Hawthorne attorney recommends settling affordable-housing obligation at 200 units to move case forward

Borough Attorney Michael Pasquale recommended that Hawthorne accept a proposed settlement with Fair Share Housing that would set the borough's affordable-housing obligation at 200 units over the next 10 years.

Pasquale told the council the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) initially assigned Hawthorne a 300-unit obligation; town consultant John Sabo recalculated the figure to 183, and another expert, Dr. David Kinsey, proposed a different formula that pushed the obligation higher. After mediation and review, Pasquale said both sides agreed to a compromise figure of 200 units.

Why it matters: Pasquale said settling at 200 units would move the case out of extended court review and into the next phase of planning and implementation. Under the state's process, the borough must also account for a vacant-land adjustment and demonstrate how it will address a portion of the assigned need (typically 25 percent) in its planning and zoning over the coming decade.

Pasquale described technical points the council would recognize in later steps: he said some land shown in the borough's open-space inventory had been omitted from DCA's count, and that correcting the inventory reduced developable acreage. He said the parties debated mapping, vacant-land adjustments and how to allocate unmet need but that the practical difference between 190 and 200 units was small for planning purposes.

Council members pressed Pasquale and borough engineer Joe Byrne on which parcels were counted, whether the open-space inventory would be amended and how the vacant-land adjustment would be applied. Byrne described a roughly 0.6-acre tract referenced in the discussion as flat but difficult to access; Pasquale said access constraints and steep slopes factor into realistic development potential.

Pasquale said he did not expect the council to vote the same night but asked for guidance so he could report to the court whether Hawthorne would accept 200 units or continue litigation for a lower figure.

What happens next: Pasquale left the recommendation to the council for a future vote and said the judge and mediator expected an indication of whether the borough would settle at 200 or press for 189. He framed the suggested settlement as a procedural step toward producing a concrete plan for how the borough will meet a portion of the obligation over the next 10 years.

No formal council action on the settlement was taken at the March 19 meeting.