Township Committee — April 30, 2026 (special meeting)

What happened

This special meeting was scheduled, members said, to give the public a chance to speak before the May 14 budget hearing. All five members were present. Most of the hour went to routine business: first readings of a $3,253,300 capital bond ordinance (#26-1776), a $300,000 sewer bond ordinance (#26-1777) and a $122,500 capital improvement fund ordinance (#26-1778), all 5-0 with hearings set for May 14, and resolutions on the Plan4HealthNJ grant program, the Polluters Pay bill, grant services and the Folusiak Tract parking area.

The housing case. The township attorney’s legal update at about 19:04 was one sentence: the next case management conference on the affordable housing docket was the following Monday, May 4.

Public comment. Three residents spoke. One addressed a national issue outside township business. Dawn Cohen supported the Polluters Pay resolution. Bala Naik spoke about affordability, said they supported the potential 23 Orchard Road redevelopment, and asked the Committee to consider pausing action on the bond ordinances.

Resolution #26-4-152. At about 1:04:09 the Committee went into executive session on, among other subjects, the affordable housing litigation (Docket No. SOM-L-153-25). The minutes record that it returned at 8:50 p.m. The video resumes at about 1:05:54 with the Mayor announcing “one additional item for the agenda” (uncorrected captions). The resolution was read by title, moved, seconded and adopted with no discussion. Committee Members Martin and Taylor Todd, Deputy Mayor Barragan and Mayor Singh voted yes; Committee Member Ahn abstained. No reason for the abstention was given on the record. The meeting adjourned at 8:52 p.m.

The text of the resolution appears in the minutes. It recites the township’s Fourth Round obligation (73 units of present need and 260 of prospective need) and describes the land: about 13.04 vacant acres between Route 206 and Township Line Road (Block 4071, Lot 1; Block 5002, Lots 4, 5 and 6; Block 5003, Lot 1) in the Belle Mead Planned Unit Development, owned by Country Club Meadows, LLC and Pike Run II, LLC. It finds it “in the best interests of the Township to support the Proposed Development in exchange for the extension of affordability controls at Pike Run.” It authorizes the Mayor and Clerk to sign a memorandum “for the extension of 96 affordable housing rental units at Pike Run in exchange for the development of up to 189 residential units and a park and ride facility,” subject to review by the Township Attorney and Township Engineer.

Why it matters

In October 2025 the Committee announced that an agreement with Pike Run’s owner meant the Kenvue site would no longer be needed in the housing plan. This resolution is the first formal record of what the township agreed to in return (a 149-unit concept for the same land had been described at an August 2025 town hall): its support for up to 189 apartments on land whose current “Transit Commercial” zoning allows retail but no housing. Support is not approval. The apartments still need a rezoning ordinance, Planning Board review and a public hearing, and none of those had happened as of October 2026. The memorandum itself has not been posted; residents can request it from the Township Clerk.

Worth watching

• The legal update (19:04)
• Public comment (20:19)
• Executive session resolution (1:04:09)
• Resolution #26-4-152 adopted (1:05:54)

Sources

• The township’s archive: April 30, 2026 Township Committee special meeting video and transcript. Quotations from the video come from uncorrected closed captions, and timestamps are approximate.
• Township Committee special meeting minutes, April 30, 2026, adopted May 14, 2026, which reproduce Resolution #26-4-152 in full.
• Township Committee agenda, April 30, 2026