By Cathy Wilson
As you may know, the Great Swamp Watershed Association has issued a call for concerned citizens to raise their voices on March 9, 2023, from 2 pm to 4 pm at a virtual public hearing of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, in opposition to a development project Harding has proposed at the bottom of the Mt. Kemble office complex in Morris Township.
Having followed this project closely since 2018 when Harding included it in its affordable housing settlement in court, I can tell you with certainty that, in addition to presenting significant environmental concerns, this site is a great illustration of everything that’s messed up about how affordable housing development works in New Jersey.
I’m viewing the Great Swamp’s widespread call for the public to attend the March 9th hearing with the NJ DEP as a valiant “Hail Mary” effort to stop a project that’s riddled with concerns –- and not just about water.
Big picture: My impression of this project is that no one except the developer actually wants it.
For many reasons, this strikes me as a very “un-Harding-like” project. My own experience with Harding is that it truly values open space and environmental stewardship. Cramming 96 condos onto a pristine, environmentally sensitive site that’s heavily wooded and loaded with wetlands just seems to me to be at odds with Harding’s values.
Perhaps that is why Harding’s own planning board found this project inconsistent with its zoning Master Plan.
And further, why the developer had to sweeten the deal by making a $1 million contribution to Harding’s affordable housing trust fund.
And further still, why Morris County’s planning board opined in its final Site Plan Report on this project that:
Due to this property’s location next to Route 287 and the office park, it is better suited for a non-residential use. Locating a completely auto-centric development next to an interstate highway with no sound attenuation measures raises some environmental justice concerns, especially when it appears the majority of the low- and moderate-income units will be located closest to the highway.
Were it not for Harding’s decision to include this project in its affordable-housing court settlement, and the legal hammers that decision evokes, this project would not be happening. Here’s the backstory on why.
INGRESS AND EGRESS
For starters, a good argument can be made that this is a Harding project in name only. Take Morris Township’s assistance out of the picture, and this project dies on the vine.
Consider even locational basics: While this project technically is in Harding, because of the bizarre idiosyncrasies of New Jersey’s geography, the site literally is landlocked by Morris Township.
Short of knocking down homes of Harding’s own residents on two streets (Blackwell and Sand Springs), it’s impossible to access this site from within Harding’s own borders.
Going back to 2018, in a move that was prize-winning it its offensiveness, Harding passed an ordinance prohibiting access to this site from both of these streets (Blackwell and Sand Springs) –- thus removing even the slightest fig-leaf of pretense that Harding might actually assume responsibility for providing access to its own site from its own town.
That decision left only two choices for ingress and egress to and from this site, both of which are in Morris Township: One choice (to the east) was via a residential neighborhood on Frederick Place. The other choice, to the north, was via the office complex driveway.
In response to a request from Morris Township, Harding refused to include Frederick Place in the ordinance it had initiated to ban access from their own streets.
Adding insult to injury, in a saber-rattling move of his own, the developer actually went so far as to purchase a house on Frederick Place. Hummm…
SEWER SERVICE
But there’s more: Due to this site’s location on Harding’s most remote outer edge, Harding is unable to serve this project with sewer service of its own. As with ingress and egress, responsibility for providing sewer service has fallen to Morris Township.
Were it not for the legal hammer of this site’s inclusion in Harding’s affordable housing settlement with the court (which ties everyone’s hands, and is nearly impossible to fight), Morris Township would not be providing the sewer service this project needs to survive.
The line in the sand for us was Frederick Place: NO WAY would Morris Township stand for ingress and egress through our residential neighborhood.
Harding’s need for Morris Township to provide sewer service, and Morris Township’s need for the developer to stay away from Frederick Place, were the key legal points codified in the Mutual Cooperation Agreement that Morris Township signed with the developer in December 2020.
With Frederick Place off the table, the only remaining access possibility for this site was the office complex driveway. Because the entire complex (including the driveway) is in Morris Township, this precipitated a need for the developer to come before Morris Township’s zoning board for a use variance. (Residential development is a new use for this site.)
