Madison Mayor addresses Drew lawsuit at meeting; environmental groups call for forest preservation

By Alex Parker-Magyar for Madison Eagle

MADISON - Mayor Robert Conley took issue with several positions expressed in Drew University's lawsuit against the town at a Borough Council meeting Monday, but said Madison is committed to its relationship with the university.

He said the two sides have an August court hearing in which Madison's 2020 settlement with the Fair Share Housing Center advocacy group will be discussed.

The university contends in its lawsuit filed on June 22 that the borough intentionally and illegally omitted 63 acres of undeveloped Drew land, including much of the Drew Forest, from the state-mandated affordable housing settlement.

Drew's recent attempts to have much of the land rezoned for multi-family housing and sold to a developer to help mitigate financial difficulties have run headlong into the efforts of the borough, environmental groups and a grassroots advocacy campaign to preserve the forest.

"This is a difficult time for Madison and Drew University, but for the greater good, we cannot take their recent action personally," Conley said Monday.

"Next month, we will have our hearing to support what was and is a great settlement to provide affordable housing in our community. When we get past this hurdle, we will get back on track supporting Drew University while doing the best we can do for all of Madison."

He defended the borough's current affordable housing plan, which is centered around a 44-home, all-affordable complex to be built on Walnut Street and Community Place, and Madison's history of providing affordable housing in town.

He cited additional affordable housing efforts in Madison, past and present, and the existence of the Madison Housing Authority as one of only three suburban-based housing authorities in New Jersey.

The lawsuit, he said, is an "ill-informed attack on Madison's longtime commitment to affordable housing. I've often said that Madison is committed to providing affordable housing as a moral, not a legal, obligation."

The mayor also spoke of the borough's efforts to support Drew as it has faced years of budget deficits, putting the school in a "dire position that had them selling properties." He cited the sale of numerous former university parcels on the edge of the campus in recent years, of which Madison has been "nothing but supportive."

He pointed to the rezoning and subsequent sale of the Loantaka Way land that now houses the Copper Beech townhomes, which sold for $8.75 million in December.

"This property had zoning restrictions greatly limiting its value; Madison moved quickly in responding to Drew's request," he said.

He also said it was the university, not the borough, that was responsible for Madison missing a deadline to apply for a Morris County open space grant to help preserve the forest.

"The deadline to file was last month, and the number one requirement is to have a purchase agreement in place," he said. "An agreement has to include the sale price backed up with appraisals. With this deadline in mind, I had convened a meeting with Drew administration and board leadership back in February, but Drew was not able to meet those requirements. They were very well aware at the time that the next funding cycle would be 2023."

He pointed to the borough's long and mutually beneficial relationship with the university when addressing Drew's attorneys' contention that Madison negotiated with the university in bad faith while seeking to fulfill its affordable housing obligations.

Drew claims Madison intentionally held drawn-out, on-and-off land acquisition talks with the university in an attempt to look good to the court before ultimately abandoning the plans, failing to report the undeveloped land in settlement documents, and moving forward with the Walnut Street and Community Place project. The borough refutes the characterization.

"To paraphrase the previous Drew president, Gov. Tom Kean: 'Since its founding, Drew University and Madison are perfect together,'" Conley said.

"We have been a partner with Drew to the point that I was recognized with an honorary degree based on our excellent community relationship. We are committed to continuing to support Drew during these difficult times."

Letters Of Support For Forest

Later in the meeting, the council heard of two more environmental groups throwing their support behind the Save the Drew Forest campaign.

The organizations, the Native Plant Society of New Jersey and the Passaic River Coalition, join such groups as the Great Swamp Watershed Association and Schiff Natural Land Trust, along with numerous individual ecologists and environmental advocates, in their calls to preserve the woods.

Deb Ellis, vice president of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey's Essex County chapter, said the board of directors for the larger organization formally adopted a resolution supporting the forest on June 16. The Borough Council passed its own resolution in May 2021.

"We applaud your commitment to preserving the entire 53-acre forest because it serves as a unique living classroom, a critical native plant refuge and a major wildlife corridor," Ellis told the council. "As an organization dedicated to education, we laud Drew Forest's public walking paths, nature trail guide, many labeled plants and benches that encourage public appreciation of nature."

She spoke of the value of preserving pristine natural habitat at a time when populations of native animal species are plummeting and biodiversity is disappearing.

"Much of the biodiversity crisis is due to habitat loss, and the only way to reverse the declines is to preserve places like Drew Forest," she said. "It would be nothing less than tragic for the people of Madison, Morris County and indeed all of New Jersey to lose this precious resource."

Claire Whitcomb, chair of the Madison Environmental Commission and a member of the Friends of the Drew Forest steering committee, said the "hugely important" Passaic River Coalition recently submitted its own letter of support for the forest preservation effort. Whitcomb read from the letter written by Passaic River Coalition Executive Director Laurie Howard.

The letter reads, in part: "Drew Forest's ecology, with its mature trees, some of the oldest in Morris County, trails, wildlife habitat, wetlands and forests greatly contributes to replenishing the Buried Valley Aquifer," which provides drinking water to Madison and neighboring towns and has seen its water level drop steeply in recent decades.

"Clearly, for many years the Drew Forest quietly provided incredible environmental value to the watershed of the university and surrounding communities," Howard writes. "Now, as we face climate changes and too many economic pressures for development, its value to our environmental well-being has increased exponentially and its preservation is ever more critical.

"These precious lands known as the Drew Forest deserve continued preservation and stewardship and an immediate and resolute finality to development considerations of any kind."