Country club: no plans to sell land for affordable housing

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — At a recent meeting of the Glen Ridge Borough Council, Special Master Elizabeth McKenzie addressed state-mandated, affordable housing requirements in the borough, saying that the only two places in Glen Ridge where space exists for development are the Glen Ridge Country Club and a tract of land along Baldwin Street.

However, Glen Ridge Country Club President Jim Kirkos said last week that, although the club owns open land that is a potential site for affordable housing, the club does not intend to develop it for anything other than club use.

“I understand you have to deal with affordable housing requirements,” Kirkos said in a telephone interview last week. “But the golf course isn’t going to knock anything down for development. We’re going to keep the club a club.”
The Baldwin Street tract has been purchased by a developer, and the borough is currently in negotiations with him to help determine how a proposed 125-unit residential project with 19 affordable units will look.

“Affordable housing will not take place on club property,” Kirkos said. “There will be no building and no selling of property.”

Councilman Peter Hughes, in a subsequent telephone interview, said that when potential development sites were being considered several years ago, the club was one such site being considered, if its property ever becomes available.
“We have no vacant land,” Hughes said.

He said a silver lining to the proposed Baldwin Street development is that the borough would have a challenge moratorium. The developer who acquired enough Baldwin Street parcels sued the borough so he could build.

Hughes said that, during the moratorium, he hopes state legislation benefiting municipalities with no vacant land will be enacted.