On June 22, Chatham Borough's Council voted not to move forward with a redevelopment plan for River Road. On July 16, the Planning Board approved a 100-unit rental building on River Road under the zoning already in place.
If you are comparing Chatham with Summit, Madison or Millburn, those two votes matter more than any median price you have seen on a portal. Apartments were coming to River Road either way, and the June vote settled the rules they would be built under. As of late October 2026, the larger question of how much gets built along River Road and Watchung Avenue is still unresolved.
A plan the Borough was required to write
The River Road Gateway I and II Redevelopment Plan was not a developer's wish list. It came out of Chatham's affordable-housing obligations. The Borough's own affordable housing Q&A says three groups challenged its Fourth Round Housing Element and Fair Share Plan. The Borough settled with a developer and with Fair Share Housing Center in December 2025, and the third challenger withdrew. A court approved the settlement and the plan on February 12, 2026.
The settlement listed several conditions. One was to release a draft redevelopment plan for River Road and decide by July 1 whether to adopt it. The Borough's Q&A also stated what failing to adopt a plan might bring: "the area will likely face new legal challenges."
The draft covered two overlay zones:
- Gateway I: about 23.6 acres, of which about 11 are developable. The rest sits under the power line easement or in the Passaic River's FEMA flood zone.
- Gateway II: about 10.7 acres, of which about 3.4 are developable. Those 3.4 acres are on three lots holding a storage facility, an office building and a parking lot.
The draft also carried forward a requirement from the Borough's Third Round. According to the Borough's June 1 draft plan, a 2021 Judgment of Compliance says that if Chatham adopts a redevelopment plan for this area, the plan must create a realistic opportunity for at least 75 non-age-restricted affordable units in Gateway I, through inclusionary development.
The math behind the 720 figure
The June 1 revised draft kept a base density of 35 units per acre in Gateway I. It allowed density bonuses up to 54 units per acre in Gateway I and 37 in Gateway II, and it raised the affordable set-aside for rentals from 15% to 20%.
Multiply it out and you get the number in the headlines. Eleven developable acres at 54 units is about 594 units. Another 3.4 acres at 37 units is about 126. Together that comes to roughly 720, which is how Summit Area News described the plan's ceiling. That figure only applies if every developable acre were built at the maximum bonus. No vote ever approved it.
The more useful figure is 75. At a 20% set-aside, 75 affordable units means about 375 total units in Gateway I. That is the scale the Third Round requirement points toward if a plan is ever adopted, and it explains why the pressure on River Road did not end in June.
What changed between April and June
The draft was presented to the public on April 14. According to TAPinto Chatham's coverage, residents at that meeting raised concerns about traffic, infrastructure, environmental effects and density.
Meanwhile, a separate application had already started. Summit Area News reported that AJDM Chatham LLC first wrote to the Planning Board about a River Road project on March 6 and March 27, before the redevelopment plan was unveiled. AJDM was proposing to build under the existing Gateway overlay zoning, which needs no redevelopment designation.
At the June 22 special meeting, Mayor Carolyn Dempsey said that application changed the decision. TAPinto Chatham quoted her:
"However, since the publication of the draft in April, circumstances have changed. Now, since the presentation of the draft redevelopment plan, an application has been presented before the planning board for an inclusive development that will provide affordable housing."
The Council then voted 5–1 to direct Borough professionals not to move forward with the plan. Council President Brian Hargrove and Council Members Miles Gilmore, Karen Koronkiewicz, Jocelyn Mathiasen and Justin Strickland voted not to proceed. Council Member Katherine Hay voted to proceed.
Two comments reported from that meeting set out the trade-off. Strickland said, "Chatham is very small, something like two square miles. Every section of our town is everyone's neighborhood." Hay, according to the same TAPinto article, wanted the plan so that the Council would have more say in what developers build.
Both concerns hold up. A redevelopment plan allows more density, and it also gives the governing body more control over design and terms. Building under existing zoning means less density on any one site, and the developer's application shapes more of the outcome.
