Trial set in Wayne property dispute
Housing, zoning stakes for Valley Road
By: Philip DeVencentis
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
WAYNE - A judge will decide the fate of an 11-acre property on Valley Road if the township does not come to terms with a would-be developer by next month. [02/2025]
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It is the latest deadline to face official in their quest to meet a state obligation for affordable housing.
..... The property is question, at 1655 Valley Road, is occupied by an empty office building of 156,941 square feet.
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Its owners, a Brooklyn-based limited liability company, sued the township four years ago when the court stripped its housing immunity for failing to act swiftly in redevelopment of Valley National Back.
..... That project, less than a mile south, at the T-interseciton of Barbour Pond Road. is now well underway.
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The developer of the former bank headquarters, AvalonBay communities Incorporated of Virginia, is the same one eyeing the site of the office building - once the U.S. base of Reckett Benchiser, a Britrish-Dutch company that owns Enfamil baby formulas and Lysol cleaning products, among many other brands.
..... A trail is scheduled for February 12 [2025] before Judge Darren Del Sardo in state Superior Court in Paterson.
..... The purpose of the court hearing is to determine zoning conditions, including the number of allowable housing units.
..... Court documents show that AvalonBay Communities presented the township with a concept plan for 490 units there. But in the ensuring months, the parties could not strike a deal.
..... Due to the impasse, the judge set a calendar of deadlines for them to conduct depositions and to trade planning reports in advance of the looming trail.
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There is hope for a compromise in the meantime. A December 18 [2024] letter to the judge from Derek Orth, an attorney for AvalonBay Communities, said his client and the township are "exploring potential settlements" of the issue. Still, he wrote that the court should keep the trial date in case those talks fall apart.