Nineteen residents spoke about the Bardy property. Here is what the record establishes.
A large crowd filled the April 16 meeting over a site in Warren's affordable housing plan. The minutes name nineteen speakers from thirteen streets. The unit count is not established.
A large crowd came to the Warren Township Committee meeting on April 16, 2026 over a specific location included in the Township's affordable housing plan. Nineteen residents are named in the minutes as raising concerns about development at the Bardy property, covering environmental conditions, traffic, flooding, school impact, sewer capacity, unit count, emergency services impact and lack of communication. Mayor Shaun Fine, Township Attorney William Willard and Planner Katherine Sarmad explained the affordable housing process before deferring questions to Privilege of the Floor. Sarmad advised that the AvalonBay challenge was dismissed. The meeting ran until 10:37 p.m.
What happened in the room
Before opening the scheduled public hearings, Mayor Fine addressed the crowd directly about the site. Fine, Willard and Sarmad walked through how the affordable housing process works, then deferred questions to Privilege of the Floor so residents could be heard on the record rather than during an ordinance hearing on an unrelated item.
Nineteen residents are named in the minutes. They came from Morning Glory Road, North Road, Lara Place, Promenade, Betsy Ross Drive, Sneider Road, Sage Drive, Quail Run, William Penn Road, Washington Valley Road, Avon Road, Jessica Lane and Darkwood Court. That is thirteen streets, which is worth noting because it tells you this was not one cul de sac showing up. The concerns recorded were environmental conditions, traffic, flooding, school impact, sewer capacity, unit count, emergency services impact, and lack of communication from the Township.
Planning Board Chairman John Lindner addressed the audience about the Planning Board process and the opportunities for comment that come later in it. Sarmad advised the room that the AvalonBay challenge was dismissed.
The meeting adjourned at 10:37 p.m.
How the Bardy property got into the plan
On February 25, 2026 the Warren Township Planning Board adopted the Amended Housing Element and Fair Share Plan. That amendment added three replacement sites. One of them is 149 Washington Valley Road, which the Planning Board minutes identify as Bardy Farms. The other two are 155 Washington Valley Road, the Firewood site, and 41 Mountain Boulevard, the Village Square Mall or Chua property.
At that February meeting Sarmad testified to the shape of the obligation. The Township's obligation is 262 units, of which many are credits. The number of actual new affordable units is closer to 150, likely coming from approximately 500 total new units across the sites, at set asides of 25 to 30 percent on most sites against a 20 percent statewide minimum.
Those are the numbers that exist in the record. They are plan level numbers, not site level numbers.
Three things, and they are the three things people most want answered.
First, the unit count proposed at the Bardy property is not established anywhere in the record I reviewed. Second, the record does not establish which of the AH-9, AH-10, AH-11 or AH-12 districts, if any, corresponds to the Bardy property. Those ordinances identify parcels by block and lot only, and I am not going to connect a block and lot to a named farm without a source that makes the connection explicitly. Third, TAPinto covered the April 16 meeting under a headline referencing misinformation circulating about Bardy Farms, but the article body is gated, so the contents of that alleged misinformation are unverified here and I am not going to characterize them.
Why the unit count question is hard to answer right now
The gap between what residents were asking and what the officials could answer is structural, not evasive.
Warren's plan sets an obligation and identifies sites. The Township Committee adopts zoning districts with unit caps and set aside percentages. A specific number of specific units at a specific address arrives later, when an applicant files a site plan with the Planning Board and puts a drawing in front of the public. That is the stage Lindner was describing when he talked about future comment opportunities.
So the honest answer to "how many units at Bardy" as of April 16, 2026 is that the record does not contain one. That is unsatisfying if you live on Morning Glory Road. It is still what the record says.
The author's read
Labeled as my own opinion and separate from the facts above.
The complaint recorded in the minutes that I would take most seriously is lack of communication. The affordable housing plan amendment was adopted by the Planning Board on February 25 at a properly noticed public meeting. The crowd arrived in April. That sequence suggests the residents most affected learned about the plan after the decision that put their neighborhood in it had already been taken.
Nothing about that is unlawful. It is a familiar pattern in New Jersey land use, and it is the reason the Planning Board site plan stage now carries more weight than it otherwise would.
Also that night, data centers
One other item from April 16 is worth flagging separately, because it moved fast afterward.
Committeeman Daniel Croson raised the noise and energy impacts of data centers, citing New Jersey municipalities that have limited or prohibited them. The Committee directed Willard and Sarmad to research the issue and draft an ordinance for its consideration.
The record of that discussion contains no reference to a pending application. This was the Committee raising a use before it arrived, which is the opposite of the sequence that produced the crowd earlier in the same meeting.
- Township of Warren, Township Committee Regular Meeting Minutes, April 16, 2026. https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_04162026-968
- Township of Warren, Planning Board Meeting Minutes, February 25, 2026. https://www.warrennj.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02252026-957
John Mangini
Broker / Owner, NextHome Premier
Warren Township resident and full time broker, serving clients since 1999. Warren 07059 is written from live Garden State MLS data, township records and primary sources. Every figure is traceable to a source listed above.
