MONTVALE—The borough and Fair Share Housing Center are again at odds over Montvale’s affordable housing plan, which would permit either a 250-unit residential development or a “massive data center” on a 34-acre property at the former KPMG site.
Montvale describes the potential KPMG site use simply as a data center, with few details available. Fair Share argues the borough should not allow a developer the option to build either a data center or residential housing as part of an affordable housing settlement.
Under a settlement agreement with a developer (SHG Montvale MB VI, LLC) filed with the court for the largest redevelopment site in town — the 34-acre former KPMG campus — Montvale would give the developer a choice: build a small, low-density inclusionary housing project or construct a large data center with no affordable housing and receive special benefits, including a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), said Fair Share officials.
The proposed residential option would allow up to 250 units, with 50 units (20%) set aside for affordable housing, according to Fair Share.
March 15 is the deadline for municipalities to submit amended Housing Elements and Fair Share Plans, along with implementing ordinances and zoning changes, to the state for compliance.
On Monday, March 2, the borough’s attorney, Surenian, Edwards, Buzak & Nolan LLC of Montville, submitted a 155-page fourth-round settlement complaint to Superior Court Judge Lina Corriston that includes the data center or residential housing option.
Borough attorneys suggested that despite Fair Share’s opposition, Montvale’s good-faith efforts to meet its fourth-round affordable housing obligations should allow the borough to retain immunity from builder’s remedy suits — or loss of zoning power — until the dispute is resolved.
They claim Montvale has been compliant with all affordable housing program deadlines to date.
In a March 3 statement, Fair Share Housing Center said, “Montvale is attempting to use New Jersey’s affordable housing process to authorize a massive data center in place of affordable homes — a move that the retired judge reviewing the town’s plan under the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program has already deemed noncompliant with state law.”
The nonprofit housing advocate added that the proposed data center option would include no affordable housing at all.
The Montvale court filing includes no description of what a potential data center might include, though a data center was initially proposed for the site in the mid-1980s but never built.
However, Fair Share notes that a 1980s-era data center would likely be dwarfed by the massive facilities operating today, driven by AI-related demand for power and water. Such projects can strain local power grids and increase environmental impacts.
Montvale’s mayor responds
We reached out to Mayor Mike Ghassali for a response to Fair Share’s claims.
Ghassali told Pascack Press, “Fair Share Housing Center’s unhinged press release makes abundantly clear why it was so dangerous for Trenton to dissolve COAH and effectively make a private organization the arbiter of disputes involving local housing plans.
“I am deeply disappointed — but not surprised — that Fair Share would continue to run a defamatory smear campaign against a town and elected officials who are trying to navigate an accelerated compliance process that has proven time and again to be unworkable.”
Ghassali continued, “What Fair Share doesn’t tell you is that Montvale built more affordable units than required in Round 3, and Fair Share even praised our efforts in court. Currently we have 365 affordable units built in Montvale. That’s more than 10% of our housing units.
“For Round 4, we submitted a housing plan that satisfies our RDP, satisfies our unmet need, and again proposes surpluses over and above those obligations. Our plan was and is constitutionally compliant by any objective measure.”
[See “Montvale mayor outlines housing settlement framework, development plan: up to 680 units over next 10 years” by Michael Olohan.]
Ghassali said that on the KPMG property a developer wants to retain the right to develop the site with a data center, which he said is already a permitted use.
“Montvale’s plan would be compliant whether or not that site is used for affordable housing,” Ghassali said.
He added that numerous state and county representatives, including the Governor’s Office, have been helping facilitate a potential project that could generate hundreds of jobs and produce a substantial development fee to support affordable housing.
“A property owner wanting to retain the right to build a permitted use on a site is not news, and it certainly should not generate the histrionics in Fair Share’s press release,” Ghassali said in an email.
“We will continue in the appropriate forum, at the appropriate time, to seek approval of our housing plan. We remain determined to voluntarily comply with our objective constitutional requirements.”
Ghassali added that the matter will ultimately be determined by a neutral Superior Court judge.
Montvale’s court filing
In the 155-page filing, Montvale’s attorneys contend that the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program may allow municipalities with unresolved disputes to retain immunity from exclusionary zoning litigation into the following year if they are working in good faith toward compliance.
They write that municipalities facing ongoing disputes may adopt a binding resolution by the March 15 deadline committing to adopt implementing ordinances once the dispute is resolved.
“On top of meeting and exceeding its obligations, the Borough’s settlements envision an option for an additional 50 affordable units in a manner plainly permissible under COAH regulations,” the filing states.
“The data center is an existing, permitted use at the KPMG site. The Borough and KPMG are agreeing that, in addition to the permitted data center use, there will be an option for 250 units, of which 50 would be affordable.”
Montvale’s plan also does not require the developer to relocate or compensate for the proposed 50 affordable units if the site is instead developed as a data center.
Fair Share’s executive director had strong words for the borough’s approach.
“Calling this a housing plan stretches the term beyond recognition,” said Adam Gordon, executive director of Fair Share Housing Center.
“Montvale is asking the court to bless an illegal end-run around its own public process, allowing its largest redevelopment site to become a massive data center with no affordable housing at all.”
Gordon added, “Montvale’s mayor, Mike Ghassali, is so dead set on blocking affordable housing that he promised special treatment and tax breaks to a developer building a massive data center — without giving residents of Montvale and surrounding towns an opportunity to weigh in on its impacts.”
Fair Share noted that on Feb. 10 the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program rejected Montvale’s proposed settlement.
“The dispute over their housing plan will next be heard before a judge in late spring or summer,” said a Fair Share spokesperson.
The center also filed a Feb. 27 letter with Judge Corriston demanding public release of the settlement with the data center developer and stating its intention to challenge any effort to use the affordable housing process to approve the project, according to Fair Share spokesperson Jag Davies.
Recent affordable housing rulings support NJ law
On Feb. 24, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito denied an emergency request from Local Leaders for Responsible Planning — a coalition led by Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali — to stay the fourth-round affordable housing deadline of March 15.
The lawsuit was brought by nine municipalities, though 29 towns are part of the coalition.
Prior appeals seeking to halt the fourth-round housing deadlines were denied by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, a U.S. District Court judge, a state Supreme Court justice, an Appellate Division judge, and a Superior Court judge.
Emergency appeals were denied at every state, county, and federal court level.
Related: “Judge: Town must scrap data center plan on affordables” by Michael Olohan, Feb. 15, 2026.