Article originally publsihed April 28, 2025 on northjersey.com

Link to Original Article by Philip DeVencentis

The township Planning Board acted properly when it passed a resolution requiring a developer to install an elevator in a new apartment building on Valley Road, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.

The ruling overturned two decisions by a lower court that had nullified the Planning Board’s resolution and assessed tens of thousands of dollars in fines against the township.

The apartment building in question is part of a 473-unit housing complex now under construction by AvalonBay Communities Inc. Seventy-one units will be set aside for low-income residents.

The 17-acre property was a corporate campus for Valley National Bank, which moved its headquarters to Morristown.

An attorney for the Virginia-based developer did not respond to an inquiry about the ruling, handed down by a three-judge panel of the Appellate Division of state Superior Court.

Township Attorney Matthew Giacobbe said Friday that he was pleased with the decision, and he thanked fellow attorneys Mary Anne Groh and Matthew Cavaliere for “exceptional legal representation.”

The lower court had ruled that the Planning Board acted in bad faith, and that it breached its settlement with the developer by requiring the installation of an elevator large enough for ambulance stretchers in a certain building at the housing complex.

The issue had been debated during public hearings on the project.

Board members requested that elevators be included in the design of the apartment buildings, but expert witnesses for AvalonBay Communities said they were not required. Nonetheless, the developer agreed to install them in all but one 3½-story building.

The board approved a resolution that satisfied both parties in December 2022, but a month later, unknown to the developer, a supplemental resolution was passed to add the extra elevator.

The developer called it a “stealth resolution.”

Judge Thomas Brogan, who has since retired, affirmed the initial resolution preferred by the developer. Then, in December 2023, his successor, Judge Darren Del Sardo, further penalized the township by ordering officials to pay a total of $141,410 in fees to the developer.

As a consequence of reversing those decisions, the appeals panel vacated the award of fees and the invalidation of the supplemental resolution.

“The assertion that the supplemental resolution was adopted without notice to Avalon does not, on its own, provide clear and convincing evidence to support a finding” of bad faith, the judges wrote in the 43-page ruling.

The township is engaged in protracted negotiations with AvalonBay Communities over potential redevelopment of the dormant office building at 1655 Valley Road, six-tenths of a mile from the former bank headquarters.

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. 

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com