280-Unit Housing Development Approved For Basking Ridge

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — A new 280-unit housing development off Mountainview Bouelvard was approved by the Bernards Township Planning Board to help meet the township's affordable housing obligation. This is the third affordable housing project approved by the township in the past year.

The application brought by SJP properties proposes building a development called the Residences At Mountain View that will include 280 units, of which 62 units are set aside for very low, low and moderate income households.

The project will be built on 71 acres off Mountainview Boulevard near the Memorial Sloan Kettering facility and will include three residential buildings with 77 studio and one-bedroom apartments, 130 two-bedroom units and 13 three-bedroom units.

It also includes additional recreation options including a pool, grills, half-court basketball, playground, play fields, fire tables and more.

The planning board unanimously approved the application with variances for fencing and such at the Jan. 21 meeting.

"I think the applicant has done a very good job of... a give and take," said Planning Board member Kathleen Mastrangelo at the meeting. "When we were first approached with this we were all a little reticent on how this was going to happen."

Mastrangelo went on to note how she appreciated how the developer offered two site visits that were open to the public, engaged with neighbors and even went "above and beyond" to add in pedestrian walkways and a bike lane.

This housing project is among three projects that were the result of a settlement in March 2018 following an affordable housing litigation filed against the township by Affordable Housing intervenors, Bernards Plaza Associates, LLC and Crown Court Plaza, LLC.

• See Related: Bernards Twp. Committee Approves Housing Settlement

The full settlement agreement can be viewed by clicking here.

The other two projects approved in May 2019 included the 198-unit Dewy Meadow housing project and the 24-unit Crown Court apartment complex. (See Related: 2 Housing Projects, 222 Total Units Coming To Basking Ridge)

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