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.
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But that’s what the Planning Board is going to do on June 18th unless you act now:
Tell your elected representatives mayorcouncil@chathamborough.org and Planning Board that we want to meet the June 30th deadline while preserving the chance to vet a broad menu of alternative, at public meetings, before the Borough is locked into final choices. Write:
Thomas Belding Sophia Calcaterra-Hull Susan FavateWilliam HeapSusie Robertson Matthew Wagner Jonathan Wilcox Gregory Xikes
Attend the Environmental Commission meeting to ask them to call for an chance to consider alternatives that would preserve the vacant, Borough-owned land: Wednesday, June 11th, 7:30 pm, Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Ave. (Take the elevator to upper level, Room 301.)
Ask the Shade Tree Commission to call for alternatives that would preserve precious, mature, Borough-owned trees: shadetree@chathamborough.org
Ask the Recreation Advisory Committee to call for preserving the vacant lot for recreation as originally intended when the Borough bought it in the 1980s: Suzanne Jenks c/o Clerk, Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Ave., Chatham, NJ.
UPDATE:There’s ONE more Council meeting before the political bosses steamroll our Planning Board into approving the sacrifice of the vacant, green, Borough-owned lot at 58 N. Passaic! ONE last chance to talk the Council off this ledge! That chance is TUESDAY, May 27, 2025, 7:30 pm, Borough Hall, 54 Main Street, upper level. (It’s set to start at 6:30 pm, but probably will be open to the public at approx. 7:30 pm.)
Great turnout at the May 12th Borough Council meeting. People showed up to hear and talk about the proposal to sacrifice this precious, Borough-owned, open, green lot at 58 North Passaic (just north of Memorial Field) to build an apartment project.
But who came up with this whole scheme? Who chose these particular sites? What else did they consider?
Why would they choose to develop this green, vacant, Borough-owned lot, right next to Memorial Field?
Why not put that apartment project at a better location, preferably on a lot that’s already developed?
Why didn’t we have a chance to weigh in on the decision? Why can’t we see the actual proposal until June 6? Why didn’t we even hear about it until May 4, more than a year after the new law kicked in?
Unless you can talk some sense into our leaders WELL BEFORE JUNE 18, they will do away with that little green space on North Passaic forever.
Last good chance to make a difference is the Council meeting on May 27th, 7:30 pm, at Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Avenue.
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.
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
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 Boardby 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.
