Dear Editor:

As Chair of the Parsippany Troy-Hills Transparency Committee, it is my duty to inform the residents that on December 5, 2023, the Council voted 4-1 to agree to give a 42 million dollar tax break to subsidiaries of Avalon Bay Communities (AVB), a publicly traded company with a worth of 26 Billion dollars.

This and other proposed projects are a gross misuse of the PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) program.

They will deprive our schools and our children of hundreds of millions of tax dollars over the next 30 years. The PILOTs offered to the Avalon Bay Communities are not in the best interest of the community nor does it meet the intent or criteria for a PILOT plan to even be considered.

The information presented is available by going to the Parsippany home page and then clicking the transparency tab. 2 Other references are cited below.

I reviewed the financials reported for the 2 and 3 Campus Drive properties. They show that the developer will receive a $42 million tax break and the schools will lose $56 million in tax dollars over 30 years.

Click here to download the PDF.

1 year

30 Year

The current property pays School District 277, $130 per year and the municipal budget receives $122,771. This is currently warehouse space with NO students in the district.
If the 410-unit apartment project is built and the current tax rate is applied, the annual school budget would increase to $1,574,029 per year. The municipal budget would increase to $697,307.

This may seem like a large increase, however, according to the Tax Payers Guide to Education, Parsippany pays $18.7 K per student. The $1.3 M increase would support the cost of 69 new students.

For comparison recent similar Parsippany projects “Modera, Watersedge, and Mountain Way are 200-unit, 30-unit, and 105-unit projects, respectively, and these three developments alone bring in at least 56 children to the district.” Using this real-world example, if 380 units bring 56 students, we can mathematically extrapolate that 410 units should bring in at least 60. The expected tax gains should cover the added students.

However, as you can see in the chart since the project is built with a PILOT, the annual school budget would have a zero increase. Not one penny to support the expected additional students.

The municipal budget, however, would increase to $1,140,006 (increasing $442,699) and the remaining $42 million would go back to the developer.

So in a few flicks of a pen, the two signatories go from sharing 27.6% of the $110 million pie to 85.9% with no other affected parties present, consulted, or even considered.
Six additional PILOTs are proposed, which would further cut the School district out of its fair share of taxes. This will devastate the school system for decades to come. Unlike the municipal budget, the school budget increases are capped at 2%. There will be no way for schools to hire more teachers, provide competitive wages, or support all of the current programs.

I was at the last School Board meeting and there have already been talks of holding classes in trailers, cutting programs, and leasing space from St. Christopher’s. Our school district has long been a draw for new residents, but the PILOT program is a poison pill that will erode what we have taken so long to build. This is without a doubt unethical, but is it right?

According to the town’s own website 4 “The redeveloper must evidence that but for the tax abatement, the project would not proceed as designed. Without the use of this tool, the project would not be economically feasible in its current form, yielding an inadequate rate of return. The redeveloper also benefits by having predictable, stable payments over a long-term period. This stability is often necessary for the redeveloper to be able to obtain bank financing for the project.”

The developers argued that inflation is up and interest and labor costs are high. Is that enough to claim that the project would not be financially feasible without the PILOT? In short, NO.

According to the SEC, Avalon Parsippany 3 Urban Renewal is one of hundreds of subsidiaries 5 across the country of AvalonBay communities.

According to the AVB 2022 financial statement 6: “At year-end 2022, these proceeds remained entirely available to us. In addition, we upsized our unsecured revolving credit facility to $2.25 billion from $1.75 billion and extended its term to 2026. At year-end, we had over $600 million in cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet and had no amounts outstanding under our unsecured credit facility.”

The Mayor claimed that we have to give PILOTS or risk losing ratables 8 to surrounding towns the same time he is touting how we are one of the hottest housing markets in the nation 7. New developments fill quickly. With the rental prices of Avalon properties, there is no concern they will profit greatly with or without a PILOT.

He also claims we need to give PILOTS because it is a bad economy. With $600 M in cash and no outstanding debt, AVB can complete both 2 and 3 Campus Drive without even touching the $2.25 B of revolving credit already established and a hot housing market, there is no way they can pretend that the project could not proceed unless they received a tax abatement. The PILOT does impact the project in the least but does pad their sizable bottom line.

It perplexes me why the Mayor and 4 out of 5 council members, knowingly and willingly are sacrificing our children’s education over the next 30 years to line a developer’s pocket. Please shed light on this issue.

