A New Jersey Superior Court judge has certified Chatham Borough's affordable housing plan, according to the resident advocacy group Hometown Chatham, removing what officials had called the last legal barrier to holding a public forum on a proposed development at 58 North Passaic Avenue.

The certification by Judge Allen means the borough can now consider alternatives to the project, according to its own affordable housing lawyer and planner, who told the council at a Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, meeting that the borough would have the right to propose a different site once it received its Certificate of Compliance.

The barrier is gone.

Resident Brigid McMenamin of 133 Center Avenue, who runs the advocacy blog Hometown Chatham, is calling on Mayor Carolyn Dempsey and the six-member council to schedule the forum. McMenamin has spoken at council meetings since Sept. 8, 2025, pressing for answers on how the site was selected, what it will cost taxpayers and what alternatives exist.

The parcel is a vacant, wooded, taxpayer-owned lot of nearly 0.3 acres adjacent to the 6.9-acre Memorial Park. The borough purchased it in 1982 with taxpayer funds for recreation use; it is currently tax-exempt and classified as a "playground."

Under Ordinance #26-02, the council's plan calls for clearing roughly 80% of the site to build four apartments and seven parking spaces. Borough taxpayers would bear all costs of building, operating and maintaining the project, according to council minutes from March 9, 2026.

Mayor Dempsey has previously resisted calls for a forum. At the May 11, 2026, council meeting, she said, "All the questions have been… asked and answered multiple times," and warned that reopening the plan could jeopardize the borough's legal immunity from Mount Laurel lawsuits.

But the borough's own affordable housing planner contradicted that position at the Dec. 8, 2025, meeting, telling the council it had the right to propose an alternative site after certification.

Council member Jocelyn Mathiasen, who spearheaded the 58 North Passaic project, told two residents on March 26, 2026, that she had never seen a list of privately owned alternative sites under consideration, according to the advocacy group's account.

At the July 13, 2026, council meeting, McMenamin, Evelyn Penn and Bob Penn of 165 North Passaic Avenue all made public comments about the project, borough minutes show.

The advocacy group had suggested the forum could take place at the Monday, Aug. 10, regular council meeting or in September when more residents are back in town. Whether the forum was raised at the Aug. 10 meeting is not yet known; minutes have not been posted.

The next regular Chatham Borough Council meeting is expected in September. Residents who want to weigh in can attend in person at Borough Hall, 54 Fairmount Avenue, or contact Mayor Dempsey and council members directly.