Although the issue before Morris Township’s zoning board was limited to the driveway approval, that issue alone led Morris Township’s board members to raise many of the same water concerns the Great Swamp is now encouraging the public to bring to NJDEP: What happens to all the new runoff this site will create? Where will it go? What impact will it have on groundwater and non-point source pollution elsewhere?
Having walked this site myself (ironically, when Harding’s planning board — to its credit — conducted an onsite meeting with the public), I came away with this lasting impression: Is it REALLY okay to build a driveway on top of a pond that’s filled with pussy willows? I’m not a hydrology expert, but doesn’t that raise some concerns?
Amazingly, although the Great Swamp borders this site just on the other side of 287 (and connects with it via the watershed’s underground water flow), no one had ever informed the Great Swamp association that this project had even been proposed, let alone that it was in the near-final stage of the land-use approval process.
That lack of notification was legal but, in my opinion, disgraceful.
If the Great Swamp’s property line had been within 200 feet of this site’s boundary, state law would have required Harding to notify the Great Swamp association when this project came before Harding’s planning board –- a great example, in my opinion, of the inadequacy of state law and the need to change the 200-foot notification provision.
But that’s a story for another time.
LEGAL HARDBALL
It’s astonishing that the Great Swamp association never heard anything about this project until it came before Morris Township’s zoning board. Needless to say, the applicant (a.k.a., the developer) was not happy with the association’s new-found involvement.
The applicant’s attorney went so far as to call for the removal of any member of Morris Township’s zoning board who had any connection whatsoever with the Great Swamp.
Two board members ended up being disqualified to participate further. In addition, at the attorney’s insistence, Morris Township’s zoning board had to re-start the entire public hearing process on this site.
The message from the applicant was clear: Keep any influence from the Great Swamp advocates completely separate and apart from any board member who has a vote on this variance. That’s not exactly a confidence-inspiring message from the applicant about his concern for the environmental impact of this project on its neighbors.
I find it significant that the Great Swamp association opposes this project –- and regrettable that its input is coming so late in this process. Its concerns and expertise have never been included in this application -– until now.
The upcoming virtual meeting on March 9 feels to me like something of a “High Noon” moment in deciding the fate of this project. Two environmental titans – NJ DEP and the Great Swamp Watershed Association – are coming together with concerned citizens to share information with each other about this project’s impact on our water supply.
NJ DEP is the ultimate decision-maker here: Its sign-off is required for this project to proceed.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING…AT WHAT COST?
The elephant in the room here is the way affordable housing development works in New Jersey. The need to provide affordable housing IS very important, but it feels to me (and many others) like the decision-making process that supports it has become a runaway train that’s taken on a life of its own.
I have my own thoughts about what could be done to improve this situation but, like the 200-foot notification rule, that’s a story for another day.
In the short run, this particular project is boiling down to a forced choice. Which is more important to our community: Preserving the natural integrity of our water supply, or proceeding with an affordable housing project that’s taken on a “runaway train” character of its own?
The March 9 hearing will be an important opportunity for all of us to listen, learn, and contribute. After that, the ball will be in NJ DEP’s court.
I think this has the markings of a landmark decision. Public participation in this hearing matters. It will be interesting to see what NJ DEP decides.
Cathy Wilson is a Morris Township committeewoman and former mayor. Login details for Thursday’s virtual DEP hearing–from 2 pm to 4 pm, on March 9, 2023–are here.
Interesting how liberal Democrats are to blame for the insanity of the Mount Laurel decision yet they are among the first to scream when it applies to their own town…
Township zoning officials and then zoning board were involved because the DRIVEWAY to the site is in the Township and the driveway could not be built unless and until Morris Township zoning approved THE DRIVEWAY.
Why would the Township / zoning board even entertain these requests for a development in Harding? Is there some law associated with affordable housing that would compel Morris Township to provide these services to a neighboring town? I can’t imaging that Harding would consider this if the roles were reversed.