Township Committee — February 19, 2026

What happened

This was the meeting at which the amended Fourth Round housing plan — the plan that removes the former Kenvue campus at 199 Grandview Road from Montgomery’s affordable housing obligation — was laid out for the full Township Committee, and at which the ordinance that implements it was introduced.

The township planner repeated the presentation the Planning Board had received on February 9. Round Four runs 2025–2035, with a state midpoint review in 2030, and Montgomery’s obligation is 260 credits. The amended plan meets it by extending expiring affordability controls on existing units instead of building new inclusionary developments: McKinley Commons and Montgomery Glen unchanged, McKinley Court modified to claim more bonus credits, and Pike Run’s family rentals new to the plan — 210 units exist there, of which 96 are being extended now. The planner said the township has maximized the bonus credits the state allows, up to 25 percent of the allocation. Three sites come out: the Kenvue site, 23 Orchard Road, and Thrive Assisted Living, whose senior credits are deferred to a later round so more of McKinley Court’s age-restricted credits fit under the state cap.

The Committee then introduced Ordinance #26-1771, repealing and replacing Chapter 15, “Affordable Housing,” on first reading, with the public hearing and final vote set for March 5. Township Attorney Wendy Rubinstein Quiroga described it as adopting the state’s model ordinance so the statutory citations are current, not as a substantive change. Introduction passed on a roll call of Ahn, Taylor Todd, Deputy Mayor Barragan and Mayor Singh — four ayes. Committeeman Martin is called at the opening roll but does not answer and casts no vote in any roll call that night. The ordinance was later adopted with all five members present on March 5, 2026.

Also adopted: Ordinance #26-1770, the filming-permit ordinance, and Resolution #26-2-87, consenting to the sale of 145 Hartwick Drive — a deed-restricted affordable complex — to a buyer who assumes the existing restrictions. The meeting closed into executive session under Resolution #26-2-89 to discuss affordable housing litigation, docket SOM-L-153-25.

Why it matters

Removing the Kenvue site from the housing plan is what residents had asked for since June 2025, and this is the meeting where that change stopped being an announcement and became a document with an ordinance behind it. But the plan governs only how Montgomery satisfies a state housing obligation; it does not change what may be built at 199 Grandview Road. The planner said plainly that the site is available for reuse or redevelopment under its existing zoning, through a site plan before the Planning Board or a use variance before the Zoning Board. That is a fair statement of the law, and it is why the argument over the property did not end here.

Worth watching

• Affordable Housing Update, 16:43 — the full presentation.
• Site by site, 25:20 — what comes out of the plan and why.
• General development plans explained, 30:55 — why the GDP application went nowhere.
• Ownership and naming, 39:40.
• The township on zoning and notice, 46:00.
• Ordinance #26-1771 introduced, 54:44.

Public comment

Five residents spoke. Candy Willis criticised the Committee’s Black History Month resolution as unchanged for four years and as conflating Black history in Montgomery with one well-funded institution while omitting volunteer historical groups.

Lloyd Fernandez objected to the presentation labelling the property “the E. Kahn site.” He said the June 2025 commitment letter came from 199 Grandview Partners LLC rather than from E. Kahn, and that the property is now owned by four limited liability companies, none of them E. Kahn Development.

Nancy Castilino said the residents’ position had never changed: no housing on the Kenvue site and no zoning change, and that the township need not choose among the developer’s three concepts because leaving the light-industrial zoning alone is also an option. She asked whether any Committee or Planning Board member had a direct or indirect interest in the property. The answer from the dais was that, to the speaker’s knowledge, nobody on either body has an interest in the four LLCs now of record, and that everyone who sits at the table files an annual interest disclosure with the state. Castilino also said contamination on the site remains active and offered paperwork, which she was asked to leave with the clerk. The response from the dais was that nothing in the housing plan contemplates a zoning change or housing at that site, and that any future change would require an ordinance, a noticed public hearing, and written notice to every owner within 200 feet.

Two comments were unrelated to housing: Sadaf Jafar, a former mayor, said she had been told she was not welcome at an interfaith event at which the mayor was to speak, and the reply from the dais was that the event is private; Brian Nann asked for help with uncollected dog waste at Skillman Park.

The Planning Board hearing on the amended plan was set for the following Monday, February 23. The planner told the Committee the township was watching the forecast. That hearing was postponed by a blizzard; the Planning Board’s public hearing and adoption took place on March 9, 2026.

Source: Montgomery Township meeting video, February 19, 2026 Township Committee, with the March 5 adoption checked against the township’s minutes.