Allendale says Fair Share settlement preserves downtown, secures $500,000 from Avalon Bay and sewer agreement

Allendale Mayor Amy Wilczynski said the borough has resolved its fourth-round Fair Share Housing obligations with an agreement that preserves the character of the downtown while addressing the state's affordability requirements.

The mayor told the council and public that the state's initial allocation for Allendale was 260 affordable units, later adjusted to 200 after local challenges to buildable-acre estimates. After negotiating and challenging components of the allocation the borough's realistic development potential (RDP) for the round was reduced to four units, Wilczynski said.

"We did not have to put any of our overlay zone on our downtown," Mayor Wilczynski said, describing the outcome as a defense of downtown character and a negotiated alternative to taller, denser development that the state had proposed.

Wilczynski said the settlement resolves a contested process that included appeals over a TWA (treatment works approval) sewer permit, litigation threats, and back-and-forth negotiations with neighboring Saddle River and developers. As part of the resolution, Allendale will receive $500,000 from the developer of the Avalon Bay project for off-site improvements, she said.

"We used that leverage to make Fair Share Housing happy. We got what we wanted, and we got approval for our plan," Wilczynski said.

Borough attorney Greg West characterized the package as a major undertaking that avoided protracted litigation. "This agenda is one of the biggest nights that we've ever had," he said, commending the mayor, special counsel and planning team for reaching the settlement and capturing funding to address impacts tied to sewer capacity.

The mayor and other speakers described a key element of the outcome as an agreement that Avalon Bay (a project across the borough border) pay $500,000 for off-site work and that Saddle River and Allendale signed an arrangement to allow sewer flow while clarifying each municipality's responsibilities. Wilczynski said the Avalon Bay project had been described in the record as a roughly 275-unit development on the border that would use Allendale sewer infrastructure.

Officials noted remaining unmet need from prior rounds, extension of existing deed restrictions on six units whose restrictions were set to expire, and the borough's choice to place overlay zoning on Burrow Line Road rather than in the downtown core. The mayor described the state's process as complex and often producing large theoretical obligations that towns must negotiate down or otherwise accommodate.

Votes recorded in the meeting minutes show the council approved the evening's consent agenda (which included several routine items and set up related agreements). The transcript does not include a separate roll-call vote on the Fair Share settlement package; the mayor stated the plan had been approved and counsel described the settlement as finalized. The transcript does not list a detailed recorded vote on the Fair Share plan in the oral record.

What happens next: officials said they will implement the approved plan components, extend certain deed restrictions, proceed with the off-site improvements funded by Avalon Bay, and monitor compliance tied to the sewer and any related permits. The mayor said the agreement provides the borough a measure of "immunity" from builder challenges for the next decade under the fourth-round plan.

Votes at a glance

- Consent agenda (includes authorization for agreements and routine items): approved by roll call; each named council member present responded "yes" on the record. (Roll-call names and yes responses are in the transcript; detailed tally included in actions array.)

Details not specified in the spoken record

The transcript attributes the settlement and the $500,000 payment to the Avalon Bay developer and describes a sewer connection arrangement but does not include a separate roll-call vote on the Fair Share plan itself in the oral record; where vote tallies were not in the transcript the article notes that plainly.