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Morris County planning director presents 2025 development report as commissioners press on affordable housing and tax effects
Summary
Planning director Joe Burrell told the Morris County Board that 2025 saw strong multifamily activity — roughly 2,028 rental units submitted — with about 380 low/moderate units reported; commissioners raised concerns that redevelopment and pilot agreements may reduce the county's ratable tax base.
Joe Burrell, Morris County planning and preservation director, presented the county's 2025 Development Activity Report to the Board of County Commissioners, telling members the planning office logged roughly 2,028 multifamily rental units in applications for 2025 and identified about 380 low/moderate-income units among those submissions.
Burrell said the planning office compared 2025 to 2024 and that multifamily submissions remained strong. He also reported an increase in nonresidential square footage, citing about 1.9 million square feet in warehouse projects in 2024–25 that was driven in part by a single large Riverdale project, and highlighted the Bayer site redevelopment as a major recent mixed‑use example.
Commissioners asked for detail on the affordable-housing components of the filings. Burrell said many projects include an affordable set‑aside (commonly 15–20 percent of units in the projects discussed), and that some projects later enter pilot agreements with municipalities. "Out of the 2,028 units we received, out of that, 380 of those were low mod units," Burrell said.
Several commissioners pressed Burrell and one another on the fiscal consequences of the county's development pattern. A commissioner warned that pilot agreements and tax‑exempt or tax‑reduced arrangements reduce ratable revenue for counties and school districts and urged attention to long‑term revenue impacts as redevelopment replaces older office inventories with rental multifamily.
Burrell and commissioners also discussed conversion and occupancy: Burrell estimated a high conversion rate from application to construction for many projects but said it is not 100 percent and that some projects take years to come online. He told the board that, over the past decade, planning applications have represented nearly 17,500 units countywide.
The presentation closed with Burrell's assessment that multifamily demand remains robust and that the county should continue to monitor the mix of projects, affordable set‑asides, and pilot or tax arrangements that affect local ratables. Commissioners said they will review the full written report in their meeting binders and follow up with questions to staff.
Next steps: Burrell provided detailed binders and charts to commissioners and said staff would supply additional follow‑up data when requested; no formal vote related to the report was taken.
