This Monday, the Borough Council will vote to change the Plan for Post Office Plaza such that it will probably be forced to wipe out our free, public parking lot and build a 100+ unit rental apartment project with a multilevel garage.
Our Mayor says that project “sucks,” but he cannot stop it without your help.
Show the Mayor you support his efforts to stop the overdevelopment of Post Office Plaza. Come to the meeting of the Mayor & Borough Council, 7:30 PM, Monday, 13 December 2021, Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Avenue, upper level.
… should a multistory garage and transit village (with four-story, multi-unit buildings) be built in this area, an additional downside could certainly materialize… namely a diminution in property values.
Many Chatham homeowners first moved here because of the borough’s arboreal character and wide-open spaces…
… the last thing a recent arrival from, say, Queens, New York, Jersey City, or South Orange might want to see are the aforementioned urban or quasi-urban communities following them to quiet and leafy suburban Chatham Borough.
An important factor in the valuation of so many residential properties here is precisely this quiet, leafy character of our charming suburban community. If this were to change in as dramatic a fashion… this pillar of the borough’s high property values might quickly dissolve…
… borough residents will now have to be vigilant on a case-by-case basis that such “visions and goals” do not indeed become fact.
Equally problematic are the potential tax increase implications accompanying all of the newly permitted construction. In particular, multistory parking garages are expensive to build and Chatham Borough taxpayers would ultimately foot the bill, regardless of the manner in which this project is financed…
These potential changes represent the worst sort of overdevelopment, one that would decidedly transform our charming little arboreal hamlet into something more nearly resembling the less suburban places from whence many of us first came to Chatham Borough…
…the new master plan creates the conceptual and legal room for a creeping urbanization in Chatham Borough. It portends the arrival of deep-pocketed developers who care nothing for the investment, financial or otherwise, so many of its residents have made in the purchase and maintenance of their homes, and the living of their lives, in this picturesque small New Jersey town.
…when these developers do arrive, they will be accompanied by their teams of highly-paid lawyers as they seek the Borough Council’s approval for their proposed redevelopment projects.
This will be a fundamentally asymmetric situation in terms of available resources to fight these projects, since individual Chatham homeowners will be hard-pressed to match the developers in terms of required legal fees. It will, in other words, be a David versus Goliath-like proposition for many Borough residents…
… the Planning Board’s vote in favor of the new master plan… has let the proverbial genie out of the bottle… it provides a policy foundation and framework for the borough’s land use laws and building regulations…
Chatham’s location and great schools naturally attract real estate developers looking to make a fortune on new apartment projects. At one time, they had to follow zoning rules, intended to keep out huge towers that would clog up our streets and swamp our schools, police, etc.
Those protections began to erode in the 2000s, when Chatham began to relax zoning standards, in hopes of attracting taxable developments. Around 2016, our then Mayor & Council discovered a state “redevelopment” law that seemed to promise a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to any town willing to waive normal zoning rules, allowing developers to build big projects that could be tax “rateables.”
Of course, there was a catch: Such projects usually aren’t ratable at all. They are eligible for fabulous property tax breaks and other goodies that shift most of the costs – and risks – to us taxpayers.
In their naive quest for easy money, our then Mayor & Council led us into a Plan to build a big apartment project in Post Office Plaza – behind the Main Street Post Office. That POP Plan will clog our streets with hundreds more cars and trucks – without any real benefit to Chatham.
It all started with a few small steps. We’re simply investigating possibilities, the Mayor & Council told themselves. We can stop at any time, they said.
But as usual, each small step makes it harder to stop. At some point, there is no way out. It happens so gradually that people don’t wake up until it’s too late.
Almost nobody in Chatham woke up until November 14, 2019, when the Council’s handpicked developer unveiled a big, horrible design for Post Office Plaza. It triggered public outrage.
When our current Mayor took office in January 2020, he tossed that ridiculous design off the table. But he did not scrap the POP Redevelopment Plan itself. He vowed only to consider a range of options and to hold several Town Hall meetings before doing anything. (See for yourself, starting at minute 13: https://vimeo.com/387823706)
The Mayor did not keep that promise. At the June 28, 2021 Council meeting, he suddenly announced a new design proposal for POP.
The Mayor was vague about that new proposal. He led residents to believe that other options were still possible and would be discussed at future Town Hall meetings.
