Waterview Developer's Lawsuit Against Parsippany Dismissed

A Superior Court Judge in Morristown dismissed a developer’s lawsuit against Parsippany Tuesday, ending a years-long battle about the building of a supermarket and residential housing.

RD Realty sued the township when the mayor and council denied a zoning ordinance allowing the developer to build a Whole Foods Market and multi-family housing on the Waterview tract in town. The developer claimed in the suit that the current zoning in the area was unconstitutional, contrary to Municipal Land Use Law, and arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.

According to the mayor’s office, township attorney John Inglesino argued the township was protected from RD Realty’s exclusionary zoning claims by virtue of its compliance with its affordable housing obligations, as determined by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).

Judge Thomas Weisenbeck’s opinion came in a thirty-page written statement and dismissed the developer’s claims by stating the township’s refusal to adopt the overlay ordinance proposed by RD Realty was neither arbitrary, capricious, nor unreasonable.

“I am pleased that the Court agreed with the Township’s position on this zoning issue,” Mayor James Barberio said in a statement. “I have always believed that, so long as the Township satisfied its affordable housing obligation under COAH, it would be protected from these types of lawsuits. While the township is dedicated to providing sufficient affordable housing, it will not bend to the will of a disgruntled developer.”

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