Planning Board — September 28, 2026

What happened

The meeting opened at 7 p.m. The Chair deferred public participation to the individual agenda items. The Board memorialised the Thrive at Montgomery resolution (Case PB-05-25, GTP Acquisitions, LLC, Block 4020, Lot 1), with edits that included a condition on the deed-restricted Medicaid beds. It then held the public hearing on the township’s Comprehensive Municipal Farmland Preservation Plan (August 2026), a Master Plan element. Adoption was carried to October 12. The Board also heard an update on the Plan4Health project, with an in-person listening session set for October 8 at 7 p.m.

Item V: the Grandview Road study. The Chair introduced the update on “the study area in need of redevelopment, 199 Grandview Road, Block 14001, Lot 2” under Resolution #26-9-260. Board Attorney Karen Cayci said it was on the agenda “simply to let the Board know” the governing body had authorised a study. When the report is finished, it will come to the Planning Board and be made available to the public. There will be a public hearing, and the Board will then decide what, if anything, to recommend to the governing body. The governing body makes the decision. No planner was named for the study and no dates were given.

Three residents spoke:

• Jennifer Winell of Skillman said the Board is legally bound to start the investigation but has “full authority over its final findings.” She quoted the 2017 Master Plan reexamination’s language on preserving farmland, open space and woodlands. She called the 257-acre parcel in the Sourlands exactly where that policy should apply. She asked that the final report “explicitly document exactly which county and state preservation funds were explored” and what prevented a preservation partnership. A Board member answered, “we will be independent.”
• Dave Leonard of Skillman summarised Malanga v. West Orange (2023). Under it, a designation needs proof both that a listed condition exists and that it makes the area “detrimental to the safety, health, morals and welfare of the community.” He asked what about a site “still occupied by Kenvue through the end of the year” meets that test.
• Devra Keenan, a former mayor, raised a separate concern about the mayor and began to read a statement from Bruce Afran, attorney for Save Montgomery. The Chair asked her to save it for the hearing: “we’re not close to that yet.”

Item VI: the appointment. Board counsel said in terms that the professional appointment was for “23 Orchard, not Grandview.” Staff confirmed that 23 Orchard is now at the redevelopment-plan stage, after its April 16 designation. A Board subcommittee had interviewed three firms. Members said they wanted a view independent of “a concept plan that was really done by the developer” and of the Board’s regular planner. One member mentioned the hope of a partnership with Princeton University for research or start-up uses. The resolution hires eConsult Solutions, Inc. for economic development advisory services on the 23 Orchard Road redevelopment plan. The fee is not to exceed $65,500, the term ends December 31, 2026, and the firm was procured as a non-fair-and-open professional contract. Cayci added that the money comes from an escrow posted by the property owner. The roll call was unanimous.

Future items: Springpoint at Montgomery, the 23 Orchard redevelopment, and “E. Kahn Development Corp. — 199 Grandview Road.” The meetings ahead are the site plan subcommittee on October 6 at 8:30 a.m. and the Planning Board on October 12 at 7 p.m. There is no second October meeting, because the room will be used for early voting. Then come the subcommittee on November 3 and the Board on November 9.

Why it matters

This was the first time the Kenvue referral appeared before the body that has to carry it out. Three things came out of it.

First, the hearing has not been scheduled and is not imminent. The Chair said as much. The statute requires two weeks of published notice, the last at least ten days before the hearing, plus mailed notice to the owners. Residents will see it coming.

Second, who writes the Kenvue report is not settled on the record. Resolution #26-9-260 names Clarke Caton Hintz, the Board’s regular planner and author of the June 2025 plan that put 417 units on the site. On September 14 the Board went into closed session on “appointment of a special planning consultant.” It took this route for 23 Orchard Road’s plan, hiring a firm with no prior Montgomery work. It has announced nothing comparable for Grandview.

Third, 23 Orchard Road is the template. It went from referral to designation in six months, and nobody spoke at its hearing. The Kenvue site will follow the same statutory path. It is a different parcel, with an owner that is suing the township twice and a tenant still on site until year end.

Worth watching

• The Board attorney on the process (1:05:32)
• Jennifer Winell (1:06:48)
• Dave Leonard on Malanga (1:10:06)
• “We’re not close to that yet” (1:12:20)
• The 23 Orchard appointment (1:13:30)
• Future agenda items and meeting dates (1:22:00)

Sources

• The township’s archive: September 28, 2026 Planning Board meeting video and transcript. Quotations come from uncorrected closed captions, and timestamps are approximate.
• Planning Board agenda, September 28, 2026
• Headline News Montgomery, September 30, 2026, which confirmed the speakers’ names.
• The Montgomery News, October 1, 2026
• Minutes for this meeting had not been posted as of October 3, 2026.