One of NJ’s richest towns is once again denied its request to delay building affordable housing

New Jersey’s state courts have shot down an effort from Millburn Township to delay the start of construction of what’s become a contentious affordable housing development in its downtown.

The latest turn in Millburn's ongoing court battle began in August, when a state judge ordered town officials to move forward with building a 75-unit, 100% affordable housing project that would replace a public works building near the town's center. Millburn's attorneys appealed that decision, arguing it has yet to find a site for a new public works facility, even though it's already purchased property to do so. But the appeals court ruled that the town failed to show it would suffer hardship by proceeding with the judge's order.

The affordable housing project's developer, RPM, has now asked the judge to issue a restraining order barring the town from using the property it recently purchased “for any purpose other than for relocation of its [Department of Public Works] Operations.”

In a recent court filing, RPM produced documents showing the town received a $200,000 grant from the state to help purchase the new land. Those documents show that Millburn officials plan to temporarily move the public works operations to the site, located at 22 East Willow St., so that the downtown property could be redeveloped.

Essex County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Santomauro on Monday granted RPM’s request for a hearing on the restraining order, scheduling it for Halloween.

Millburn Mayor Annette Romano and members of the township committee did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story.

The town’s public information officer Kristina Sternesky said in a written statement that township officials are “extremely disappointed” with the appeals court’s decision to deny its appeal. She insisted that the township “has not been able to identify a suitable alternative site for the future home” of Millburn’s public works operations, and said the facility’s relocation “could cause catastrophic disruption of services, including emergency accessibility and response.”

Sternesky and town officials did not respond to questions about the $200,000 the town received from the state.

Gothamist has chronicled the ongoing fight over the affordable apartment complex in Millburn Township, where homes go for more than $1 million on average . The dispute became heated earlier this year after the township committee voted to rescind its development agreement for the RPM project after years of defying court orders.

In August, Santomauro ordered the town to honor its original deal with RPM and threatened sanctions, including fines, if the town continued to block the project. Since then, Millburn’s defiance on the affordable housing issue has only increased. In September, it joined eight other New Jersey towns in a lawsuit seeking to invalidate a state law passed earlier this year that establishes guidelines for how much low-priced housing each town must develop in the future.

Their resistance to affordable housing comes as the state prepares to hand down mandates to towns for the number of affordable housing units each town has to develop over the next decade.

Josh Bauers, an attorney for the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center, said Millburn’s appeal was “bogus” and premature. He said the township’s request was denied, in part, because under New Jersey law the litigation cannot be appealed until the trial court judge issues their final judgment in the case. Once the court finishes its work, the township will then have the right to appeal, he said.

Sternesky, Milburn's spokesperson, said the town intends to appeal again at a later date.

“We're hopeful that they will not do that, and instead will stop trying to delay the site and actually allow it to get constructed," Bauers said.

Santomauro has so far been unmoved by Millburn’s concerns about moving its public works facility at 9 Main St., which includes a salt dome for the roads and a gas station for fueling town utility vehicles. At a hearing in July, the judge cited a 2007 study the township commissioned, calling the public works facility a “deleterious and largely obsolete land use within the heart of Millburn’s central business district” and “detrimental to the overall health and welfare of the community.”

The fact that the town has yet to move the facilities did not undermine its own conclusion that the site should be redeveloped, the judge said.

According to the court documents, the $200,000 state grant supplements a $2.5 million purchase of property at 22 East Willow St.

Under the "objectives" section of the town’s application describing how the property would be used, Millburn officials wrote: “Portions of the Township of Millburn Department of Public Works operations will be relocated out of the downtown area of the Township due to redevelopment. The Township will require a property where these operations can be relocated and continued. The Township will also require an area to house certain DPW-related equipment, vehicles and materials.”

The documents show the township also committed to issue a bond for the additional $2.3 million to purchase the property and that it was acquired in April.

After the documents came to light this week, Millburn’s attorneys sent a letter to the court arguing that the developer didn’t have the right to tell them where to move the public works site or what to do with the property.