The building River Road got instead
On July 16, at a special meeting, the Planning Board voted 5–0 to approve AJDM's project. Summit Area News reported that no members of the public attended. The board adopted its written resolution on August 5.
| Draft Gateway I & II plan, June 2026 | Approved 29–39 River Road project, July 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Council voted not to proceed, June 22 | Planning Board approved 5–0, July 16 |
| Scale | Up to 54 units/acre in Gateway I and 37 in Gateway II, about 720 units at full buildout | 100 rental units, four stories, on 2.92 acres |
| Affordable share | 20% rental set-aside; Gateway I target of at least 75 affordable units | 15 affordable units |
| Other uses | Set out parcel by parcel along River Road and Watchung Avenue | 2,370 sq ft of retail and about 210 parking spaces |
The site is Block 140, Lots 7.01, 8, 9 and 10. TAPinto Chatham reported in July that the building did not have a name yet. No reporting so far has said when demolition or construction will begin.
The building will sit near The Ivy at 2 River Road, on the corner of River Road and Watchung Avenue. The Ivy's 245 apartments were open and leasing by December 2023. In late October 2026, The Ivy's own availability page listed one-bedroom asking rents starting at $2,795 and two-bedrooms starting at $4,195. The highest two-bedroom starting rent shown was $6,540. Once the new building opens, this one stretch of River Road will hold about 345 rental units across two buildings.
Why the larger question is still open
The approved building delivers 15 affordable units. The Third Round requirement attached to any adopted plan calls for at least 75 in Gateway I. That gap explains what happened next.
On August 24, Summit Area News reported that AJDM had sued the Borough to revive the Gateway I and II plan. The outlet added that the docket number and the specific claims had not been confirmed through court records, and that neither the Borough nor AJDM had commented. Since then, the Council's agendas for September 28 and October 13 have both listed "Pending affordable housing litigation" for executive session. Neither agenda names a party.
So as of the last week of October, the River Road corridor has one approved building, one shelved plan and pending litigation on the Council's closed-session calendar. No public vote has brought the plan back.
The rest of the borough's affordable-housing plan is small and spread out
River Road is the only place in Chatham Borough where scale is in question. The rest of the Fourth Round plan is spread across small sites.
- Post Office Plaza: a 15-unit, 100% affordable project. Ground was broken in April 2025, and the settlement calls for completion by the end of 2026.
- 58 North Passaic Avenue: a four-unit, 100% affordable project on Borough-owned land.
- 311 Main Street and 589 Main Street: inclusionary zoning for both sites, which together include three affordable units and 15 market-rate units. Ordinance 26-04, adopted March 9, 2026, allows up to nine units at 311 Main Street.
- 23–33 South Passaic Avenue: a zoning amendment to resolve minor issues at the Cottage Deli property.
The Planning Board minutes from June 18, 2025, explain why the numbers stay this small. The Borough's Fourth Round obligation is 181 units, but its realistic development potential was set at 5, which leaves 176 units of unmet need. Chatham has little open land, and most of what can absorb density sits along River Road.
What it means if you're comparing Chatham with nearby towns
For buyers, the River Road story is about where change happens in Chatham Borough. The Main Street sites add a few units at a time. River Road is the one corridor where the number of new apartments over the next few years could range from about 100 to several hundred, depending on how the pending matter is resolved and whether a plan comes back.
The county numbers show the market around it. In September 2026, Morris County had 757 single-family homes for sale, up 14.2% from a year earlier, equal to 2.5 months of supply. The September median single-family sale price was $737,500, up 2.1%, and the median home took 30 days to sell. Townhouse and condo inventory rose 18.9% to 189 units, and buyers paid 99.2% of list price on average, down 2.6%, according to New Jersey Realtors' September 2026 Morris County report. County inventory is growing faster than sales. Chatham's own supply story is concentrated on one road, and the Council's closed-session agenda is still shaping it.
If you're looking at a home near River Road or Watchung Avenue, the public record is the best guide to what's coming. That includes the Borough's redevelopment page, which still links the April and June drafts, and the Council agendas posted before each meeting.
A few questions buyers ask
Is the River Road redevelopment plan dead? The Council voted on June 22, 2026, not to move forward with it. A lawsuit seeking to revive it was reported in August, and the Council's September and October agendas list pending affordable housing litigation. No public vote has adopted the plan.
When will the 29–39 River Road building be built? The Planning Board approved it on July 16 and adopted its resolution on August 5. No construction start date has been reported.
Does this affect the Main Street sites? Those sites are covered by separate parts of the Fourth Round plan, including Ordinance 26-04 for 311 Main Street. They hold far fewer units than the River Road corridor.
If you're weighing a home in Chatham Borough and want to know what the River Road decisions could mean for a particular street, the Stephanie Mallios Team follows these votes and agendas closely. Schedule a personal market consultation and we'll go through the Borough's record with you, using current borough-level sales data alongside it.
