Affordable Housing Building Sparks Debate At Millburn Meeting

MILLBURN, NJ — With the deadline to submit a concept plan for Fair Share Affordable Housing quickly approaching, a heated discussion escalated at Tuesday night’s Millburn Township Committee meeting about one proposed development.

At the previous Town Hall meeting on Nov. 9, a plan was discussed to build a new affordable housing development at 11 Main St. — the current Department of Public Works site.

Millburn Township has a state-mandated Fair Share Affordable Housing obligation that it must meet and submit plans for by Dec. 31.

The current proposal at 11 Main St. calls for 75 units of affordable housing. This residential building could potentially share the space with the DPW site with a “green buffer” between them.

When a resolution was brought to the table to approve the request for proposals for the 11 Main St. development, an argument broke out over the lack of information sessions about this new residential building, as well as the risk of potential contamination at the site.

“I think having 75 units of affordable housing at the DPW site is a disaster, and I want no part of it,” Mayor Tara Prupis said.

Prupis said she has been asking to hold two public information sessions about the new development since Deputy Mayor Richard Wasserman and Committeewoman Maggee Miggins helped negotiate the fair housing deal in August.

A “Fairness and Preliminary Compliance Hearing” will be held virtually on Dec. 15 at 1:30 p.m. to consider the proposed settlement. Here is the link.

Prupis expressed frustration that information sessions have not been held before the Dec. 15 hearing to educate the community on the township’s obligation and the plan to convert 11 Main St. into affordable housing.

“I’m really embarrassed that this hasn’t happened,” Prupis said. “I wanted to say I’m sorry to the community and that I failed you in this way and that you’re sitting in the dark.”

Business Administrator Alex McDonald said for the past few weeks he has been attempting “in earnest” to set up an information session with planning consultant Beth McManus but has been unable to due to McManus’s availability.

Prupis suggested that committee members like Wasserman and Miggins are avoiding holding an information session because they “don’t want their names attached” to the project.

“They don’t want to come to the community and give answers, because if they had wanted to, it would have happened,” Prupis said.

Wasserman quickly denied this allegation and stressed the urgency of submitting a plan before the Dec. 31 deadline.

“I’m very proud of the agreement no matter what you say,” Wasserman said to Prupis. “We have a responsibility because for over 36 years we haven’t done what we’re supposed to do.”

“From what I remember, there [is] a very tight timeframe in terms of when everything [has] to proceed. If this [doesn’t] happen now, this might slow down the process for deadlines we have to meet,” Wasserman added.

Committeewoman Dianne Eglow also expressed concern over the issue of potential contamination at the DPW site. McDonald said there is currently a site assessment being completed that identifies potential areas of concern.

“If the site should be found to be contaminated, that doesn't necessarily preclude a developer from going through with developing. They all have experience with cleaning up [contamination],” McDonald said.

He said the report from this assessment should be released within the coming week.

In the roll call vote, the majority of the committee — Miggins, Wasserman and Sanjeev Vinayak — voted “yes” to approve a request for proposals for the 11 Main St. development. Committeewoman Eglow abstained, and Prupis voted "no."

The full discussion on the fair share housing resolution begins at 19:03 in this video.

More information about the Fair Share Housing agreement can be found on the township website.

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