In reality, the Mayor had already signed a June 14 contract in an affordable housing lawsuit. He had signed that contract without having held a single Town Hall – or even having resumed in-person Council meetings after Covid.
What’s more, in that contract the Mayor had all but promised to make the POP project at least 100 rental apartments – unless he could persuade Fair Share Housing Center to accept something else. To help get that result, he’d promised to change the Plan by January 1, 2022 and to try to get a final agreement signed by June 1, 2022, permanently locking Chatham into a deal nobody had seen yet.
The only reason that deal ever came to light is in August 2021 one smart Chatham lady spotted a mysterious notice on the Borough website, and began asking questions. Residents flocked to the next Council meeting with even more questions the Mayor couldn’t – or wouldn’t – answer.
Sad reality is that we’re getting sucked into a POP project that will displace some 18 Chatham families of modest means who live there now, to make room for 15-17 lucky North Jersey housing lottery winners of modest means. It will make a rich developer even richer. But for Chatham there’s no reason to expect anything but more traffic, higher costs, and a lower quality of life.
Chatham residents are in the dark. And the clock is ticking.
It’s time to wake up.
Urge our Mayor to find a better way to satisfy our obligations under the June 14 agreement – such as subsidizing apartments on Main Street or converting a vacant office building for residential use – before it’s too late.
Q: Is there any way to dissuade our Mayor & Council from building a big, 100+ commercial, rental apartment block behind our Main Street Post Office, clogging up our streets with hundreds more cars?
Come to the Council Meeting Tonight
Tuesday, Oct. 12, 7:30 pm,
Borough Hall, upper level, 54 Fairmount Avenue.
To attend virtually: see www.chathamborough.org. Scroll “News and Events” down to “Notice of Mayor & Council Meeting.” Click “more.”
Q: Discouraged by the Mayor’s 25-person limit on in-person attendance? Fed up with the technical difficulties that plague virtual participation?
The Chatham Borough Council’s plans to overhaul Post Office Plaza will mean the loss of an historic structure built more than 100 years ago by feminist trailblazer Edna Dickinson (1885-1954).
Miss Dickinson was a graduate of Moravian College, a crack shot, world-class collector of mounted birds and animals, a tireless volunteer, a whiz at selling World War I bonds, a founder of the Chatham Trust Company, and our town’s first female real estate broker, known for driving her clients around in a Chalmers at a time when cars were a novelty.
New York Tribune, 14 Dec. 1919
In 1911 – years before women were even allowed to vote – Miss Dickinson, 26, built the two-story structure at 31 South Passaic Avenue, near the train tracks, to house her real estate business and an auto repair shop. Upstairs would be The Chatham Press, whose only entrance was on a nameless side street that ran along the railroad tracks.
The Chatham Press, 19 Aug. 1911, p.1
Before long, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad decided to raise those tracks for safety. The Borough allowed the railroad to build an embankment, with a retaining wall in the the side street, only a few feet from Miss Dickinson’s building, permanently blocking the entrance to the upstairs offices – as well as a residence in back of the lot, which the DL&W fenced with wire – over the objections of Miss Dickinson, and without compensating her.
Just look how close the tracks come to the building:
Tenacious, young, businesswoman Edna Dickinson battled them in court for four years. She ultimately won a series of jury verdicts, culminating in a 1918 damage award totaling $8,332, which would be worth some $150,000 today.
As of 2021, Miss Dickinson’s Garage is the home of Glenn’s Automotive and Towing, a hometown business, whose owner – a third generation Chatham resident – just happens to share Miss Dickinson’s love of animals.
glennsautomotiveandtowing.wordpress.com
You can find the fascinating history of Miss Dickinson’s Garage in My Town by a River: Vignettes of Chatham, New Jersey,* published in 2005 by the Chatham Historical Society, and in many old clips from The Chatham Press.
Tell our Borough lawyers and experts to come up with ways to allow enough affordable housing – without destroying one of the last few open spaces in town.
Our elected representatives deny having plans to stick a 100+ apartment development behind our Main Street Post Office, clogging up already congested streets, displacing the popular Cottage Deli, and destroying our free, public, parking lot.
They claim that whatever they decide to build in Post Office Plaza will be small scale and low density.
Now we know that isn’t true. So stop wasting time. Tell our lawyers and experts to come up with alternatives.
