That’s New Jersey’s deadline for our Planning Board to revise the all-important Master Plan that will guide Borough decision-making and development for the next ten years.
To get that job done, the Planning Board will need to get residents to attend meetings and share ideas, which few residents do.
How can the Planning Board attract Chathamites to the meetings, and get them engaged in the process?
How about muzzling residents? Seriously.
The Planning Board already chooses not to Zoom most of its meetings, and does NOT allow residents to participate by Zoom.
At the December 3rd meeting, which was not Zoomed, Planning Board lawyer Vincent Loughlin advocated taking it one step further: changing the Board’s bylaws to do away with the traditional Public Comment period we have come to expect at every Borough meeting, severely restricting normal, public participation in-person.(See the meeting video below, starting at approximately 11:34.)
”There’s so much misunderstanding about how municipal government functions,” says Laughlin. His solution? Totally shut out all public participation except on the matter before the Planning Board at that moment, typically limited to cross examination and sworn testimony on a specific application.
Lawyers don’t make policy like that. Who told Mr. Laughlin to push abolishing Public Comment at Planning Board meetings?
”[Borough Administrator and Planning Board member]Steve Williams suggested that perhaps we could remove that [Public Comment period] from the agenda,” said the Borough Clerk. “So that would remove the public portion where the public can speak from the agenda so they would only speak if we had an application.”(See meeting video below.)
Kudos to those alert Planning Board members who had the good sense to resist that flagrant power grab. We can only hope they will stay strong.
You can see it all in the video below, where the meeting begins about 7:29 and the discussion of abolishing Public Comments begins about 11:34.
Contrary to popular rumors, Chatham Borough need not build housing on the wooded, Borough-owned lot at 58 North Passaic Avenue, right next to our Memorial Park.
But the Mayor & Council will sacrifice that green lot anyway unless you tell them not to!
Starting 1 January 2026, the Borough can offer alternative ways to complete the new Housing Element of the Master Plan.
Q: Planning Board Member William Heap:Kendra, let’s say the Plan is adopted. It is approved. And somewhere down the line, somehow, magically, another piece of land appears. Is there room after approval for a little bit of horse trading?
A: Chatham Borough Planner Kendra Lelie:So, after the approval from the Court, it is not uncommon that things happen, things change… Maybe something better comes up – and a better opportunity comes up. So yes, it’s a possibility.
What can you do?Ask the Mayor & Borough Council:
What substantive steps have our Mayor & Council been taking to prepare to identify better alternatives to developing 58 North Passaic Avenue?
When will the Mayor & Borough Council begin to search for better alternatives?
This time, will the Mayor & Borough Council perform due diligence on all parcels, including sites the clandestine Affordable Housing Advisory Committee never gave proper consideration, as well as sites the Committee never considered at all?
Stop by the Council meeting, Monday, 8 September 2025, 7:30 pm, Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Ave. (Use the north entrance. Take the elevator to the upper level. Speaking is optional.)
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.
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?
Stop by the Council meeting, Monday, 8 September 2025, 7:30 pm, Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Ave. (Use the north entrance. Take the elevator to the upper level. Speaking is optional.)
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.
