Planning board recommends county parcels near Ketch Road for non‑condemnation redevelopment to support affordable housing

MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. — On June 2 the Morris Township Planning Board recommended that the township committee declare portions of county‑owned Lots 1 and 1.01 near Ketch Road a non‑condemnation area in need of redevelopment to enable an affordable‑housing project.

Planner John Phillips (testifying in a consulting capacity) told the board the study area totals about 3.5 acres of undeveloped land within larger county holdings and lacks direct street frontage or roadway access. Quoting the statute, Phillips read the c‑criteria of the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law: "Land that is owned by the municipality, the county, a local housing authority, redevelopment agency or redevelopment entity or unimproved vacant land that has remained so for a period of 10 years prior to adoption of the resolution...and that by reason of its location, remoteness, lack of means of access to develop sections or portions of the municipality...is not likely to be developed through the instrumentality of…