Our Mayor & Council have already taken steps to facilitate swift construction of a 100+ unit, rental housing project in Post Office Plaza.
The proof is in an agreement the Mayor signed – and the Council approved – on June 14, 2021, agreeing to tight deadlines calculated to lead to a final deal with the developer by June 1, 2022.
Contrary to what you may have heard, that June 14 agreement does NOT limit the size of the project at Post Office Plaza. Just the opposite!
In effect, that agreement requires construction of at least 100 rental apartments at Post Office Plaza, as our professional planner Kendra Lelie conceded at the Sept. 27 Council meeting.
Only way we can avoid getting stuck with that eyesore is for the Mayor to step up, invoke the “or” clause in Sec. 8.b.iii, and persuade the powers-that-be to accept another way to get enough affordable housing.
A 100-unit rental development will bring in hundreds of new residents, driving at least 130 additional cars, plus many more carrying employees and patrons of the new retail shops and restaurants.
We’ll be forced to replace our free, convenient, public parking lot with a dangerous garage that’s sure to attract crime – in return for a mere 15 -17 affordable apartments – and with NO significant benefit for residents or taxpayers.
The actual size of the project could exceed 200 units, given the lax 2019 Redevelopment Plan.
There’s no need sacrifice Chatham. Our experts know many ways to allow affordable housing. Ms Lelie calls them “mechanisms.”
Some possible mechanisms include:
subsidizing existing apartments;
converting old office buildings to residential use, as resident Fran Drew has proposed;
building assisted living or senior housing, perhaps near the train station; or
some combination of the above.
Tell our Mayor & Council to have their experts show us Chatham residents and taxpayers some “mechanisms” that will preserve our free, convenient, public Post Office Plaza parking lot – and without condemning anyone’s property.
Behind closed doors, last June 2021, our Borough Council authorized Mayor Kobylarz to settle a lawsuit filed by someone seeking to build a big apartment block on the west side of Main Street.
On June 14, 2021, the Mayor signed a Settlement Agreement, gaining a temporary break from that lawsuit and similar litigation, but committing our Borough to several obligations – including, in effect, the obligation to promote construction of many new apartments at River Road and Post Office Plaza.
In effect, the Mayor & Council temporarily preserved one small part of Main Street – and only until 2025 – by agreeing to rampant over development at Post Office Plaza and River Road – knowing it will increase traffic and compromise the quality of life in our whole town forever.
Incredible? See for yourself in Sections 7 & 8. b. iii of the June 14 Settlement Agreement (at the bottom of this post) and other documents on file at the Morris County courthouse, In the Matter of the Borough of Chatham, Morris County, Docket No. MRS-L-1906-15*
It’s time to face reality – and insist on clear answers:
What changes is the Mayor required to make to the Post Office Plaza Redevelopment Plan by January 1, 2022? (See the June 14 settlement agreement, p. 6, Section 8. b. iii.)
Having signed that agreement, how can the Mayor meet the public demand to preserve the dedicated, free, open, surface public, Borough-owned and controlled parking on almost 2.2 acres of Borough land in POP?
When will the Mayor exercise the “or” clause in Sec. 8. b. iii, and try to get a better deal that would preserve 100% of the public parking in Post Office Plaza, and NOT include a parking deck?
When will the Mayor consider creative ways to provide more affordable housing without more traffic, such as converting existing housing and vacant commercial space on Main Street?
Is it still possible for the Mayor to turn POP into a public park and surface parking lot, as suggested by community leader Fran Drew?
What options, if any, do we still have for Post office Plaza?
Come hear our Mayor, Borough Council, and Planner face those questions and more at the next Council meeting, this Monday, September 27, 2021, 7:30 pm at Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Avenue, third floor.***
*Available at https://portal.njcourts.gov (To get past that home page, Google these words: ecourts civil jacket. Select the link that says “eCourts Civil Case Jacket.” Prove you aren’t a robot. Drop down to Civil Part. For docket type, select Civil Part (L). For Case County, select Morris. For Docket Number, enter1906. For Year: Enter 15. Then hit Search)
**The access code is: 1234. Download a copy to a Windows computer and click on “Extract All.” After extracting (unzip), look in the BIN folder, double click on the CPLAYER file, and press the arrow to start playing it. Save the file. The link expires at the end of May 2022.