Share with your friends and family attend the upcoming Council meetings and have your voice heard.

Sincerely Nicholas Kumburis, MBA, CQA
Transparency Committee Chair, Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills

^{1 “Parsippany In Lots of Trouble” quoted from Casey Parikh}

^{2 https://www.parsippany.net/pages/pilot-program-information}

^{3 https://patch.com/new-jersey/parsippany/school-board-speaks-out-against-parsippany-pilot-approval}

^{4 https://www.parsippany.net/_Content/pdf/Frequently-Asked-Questions-PILOTs-General.pdf}

^{5 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915912/000119312512080629/d235613dex211.htm}

^{6 https://s1.q4cdn.com/777653952/files/doc_financials/2021/ar/2022-annual-report-letter-wrap-final.pdf}

^{7 https://www.parsippany.net/News/View/2259/parsippany-ranked-as-one-of-the-hottest-real-estate-markets-in-the-nation}

Dear Editor:

Notices of Violation have been issued by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to Puddingtone Developers, LLC for unauthorized disturbance to freshwater wetlands and a transition area.

The WLM’s Bureau of Coastal and Land Use Compliance and Enforcement conducted an investigation in response to incident reports regarding alleged unauthorized activities within regulated areas at 35-47 Beverly Stand 59 Koch Avenue in Parsippany-Troy Hills. The Notices were issued in mid-September as the result of the investigation.

In early spring, large piles of soil from the development at the end of Beverly Street were discovered pouring down the mountainside in streams onto the adjacent property of Greystone Psychiatric Hospital.

Limited efforts were made to fix silt fences by the developer. A state-identified vernal pool was filled with sediment and a large freshwater reservoir with a tributary to the North Branch Whippany Watershed was completely muddied. Meanwhile, an NJDEP-capped landfill that had not been touched for 30 years was gullied. The estimate for the remediation is undetermined at this time but is in the seven-figure range according to an engineer for the Department of Human Services.

Puddingstone Developers LLC is part of the Mossberg family and Wilf developers with a long record of questionable building history and ethics in Parsippany Township. Long-time residents of Parsippany who do not share the same love of community impact on the environment and fellow neighbors’ welfare.

Since April 2023, the Puddingstone neighborhoods have collectively been campaigning to Save the Ridge from Puddingtone Developers LLC extension of a creeping subdivision located behind Greystone Psychiatric Hospital and the Morris County Police and Fire Training Academy.

If the Zoning Board of Adjustments approves the C Variance, one of the few densely forested areas left in Parsippany will continue to be demolished, Puddingstone Heights residents maintain.

“It is of the public interest for the board to seriously consider the overwhelmingly negative feedback and concerns over safety in the neighborhood — underscoring the seriousness of their decision, and the liability and culpability of any detrimental outcome on this board — which will be enthusiastically voiced in any such event to any platform warranted,” said resident, Guy Lehman.

In fact, at the first Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing in April, the attendance was over the meeting room capacity and had to be rescheduled to a larger venue. At the July hearing at Parsippany Hills High School, Puddingstone Developers LLC came ill-prepared as their revised plans had not been submitted. The ZBA continued with the meeting questioning the engineer based on outdated 2003 plans. Revised plans were not submitted until 10 days before the September hearing.

What the audience learned at the following hearings is up to individual interpretation as the reason for the developer’s request for a C Variance changes with each ZBA hearing.

At the hearings in July and September, the reason for variance was better marketability for two homes to be built with slightly bigger backyards. In October, the land-use planner stated it was to create a “balance” as his plan would create an ecotone. An ecotone will be created on the steep slope after 372 mature trees are removed only to be replaced by 2-inch-caliber trees that will first be maintained by the Township of Parsippany and then by the new homeowners.

Will the ecotone be able to control the storm waste and intermittent streams that flow like rivers off the mountainside? After the trees are trucked out of this residential neighborhood 2,000 trucks carrying 32,000 cubic yards of questionable dumping of soil from local construction projects to level the mountainside to create a football-sized ledge to build two homes with 400-foot driveways.

The developer is requesting a variance to build on a steep slope that is 5 times the amount that the township steep slope ordinance allows. The developer’s EcolScience study had recently expired and had no intent to provide a letter of interpretation from the NJDEP or permit concerning the purposed regulated activity in and around freshwater wetlands.

When the developer’s engineer was pressed about stormwater management plans, soil erosion, and future damage to the neighborhood properties above and continued damage to the wetlands and Greystone Hospital property below the audience members were repeatedly told by the developer’s attorney “We are only discussing the two building lots”.

