Millburn moves affordable housing project off contaminated DPW site to downtown

Millburn officials have reached an election-year settlement to move a controversial 75-unit affordable housing project off a contaminated municipal public works site, delivering what could prove to be a solution to one of the township’s most significant environmental and financial problems.

The agreement comes as Republicans prepare to defend their narrow 3-2 Township Committee majority in a municipality that remains heavily Democratic in state and federal elections.  The two GOP incumbents seeking re-election, Mayor Frank Saccomandi and Township Committeeman Ben Stoller, won their seats in 2023 after campaigning against the original housing plan.

Saccomandi and Stoller face Democrats Beth Zall and Bill Brazell in November in a race that will determine control of the governing body.  Democrats would take a 4-1 majority by winning both seats, while Republicans need to re-elect only one incumbent to remain in control.

The proposed settlement with RPM Development Group and the Fair Share Housing Center would replace a 100% affordable development planned for 9 Main Street — an industrial property many residents still call the “town dump” — with a 93-unit, mixed-income development in downtown Millburn.

It would end more than two years of litigation, preserve the township’s ability to meet its affordable housing obligations and eliminate an estimated $11 million taxpayer cost to relocate Millburn’s Department of Public Works.

The full township committee is expected to vote on the settlement at a special meeting Wednesday.

Under the agreement, Millburn would support construction on municipally owned property at the intersection of Essex Street, Spring Street and Millburn Avenue.  The project would include 75 deed-restricted affordable apartments, 18 market-rate units, ground-floor retail space and on-site parking, along with additional parking across Essex Street.

Some of the affordable units would be reserved for veterans and individuals with special needs.

The new project would be located next to the Harth, an existing inclusionary development, integrating the affordable units into a mixed-income downtown neighborhood rather than concentrating them at an isolated industrial site.

“This settlement achieves what a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” Saccomandi said. “It ends costly litigation. It protects taxpayers. It fulfills our affordable housing obligations. And it creates a mixed-income, mixed-use development that welcomes families into the heart of our downtown.”

A previous township administration approved an agreement in July 2021 calling for all 75 affordable units to be built on the municipally owned DPW property.

The site contains municipal vehicle repair and refueling facilities, the township’s recycling and refuse drop-off operation, its salt dome and the snow removal fleet used during winter emergencies. Officials said the 2021 agreement did not include a feasible plan for relocating those essential services.

The property also has a documented history of industrial contamination and was once used as a coal yard. Residents raised concerns about the cost of cleaning the site to residential standards, along with its location in a flood zone near rail infrastructure and an electrical substation. The property also has limited access to a busy section of Main Street.

By avoiding residential development there, township officials say Millburn will reduce the possibility of future health-related claims involving housing built on a remediated industrial site.

The Township Committee voted unanimously in early 2024 to fight the original agreement, making opposition to the DPW project one of the rare issues to unite Millburn’s Republicans and Democrats. Saccomandi and Stoller participated personally in negotiations with RPM and its attorneys.

“This new settlement represents a responsible and forward-looking path for Millburn,” Stoller said.  “Rather than concentrating an underserved community on a contaminated site, this settlement allows for better integration into our vibrant downtown.”

The new development is expected to cost roughly the same as the original proposal, with the township’s share financed primarily through its Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which receives money from new development.

But the agreement eliminates the separate $11 million expense of relocating the public works operation — a cost that would have fallen directly on taxpayers outside the housing trust fund.

It would also produce payments instead of taxes from property that is currently tax-exempt. Township officials said the original 100% affordable project would not have generated comparable municipal revenue.

The settlement gives Saccomandi and Stoller a substantial accomplishment to take before voters in a town where local elections have become intensely competitive.

Brazell was critical of Saccomandi and Stoller for adding eighteen additional housing units while giving away “valuable downtown real estate for a song.”  He also criticized Millburn’s obligation to pay for environmental remediation costs.

“This may be the best option available today. But because Saccomandi and Stoller have cost the town roughly a million dollars in legal fees to arrive here, while the cost of building kept rising, it’s fair to ask whether a more collaborative approach could have reached a similar, or even better, result years earlier,” he said.

But three years ago, Brazell endorsed his Republican opponents and sharply criticized an all-Democratic township committee, saying it was “funded and run by Democratic Party pooh-bahs in Essex County ” and was doing this town no favors.

“I may make a sign saying ‘Stop Democratic Fear-Mongering,” Brazell said in 2023.

Republicans captured control last year for the first time in more than a decade, even as Millburn gave Democrat Mikie Sherrill 62% of its vote in the gubernatorial election. At the same time, Republican Jamie Serruto unseated Democratic Mayor Annette Romano by 140 votes, while Democrat Michael Cohen secured another term by just 26 votes.

Millburn voters last month narrowly rejected a referendum that would have replaced the partisan, five-member Township Committee with a seven-member council chosen in nonpartisan elections. The proposal failed by just 59 votes, 2,034 to 1,975, preserving this year’s partisan control election.

The settlement will be considered by Saccomandi, Stoller, Serruto, Cohen and Democrat David Cosgrove.