EMERSON—Mayor Danielle DiPaola said the borough is awaiting answers to questions posed nearly two years ago before the town can consider a zoning change request from Emerson Redevelopers Urban Renewal to allow construction of seven affordable housing units at 129 Kinderkamack Road.
She said the borough needed time to meet with its professionals before the redeveloper comes before the council with its attorney and professionals.
The redeveloper contacted borough attorney John McCann via email late on Nov. 20 saying their professionals planned to appear at the Nov. 21 council meeting. McCann emailed them early on Nov. 21 to say they could not appear before answering the borough’s questions on the 129 Kinderkamack Road property:
- Can your client put the seven remaining units in Block 419? If not then why not?
- Thirteen percent of units to be built by your client has to be very low income. What is your client’s designation of very low income vs. moderate income units for Block 419?
- When did your client close title on the subject property, 129 Kinderkamack Road?
- When is it that you contend that the Borough knew that your purchase of 129 Kinderkamack Road was for the purposes of development to include seven offsite units related to the settlement agreement?
- Your client represented to Emerson’s representatives that they were going to use Habitat for Humanity to build the offsite units. When did they abandon that idea?
- When your client closed title on 129 Kinderkamack Road, did they inform Emerson elected officials or their attorneys that they purchased the property to place the seven remaining units required to satisfy its affordable housing offsite units? If yes, when?
- When your client purchased 129 Kinderkamack Road, were they aware that the property wasn’t zoned for their purposes?
- Can you tell us how many other properties your client considered and investigated in Emerson besides 129 Kinderkamack Road that they intended to use to place the seven offsite units? If yes, then which ones? If not, then why not?
- You are asking for relief from the zoning of the CBD Zone’s requirement for commercial space on the first floor. What proposed changes to the current zoning ordinance are you requesting? What would the effect be on the overall economic plan and New Jersey Smart Growth Initiatives redevelopment in Emerson?
(Sent on Dec. 16, 2021 from John McCann to attorney David Phillips of Sills Cummis.)
The zoning change request from Emerson Redevelopers Urban Renewal was discussed briefly at the Nov. 21 council meeting and tabled unanimously. No date for discussion was provided. The council must consider and vote on any proposed zoning changes under the borough’s downtown redevelopment plan, not the Land Use Board.
Both the borough and redeveloper have a March 4, 2024 Superior Court date to begin a trial over $500,000 payment that the redeveloper allegedly reneged on. The redeveloper alleged the borough did not meet its deadline to provide a site and design for a new ambulance building to the redeveloper by Dec. 31, 2019.
McCann said the borough alleges that the redeveloper entered the 2018 agreement in bad faith and knew the deadline for the borough to respond with a site design and site for a new ambulance building—and be reimbursed for the former ambulance property deeded to the redeveloper—could not be met by the one-year timeline agreed upon by the former administration.
The redeveloper wants to change the zoning at 129 Kinderkamack to construct a seven-unit affordable housing complex, which it claims was agreed to in the 2018 agreement to build the Emerson Station project. However, the borough said no such agreement was made in that agreement. It notes the agreement calls for 29 affordable units, 22 onsite units and seven off-site units.