Responsible Development Panel Planned For Mendham Borough

MENDHAM, NJ — As election season ramps up in Mendham Borough, a local campaign team is organizing and hosting a responsible development panel, which will be free for all residents to attend.

Melissa Rawley-Payne and her running mate, Mark Van Den Hende, have planned to hold the development panel on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Garabrant Center in Mendham Borough.

According to Rawley-Payne, the subject matter of the panel will mainly focus on the current and potential development projects in Mendham, the potential environmental impact of those projects and the topic of affordable housing.

The panel will also include Jocelyn Mathiasen, a Chatham Borough council member; Chris Neff, the communications director for the New Jersey Audubon Society; Lauren Theis, the director of education at Raritan Headwaters; and Frank Zammataro, president of the Mendham Alliance for Preservation and Conservation.

This year, in Mendham Borough, there are two seats up for grabs, and four candidates have put in their bid. This November, Republicans Marilyn Althoff and William Russo will be running against Democrats Rawley-Payne and Van Den Hende.

Development has been a point of concern for many residents around Mendham Borough. Most recently, there was a proposal to build a new 75-unit apartment building on 84–90 East Main Street.

The applicant, V-Fee Mendham Apartments LLC, was initially supposed to present its proposal at the Joint Land Use Board meeting on Feb. 23 but withdrew the application at the last minute to make changes.

The land use board had previously deemed the proposal incomplete, stating that the applicant needed to request additional variances for certain parts of the project, to which the applicant objected and filed an application requesting zoning board interpretation.

The proposed development site is on the western outskirts of the municipality's commercial and retail services section, which includes a mix of office and retail space that extends east to the Mendham Township border.

The four-story structure proposed by the applicant will be built next to an existing retail shopping center that includes a Kings Food Market, Mendham Bagel and Coffee Shop, The Club at Mendham, and a wireless telecommunications tower.

The application was not included in last week's Joint Land Use Board meeting; therefore, no additional testimony took place.

Another application, which was submitted earlier this year, also proposed converting property on the Sisters of Christian Charity convent on Bernardsville Road into a 94-unit apartment building, as well as converting other structures on the property into an additional 17 units, for a total of 111 dwelling units.

Attendance at the panel is free, and you can register using this link. Send any questions you'd like answered during the panel to melissaandmark@mendhamborodems.org.

The moderator will make every effort to answer as many questions as possible, officials said.