJ town has its own unique character?
One reason is that each town is protected by a local Master Plan, created by residents to guide local officials in big decisions.
When asked to adopt a new regulation or grant a special exemption from zoning laws, our leaders must consider if what’s proposed is consistent with the Master Plan. If not, they must vote it down.
Changing the Master Plan can be done only by the local Planning Board, which is made up only of residents and must follow a transparent process. They review the Master Plan, discuss and air proposed changes at public meetings, take questions and comments from residents, and make decisions in public.
Unfortunately, that isn’t what’s happening now in Chatham Borough.https://chathamchoice.org/2025/05/the-secret-plan/
Essentially, our Planning Board is getting railroaded. https://chathamborough.org/boards/planning
At the Wednesday, May 7 meeting – the Board’s first since January – members learned about a major change in the Master Plan’s Fair Share & Housing Element, which was crafted behind closed doors by a special 8-member advisory committee that includes four non-residents and does not answer to the public. https://www.chathamborough.org/boards/advisory/235-affordable-housing
At that May 7 meeting, Planning Board members were told that they need to approve that major change in the Master Plan at the Planning Board meeting, on June 18. (You can see that at approx. 1:07:00 in this video: https://chathamborough.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=368)
The only hearing scheduled to give residents chance to ask questions or tell the Planning Board what they think of the changes is at the same June 18 meeting where the Planning Board must vote to approve those changes.
That puts our Planning Board in a tight spot. Or rather, it’s a tight spot for the rank and file members, who who aren’t also Mayor, or married to the boss of the dominant party, or members of the elite committee that drafted the changes behind closed doors.
But what options do the rank and file Planning Board members really have?
Should they stand up for the right of residents to participate in the process, and risk not being reappointed to the Board by the Mayor?
Or should they go along to get along, and hope for other opportunities to protect Chatham Borough?
That’s the easy way out, but if they take it, they will have lost control of one of the most important parts of our Master Plan.
It’s time for the Planning Board to do right by residents and stand up for itself. Refuse to be bullied into approving a Housing Element they had no role in crafting. Demand a chance to do their job, and weigh alternatives.
Your opportunity to ask or weigh in about any of that at a public meeting – before it’s too late to make any difference – will be at the Council meeting this Monday, May 12, 7:30 pm, Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Avenue, upper level.
Please keep in mind that you need not say a word. You can make a difference simply by attending that meeting.
In response to the uproar over this situation, today the Mayor posted the PowerPoint presentation shown at the May 7 Planning Board meeting and put the Housing Element issue on the Council’s agenda for Monday night. https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/chathamborough/ebc8857c-bc91-11ef-ab4b-005056a89546-21f92362-28af-4727-9270-fd5a12163dfa-1746813852.pdf