In March of 2021, Teaneck Voices began exploring the way Teaneck’s Council was shifting the how the Town was beginning to manage/authorize its development by normalizing the exceptional concepts and procedures known as designating Areas in Need of Redevelopment (AINRs) as described in N.J.S.A. 40A:12A-1 et seq. In fact, this movement to AINR had begun in earnest back in early 2017 when the Town and Planning Board agreed that two very badly-mismanaged Town-owned properties should be defined as Areas in Need of Redevelopment. It has never been clear why the Town decided to try find a way to try to walk away from properties which the Town itself had allowed to become blighted over a period of decades.
Prior to those 2017 decisions, there had been only one redevelopment area ever designated in Teaneck and none in this century. Put directly, Teaneck had ever labeled any portion of the town as blighted – and suddenly it was inexplicably defining 7 portions of the Town with that stigma.
As noted, Teaneck Voices began its commentary on AINR’s soon after the process to designate the Stop & Shop area as an AINR in the Spring of 2021. Here was what Voices wrote on March 19, 2021
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Teaneck recently seems to be changing how important development projects are undertaken. Increasing reliance on designating areas in town as “blighted” and in need of redevelopment raises questions about benefits and risks of such designations.
Teaneck recently seems to be changing how important development projects are undertaken. Increasing reliance on designating areas in town as “blighted” and in need of redevelopment raises questions about benefits and risks of such designations.
Communities are expected to grow and develop over time. Local municipalities in NJ are required to adopt a Master Plan every ten years to guide that development and to review that plan at least once every six years.
Community input is essential to a successful Master Plan because the very character of the town depends on it. How tall may buildings be? Must trees be preserved? How much green space and recreational space? What proportion is allotted for single and multiple family residences or apartment complexes? Do commercial zones allow light and/or heavy industry? A cohesive vision shaped by shared values and interests is necessary to avoid constant conflict as the town grows.
Development in a town usually takes place through the authority of the Planning Board, consistent with the Master Plan and in compliance with legal requirements for notice to those affected, public hearings, and open competitive bidding on approved development projects.
But there are other ways that change can occur which may in some cases alter the character of town.
In Teaneck, the Council itself may make the determination and adopt a resolution without formal investigation or public hearing, although it is considered good practice to provide supporting documentation.
Once an area is designated as an “Area in Need of Redevelopment”, the municipality can utilize all the powers of redevelopment under the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law, except eminent domain. While Eminent Domain cannot be exercised in an Area in Need of Rehabilitation, it can be exercised in an Area in Need of Redevelopment. In order to designate such an area, a formal process of investigation, public notice and hearing must take place.
The Teaneck Council first authorizes the Planning Board to conduct an Area Investigation by passing a formal resolution. A comprehensive report, prepared by a Planning Consultant must link its findings to specific criteria of “blight” and be presented to the Planning Board for review and approval at a public hearing. The report must include a review of the zoning and Master Plan designations for the area, although, importantly, a redevelopment project in a blighted area is not required to conform to either of them.
Based on this report, and with input from the public at its formal hearing, the Planning Board may adopt changes and then makes its recommendation to Council, and Council then may make the designation by resolution.
Following an AINR designation, a second phase calls for the Redevelopment Plan itself, with all the details of the project, specifying the design standards and bulk regulations, and including engineering, environmental, traffic studies.
Although meeting any single one of the above criteria is sufficient to designate an area as blighted and needing redevelopment, recent case law shows less tolerance for such a designation that is not quantitatively supported by such things as declining real estate appraisals, crime rate increase, and code violations.
The Risks of Redevelopment Designations
There are risks as well as benefits to designating an Area in Need of Redevelopment.
First of all, for good or bad, the power to authorize and implement changes in town shifts to a significant degree from the Planning Board to the Council. And therefore, the redevelopment project does not need to conform to the Master Plan or the existing zoning regulations for the area. Designating an Area in Need of Redevelopment should not be done lightly because deviations from the Master Plan and from existing zoning regulations can open the way to substantial changes in the character of a town with less public input and consensus.
Although public notice, an open formal hearing before the Planning Board, and opportunity for public input are all required by statute, the actual project itself does not require the same types of notification to any residents within 200 feet of the redevelopment area.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the solicitation and bidding process on redevelopment projects are not subject to NJ State Public Contracts Law. The NJ State Public Contracts Law was put in place to avoid favoritism and pay-to-play deals. In its absence, particularly with potentially high-stakes redevelopment projects in an AINR, the risk of such corrupt practices increases.
Given some of the risks noted above when Redevelopment occurs under AINR designations, Teaneck residents should be aware that such projects can change the character of the town; can distance development from constraints provided by the consensus view outlined in the Master Plan; and sideline some protections against corrupt dealing. And we should be asking what are the benefits of this approach in each case, as well as who are the beneficiaries?
What is going on in Teaneck Development Today?
The self-appointed Council Redevelopment Agency has begun a new way of approaching the need to reawaken Cedar Lane. They have declared a mapped out portion of American Legion Drive and the Stop & Shop complex a Redevelopment Zone. The fact that the Council is naming a parcel of our town a ”blighted” zone is unsettling and raises many questions: How does the presence of a Redevelopment zone on the central thoroughfare of a township affect real estate prices? Is this mechanism of change likely to become the standard here in Teaneck so that blighted Redevelopment zones will pop up all over town affecting the culture and sense of well-being of our residents? Has the Council now installed a legal mechanism that allows them to disregard zoning laws, the Master Plan and the residents’ needs and wishes, allowing, by law, what has been the informal operating procedure of the past several years?
It is likely that almost everyone in Teaneck agrees that Cedar Lane needs refurbishing. It is likely that almost everyone in Teaneck agrees that the American Legion Drive and Stop & Shop areas could be more productively used. But are the residents of Teaneck ready to turn over the use of significant land areas to seven councilmembers to do with as they wish?
