Court-appointed official can work with Wayne affordable housing, says judge

WAYNE — A choose decided this 7 days that the distinctive grasp assigned to the township’s reasonably priced-housing circumstance does not have a conflict of interest for having worked along with its attorney on an unrelated subject.

At problem was whether or not Christine Nazzaro-Cofone, the exclusive grasp, must be recused from participation in the situation thanks to her involvement as an specialist witness in a Planning Board proposal in Edgewater.

The law firm for the developer in that application, Brian Chewcaskie, is one of the housing lawyers for Wayne.

Condition Outstanding Court docket Choose Thomas Brogan resolved that the doing work partnership in between Chewcaskie and Nazzaro-Cofone was way too “discreet” to warrant her recusal. It “does not increase to the level” of an “look of impropriety,” he mentioned through a Zoom hearing.

Brogan’s ruling, rendered Tuesday from his Paterson bench, proficiently denied a movement to bar Nazzaro-Cofone from the ongoing scenario.

Nazzaro-Cofone, who owns a land-use consulting company in the borough of Pink Bank, was appointed by the courtroom to be the special learn in the township’s circumstance in November 2015 — 4 months following it commenced.

In that position, she serves as a negotiator in between the township and likely developers.

The movement to bar Nazzaro-Cofone was made by the operator of 1655 Valley Street, which entered the scenario right after officials have been stripped of immunity from builder’s remedy lawsuits in November 2020. The home has a 156,941-square-foot business office making that is largely empty.

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Her involvement in the Edgewater make any difference started very last spring and continued into the slide, according to Jeffrey Kantowitz, an lawyer for the Valley Street house proprietor.

Kantowitz attempted to persuade the choose that Nazzaro-Cofone’s months-prolonged relationship to the Edgewater make any difference and simultaneous affiliation with the regional scenario was grounds for recusal. “That’s wherever the rub is,” Kantowitz explained. “That is specifically the place the rub is. This was not a submitted software on May perhaps 15, with a decision in June for a backyard variance.”

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The Edgewater venture, to include things like a few 25-tale towers and 20,000 square toes of retail place on land formerly made use of as an oil terminal by Hess Corp., was accepted in January.

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Matthew Cavaliere, an lawyer, opposed the movement on behalf of the township. He explained the court really should consider that the circle of attorneys and planners who handle inexpensive housing is “incredibly smaller.”

“Quicker or later on, if you do this extended sufficient,” Cavaliere reported, “you work with every person.”

Since the motion quickly sidetracked the scenario, Brogan extended the deadline for the township and Valley Road assets owner to appear up with a offer for redevelopment of the 11-acre site.

Philip DeVencentis is a neighborhood reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited accessibility to the most vital information from your area neighborhood, please subscribe or activate your digital account nowadays.

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This post originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Wayne NJ housing: Court master cleared of alleged conflict of interest