EMERSON—Local officials, led by the borough planner, are resisting a push from ERUR to amend zoning rules that would allow affordable housing on the ground floor of 129 Kinderkamack Road.
At the Oct. 15 council meeting, borough planner Caroline Reiter advised against altering the redevelopment plan to permit residential units at ground level in the Central Business District (CBD–15) zone, which mandates commercial use for ground-floor spaces.
This position counters a request made by representatives for Emerson Redevelopers Urban Renewal (ERUR), who had appealed at an Oct. 1 council meeting to amend the plan to allow seven affordable units at 129 Kinderkamack.
The property, officially listed at 32 Cross St., Suite 301, Lakewood, is owned by Emerson Redevelopers Urban Renewal LLC, with Jack Klugmann of Accurate Builders as a principal. (Against this backdrop, Klugmann told Pascack Press on Oct. 31, “We have every intention of continuing lawsuits and seeking all damages that are due to us from the municipality.”)
Reiter cited decades of borough planning and zoning documents, including a 2017 master plan reexamination, that support reserving ground floors in the CBD zone for retail or commercial uses only.
“This concept of mixed use is woven throughout your planning documents, and I think that’s very telling and important as a planner,” she said, reiterating the borough’s longstanding vision for mixed-use spaces with residential units only on second floors or higher.
Reiter raised questions about the site’s eligibility for affordable housing, noting a tax lien of nearly $10,000 on the property, which could indicate a lack of clear title.
She emphasized that any property designated for affordable housing should meet four site criteria: availability, developability, suitability, and approvability. The tax lien, she noted, means the site is not “with a clear title free of encumbrance.”
Borough Attorney John McCann agreed, saying that further input from affordable housing counsel Brian Giblin was advisable on how the lien could impact the property’s potential use.
No action was taken on ERUR’s request at the meetings of Oct. 1 or 15. McCann told ERUR attorney Adam Faiella, of Sills Cummis & Gross, that he would inform him whether ERUR could bring a planner to address Reiter’s concerns in a future meeting.
Under the borough’s 2019 affordable housing settlement, ERUR is required to build 29 affordable units, including 22 at the Emerson Station site and seven offsite units. However, the Emerson Station project, begun in 2016 and revised in 2018, remains unfinished, A Superior Court-appointed implementation monitor, retired judge Harry Carroll, is overseeing progress on the 29 units.
Council members questioned the feasibility of amending the redevelopment plan, noting concerns that such an amendment would set a precedent for the CBD zone. “Spot zoning is illegal,” McCann said, responding to a query from Mayor Danielle DiPaola on whether an amendment for one property would apply across the zone.
Council President Michael Timmerman recalled that a 2017 project proposal for 129 Kinderkamack had faced significant challenges, including the need for an easement from NJ Transit and issues with wires from PSE&G on-site. Then-borough engineer Gary Ascolese had described the proposal as “fitting 20 pounds of stuff into a 10-pound bag.”
McCann also detailed ERUR’s financial issues, including $20,550 in unpaid police invoices from September 2023, $58,559.71 in unpaid taxes, $17,609.52 in additional unpaid invoices, and an escrow balance of only $78.62.
McCann pressed Faiella for monthly progress updates, as initially promised by ERUR, and financial data explaining why the affordable units could not be incorporated into Emerson Station’s main development, known as Block 419.
Faiella argued that ERUR had requested—and the borough had agreed—that some affordable units could be built offsite, suggesting that no additional proof was needed. DiPaola, however, pointed out that while the agreement allowed for offsite units, it did not require them to be located elsewhere.
McCann also raised concerns about the stability of ERUR’s finances, noting a subcontractor’s lawsuit for $1.4 million in unpaid invoices, as well as an $8 million mortgage foreclosure action involving ERUR and a business partner on another property in Kenilworth.
“Show us the financials of the project needed to do it offsite,” McCann pressed.
ERUR principal Jack Klugmann, owner of Accurate Builders, asserted to us on Oct. 31, “We subsequently did win the Kenilworth lawsuit. They went for a summary judgment and we one [sic] because they used funds from another asset that we have with them to pay the loan.”