“Every property owner has the right to develop their land, but land use laws are put in place to ensure that development occurs responsibly, in a way that looks out for the environment and the good of the broader community,” said Diana Buffum, another area resident. “This developer wants to ignore those rules, just to make more money.”

A vote for the developer’s variance request jeopardizes the mountainside, according to the concerned residents from Puddingstone Ridge, and its neighbors above and below, which the developer’s attorney refuses to address.

Parsippany Township is at risk for future damages to the North Branch Whippany Watershed and the responsibility for the destruction of the wetlands and Greystone Psychiatric Hospital grounds, the resident group contends. The Zoning Board’s vote will determine the future topography of the Watnong mountainside and a landscape forever changed.

“We support responsible development so that people can coexist with the environment, without causing irreparable harm,” said Chris Venezia.

The next meeting on this issue with an opportunity for statements from the public will be Wednesday, November 29 when the Parsippany Zoning Board of Adjustments convenes at 7:00 p.m. at Parsippany High School, 40 Baldwin Road.

Jes Becker
PCC Kids
Club Puddingstone Action Team

Dear Editor:

Have Parsippany Officials performed any due diligence in their knowledge and applications of The Sciences of Ecology? Especially the ecotone scam, and our water future?

Understanding ecology is to safeguard the environment and improve human well-being. To refer to themselves as “Puddingstone Developers LLC” is absurd. This is an antithesis to the Puddingstone Ridge Corporation of the original founding community.

The developer produced NO EXPERTS in the required fields, Ecology, Hydrology, Forestry. In his fantasy of ecotones, and destroying an established forested area, to make it better. Planners and Engineers in the service of LL are not; experts in this testimony, as was obvious.

Developers’ presumption of ecotone balance, or as stated a better landscape after a major disturbance; erasing a sensitive landscape would be laughable to anyone with a basic knowledge of ecology.

The Board itself prevented Due Diligence in rejecting Advanced Property Reports/ Advanced Scientific Data made available for such Boards, and the Public concerning the properties’ inherent characteristics. We should not be concerned with Ecotones, (a misused term in this situation) but Ecosystem Services and functions that will be lost to the detriment of the Township. Established Maturing Tree Species, Original Landscape Biodiversity, Groundwater Recharge, A remaining unique neighborhood.

In addition, we must state that Groundwater Recharge cannot be ignored as O’Neil stated, Parsippany has the highest water deficit between 1-7.11 Million gallons a day. (The Block Lots are majority GWRA. Block 45.10 6.70 acres (59.37%) Lot 11 3.03 acres 99.55%)-(These areas will be erased and surely severely degraded, and their ecosystem services gone) ( The disturbance will surely have some additional impacts on the areas overall recharge phenomena )

Page 64 Master Plan.

A water allocation permit from the NJDEP is required for the diversion of

large amounts of groundwater for long periods of time.12 The Township has an NJDEP permit for up to 2,900 million gallons per year and uses about 80% of that amount within capacity limits of daily water supply. To conserve water Parsippany limits the number of days when residents and businesses may water their lawns from the start of June until the end of September each year.

* Note according to Highlands data most of Parsippany is in a water deficit area. The deficit is somewhere between 1 and 7.11 MGD. The most stressed category of water deficit in the Highlands. Part of the problem in addition to over-development/impervious surface, failure to protect GWRA in the past, depletion, (leaks), consumption (lawn culture), groundwater is withdrawn and then conveyed to the downstream sewer treatment plant, where it flows down the Rockaway River and is no longer available to recharge the aquifer, What is called water mining.

Tree Ground Cover and Soil Erased? Making it Better by Destroying a Landscape. another ecological impossibility; laughable.

At the very least Shelter-Wood Forestry Method should be applied, not the total erasing of trees, soils, and groundcover biota. (the animal and plant life of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.)

How can a major development asking for a hardship, suddenly change that position, and allege that their major development is a balance; that Ecotone can be better than a natural landscape or life in harmony with the Puddingstone Community?

The proposed major development is a Monstrosity ignoring and disregarding Master Plan Goals and Objectives Six are violated/ignored: 1-2 -7-10-11-12. (which in the time allotted cannot be read and emphasized)

3 minutes for concerned citizens to defend their Homeland, while a rich corporate developer has all the time necessary. Pride in Parsippany is just three words? We shall see.