Residents are divided over how to develop the last major piece of vacant land in New Milford.
NEW MILFORD -- To an outsider, the piece of land squared off by Main Street, River Road and Milford Avenue might seem unremarkable.
But the 14-acre property formerly owned by Suez, and the question of what to do with it, has divided New Milford on multiple lines.
S. Hekemian Group and the borough have battled over the land, among the last undeveloped properties in town, since 2013, when the New Milford zoning board barred Hekemian from building a shopping center there. This year, a judge ordered the two sides to come to a settlement.
Whether the mayor and council should approve that settlement is a contentious issue in New Milford. The settlement agreement would allow Hekemian to build a shopping center with a ShopRite and a bank and donate a third of the parcel and $800,000 for the construction and maintenance of a new athletic field.
The existing ShopRite, a little more than a mile south on River Road, would become about 135 units of multifamily housing--27 below market-rate--with some retail under the settlement. New Milford would get out of its affordable housing obligation for at least a decade as well, Mayor Ann Subrizi said.
Subrizi prefers to settle. The other options are to either continue fighting Hekemian in court or allow the company to build high-density housing, the red-line option of Hekemian's "builder's remedy" lawsuit.
The ShopRite in New Milford would move north and make way for multifamily housing under a settlement reached between the borough and a developer. (Myles Ma | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) In the latter scenario, New Milford would have to allow as many apartments as needed to meet its state affordable housing obligation. The exact number required still being debated, but Subrizi fears it could mean as many as 750 units new housing.
New Milford has until Jan. 31 to decide, according to a the judge's order.
"I certainly do have a gun to my heard," Subrizi said.
Many New Milford residents aren't happy with the settlement agreement, however. Michael Gadaleta, a former council president, said a shopping center wouldn't fit the area--that's why the zoning board rejected it in the first place.
Gadaleta believes the center will generate too much traffic, endangering students at New Milford High School, just south of the Suez tract, and forcing the borough to pay to widen streets, build sidewalks and make other improvements. He's unimpressed with the donation of land for the field, since it's near the flood-prone Hackensack River and the borough or school district would still have to pay about half a million dollars on top of the Hekemian donation.
Lauren Maehrlein, a longtime member of the New Milford environmental commission, wishes Hekemian would just go away. Company officials did not return calls seeking comment. She believes the settlement will exacerbate flooding in New Milford.
"Right now it's working to help us with flood mitigation," she said of the empty lot. "If we cover the whole property as the developer has planned with a giant supermarket and a ball field and a bank, even with engineering, that mitigation is gone."
She hopes New Milford will fight to force the developer to build a small number of units on the northeast corner of the property, away from the Hackensack River.
John Bigger, the recreation director for New Milford, sees that as unlikely. When the judge says to cut a deal, he said, "That means work something out." And if something must be built there, at least New Milford can get a much-needed field out of it.
The town's existing stock of playing fields is already overburdened and some are in flood areas, Bigger said. He would prefer a new field be farther from the river and on higher ground, but he doesn't believe flooding will be an issue.
"Let's get something and let's move forward because we're spending tens of thousands of dollars litigating this," he said.
Michael Polizzi, superintendent of New Milford schools, said option C, adding potentially hundreds of units of housing, would "be devastating to the school district," by swelling enrollments at schools that are already at capacity.
The mayor and council plan to discuss the settlement Monday night and Wednesday night. They may decide on the latter date.
Residents take issue with this too. Lori Barton, a former school board member, pointed out the council will switch from majority Republican to majority Democrat in January.
Subrizi, a Republican, wants the current council to decide the issue.
"I would prefer to have the people who have been involved in it and working on it to have the opportunity to vote on it," she said.
Barton said it doesn't make sense to rush a decision to have two lame-duck council members cast a vote, especially during a busy part of the year for many residents.
"It's not fair to the council people and their families, it's not fair to the borough clerk who has to be at these meetings and her family, it's not fair to the residents who want to be a part of this," she said.
The special meeting Wednesday, when the council may vote, is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.