At the August 4 council meeting, the topic of development and affordable housing came up. This prompted the township attorney, Mark Semeraro, to provide an update on the situation in which West Orange now finds itself.
That situation is, in a word, precarious.
As Semeraro explained, the township failed to pass its affordable housing plan on time last year. This resulted in a series of developers bringing builder’s remedy lawsuits against the township. You can watch the relevant portion of the Council meeting here.
While we finally passed an affordable housing plan and now have immunity against future lawsuits, we still have to litigate or settle the six lawsuits that have already been filed. This is a costly process and the developers have the advantage in court.
You might be asking yourself, “How did we get here?”
In that same meeting, some of the council members offered their own versions of what happened last year. They tried to fix the blame solely on the Mayor, but the reality of the situation is that they all failed us. Let’s roll back the tape and see exactly how we got here.
Council Rejects Affordable Housing Planner, 3-2
Last year, West Orange faced a June 30 deadline to submit our affordable housing plan to the state. Doing so would keep us in compliance with state law and protect us from builder’s remedy lawsuits.
The situation came to a head at the April 22 council meeting. The administration had a resolution on the agenda to hire a consultant to prepare our affordable housing plan.
Let’s start with the obvious: leaving such an important decision to the last minute is irresponsible. The Mayor absolutely shares responsibility for this failure. She could have and should have gotten the ball rolling on this earlier so that there was time to deal with contingencies.
But at the time, the Council had a clear choice in front of them.
Geniece Gary-Adams, the town’s Director of Planning & Development was blunt: failure to approve the resolution would result in the town missing the deadline – and subsequently getting sued. Councilwoman Gebremichael concurred. She urged her colleagues to see past their differences with the administration and approve the resolution.
Councilwoman Casalino complained that West Orange residents weren’t given priority to rent new affordable units.
Councilwoman Scarpa complained that it was last minute. She didn’t trust the advice she was getting and wanted “a fresh pair of eyes on this.”
Councilwoman Rudin took issue with the terms of the contract. She claimed “if the municipality misses the deadline, we can request a grace period.” She didn’t believe the threat of lawsuits was real.
You can watch the discussion at the April 22 council meeting here.
The three of them voted no and the resolution failed. It took time to approve another resolution, and this caused the township to miss the June 30 deadline. It was months before the plan was finally complete.
In the meantime, we were absolutely not granted a grace period.
What Happened Next?
As predicted, the township faced a series of builder’s remedy lawsuits. The first of them was filed almost immediately, in July 2025. The last of them was filed in March 2026, about the time the township finally received approval for its plan and immunity from future lawsuits.
You can see the relevant documents in the Patch, but here’s the timeline and the properties in question:
- July 8, 2025: 481 Eagle Rock Ave (Mayfair Farms)
- July 24, 2025: 1155 Pleasant Valley Way (Daughters of Israel)
- August 8, 2025: 103 Pleasant Valley Way (Valley Hill Properties)
- September 9, 2025: 155 Prospect Ave (Kennedy Realty)
- October 9, 2025: 762 Pleasant Valley Way
- March 4, 2026: 410 Main Street
This brings us back to the beginning. We are now in the precarious position of defending these lawsuits and/or negotiating settlements. We are in a worse situation and have much less leverage than if we had passed an affordable housing plan prior to the June 30 timeline.
This is a perfect example of how the infighting between the Mayor and the Council has had a negative impact on the township as a whole. The Mayor was too arrogant or careless to make a contingency plan. And the Council was all too willing to vote no out of spite – cavalierly setting us on a path to expensive litigation.
They can point fingers all they want, but one thing is clear to me. It’s time for new leadership – because we can’t afford to let important priorities continue to get caught in the crossfire. We need a Mayor who will plan proactively – and a Council that takes its obligation to govern the town seriously.
If you’re ready for that leadership, sign up for updates from my campaign here.
It’s time to stop the finger pointing and blame games – and actually work together towards a better future in West Orange.