Concerned Residents of Millburn and Short Hills

On September 17, 2019, the Millburn Township Committee passed an ordinance rezoning property at the corner of Chatham and Woodland Roads to allow the Silverman Group to build a 3 and 4 story mixed-use building. This building will include 10,000 sq. ft. of medical office space on the first floor and 62 apartments on the 2nd-4th floors.  This development is massive and out of keeping with the historic character of Short Hills village. It is higher and denser than anything in residential Short Hills and has setbacks of as little as 1 and 2 feet.  It directly abuts the Hartshorn Arboretum yet the township has not performed an environmental impact study. No adequate study was done evaluating the impact on traffic near the train station nor was a full study done of the safety implications for children making their way to and from Glenwood School. A complex set of missteps by the town made it vulnerable to a builder’s remedy lawsuit by the Silverman Group, which scared the Township Committee into approving the current development plans. 


Concerned Residents of Millburn and Short Hills, Inc. a nonprofit corporation, has been formed to represent the interests of Millburn and Short Hills residents who oppose the current building plans and the way the lot was rezoned. Concerned Residents has filed a complaint against the ordinance, #2542-19, in the Essex County Superior Court, asking that, for a number of reasons, the ordinance be declared null and void, with the ultimate goal of forcing a revision of the development plans to make them more consistent with the unique character of the Short Hills village neighborhood. 


Concerned Residents of Millburn and Short Hills, Inc. is being represented by Daniel Steinhagen, an attorney at Beattie Padovano, LLC in Montvale, NJ.  We are seeking funds to pay Mr. Steinhagen for his services going forward. It must be noted that Concerned Residents is not opposed to creating affordable housing units in this location. Our objection is to the unprecedented density, in the heart of historic Short Hills Village, of 62 units, 10,000 square feet of commercial space, buildings rising three and four stories, and large areas with negligible setbacks.  We are fighting for a development on this site that is more in keeping with the neighborhood while maintaining or even increasing the number of affordable housing units. Please contribute and help us prevent the development as currently proposed, a development that will undermine the unique character of historic Short Hills.