What New Construction Is Actually Being Built in North Plainfield, NJ

North Plainfield is 99.4% built out — vacant land is barely half a percent of its ratable base. So its Fourth Round housing plan does the only thing available to a town with no land: it rezones what's already built. The amended plan, adopted March 4, 2026 and filed with the Superior Court, creates three affordable housing overlay zones covering seven sites. It raises maximum density on the "Old Mill" industrial property at Brook Avenue and Pearl Street from 35 to 42 dwelling units per acre. It creates a new overlay permitting 49 age-restricted units plus a manager's unit on a 0.59-acre former convent at 99 Westervelt Avenue. And it adds a third overlay across four commercial properties on or beside Route 22. Separately, the borough's one genuinely developable parcel — the Villa Maria site on Grove Street — is approved for redevelopment, with 32 rental units proposed. For a buyer or owner, the relevant question isn't whether this changes the town. It's which blocks it changes, and none of it is hidden — it's in a document anyone can read.

Every New Jersey municipality must plan for a share of regional housing need, recalculated every ten years in what are called Rounds. The Fourth Round covers 2025 to 2035. North Plainfield adopted a housing plan in May 2025; Fair Share Housing Center challenged it; the Borough entered mediation through the state's Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program; and the resulting amended plan was adopted March 4, 2026 and filed in Superior Court under docket SOM-L-000140-25.

The numbers. The Borough's Present Need is 427 — that figure measures existing deficient housing units and is addressed through rehabilitation rather than construction. Its Fourth Round Prospective Need is 60 new units. Because there is so little developable land, North Plainfield qualified for a Vacant Land Adjustment, which reduced its Realistic Development Potential to just four units, leaving an Unmet Need of 56.

That adjustment is the whole story of development in this borough. The plan states it plainly: North Plainfield is essentially fully developed, most remaining vacant land isn't developable due to environmental constraints, and — in the trust fund section — "no large development projects are anticipated in the coming years due to the lack of vacant and developable land." Which is why the plan works almost entirely through rezoning rather than construction on open ground.

Per Table 1 of the Amendment to the Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, Borough of North Plainfield, adopted March 4, 2026. Total of 78 units and credits plus 15 bonus credits equals 93 credits against a stated Fourth Round Unmet Need obligation of 85. Bonus credits are capped at 25% of Prospective Need, or 15 units. Credits are a planning mechanism and are not the same as constructed units.

The housing plan calls Villa Maria "the one prime developable parcel of land" in the borough as of the 2020 plan, and notes it has been designated and approved for redevelopment. It sits on Grove Street north of Route 22, and it has a history.

The Somerset County Improvement Authority bought the land in 2019 for $4.7 million from Watchung Hills at North Plainfield LLC. The Borough Council adopted a redevelopment plan for the site in 2020. An earlier development proposal drew opposition over traffic and the historic character of the property and was never built. The SCIA has since agreed to sell to Villani Realty Group of Dunellen, at an undisclosed price.

The current proposal, reported ahead of a Planning Board hearing, is eight multi-family buildings of four rental units each — 32 units on 2.06 acres. Thirteen would be affordable and nineteen market-rate, ranging from 846 to 1,162 square feet, with 58 parking spaces including nine for electric vehicles. A community impact plan projects the development would generate roughly sixteen school-age children.

The number that matters to every taxpayer in the borough: officials have said the development could generate roughly $1.2 million a year in taxes on a property that had been tax-exempt. Against a total municipal levy near $68.8 million, that is about 1.7% of everything the borough collects, arriving from a single two-acre site. In a town carrying the county's second-highest effective tax rate, a new ratable of that size is not a small thing. Treat the figure as an official estimate rather than a certified assessment — it will be settled by the assessor at completion.

An overlay zone doesn't replace the underlying zoning — it sits on top of it and permits an additional use, here multifamily residential with an affordable set-aside, in exchange for higher density. An owner can still develop under the base zoning if they prefer. That distinction matters, because an overlay creates an option, not an obligation, and options sometimes go unexercised for years.

AHO — the "Old Mill," Brook Avenue and Pearl Street. A 2.8-acre property, 2.2 developable acres after environmental constraints, currently improved with older industrial buildings in commercial use. The overlay dates to 2017 and was modified in 2020; the amendment now raises maximum density from 35 to 42 dwelling units per acre, increases impervious coverage, and reduces the minimum rear yard. Buildings may reach five stories or 60 feet. Set-aside: maximum 20%, minimum 15% where rentals.

AHO-2 — 99 Westervelt Avenue. Domus Corporation and Metuchen Community Services Corporation, affiliates of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Metuchen, approached the Borough about replacing a former convent with an affordable senior housing project. The new overlay permits 49 age-restricted units plus one on-site manager's unit on a 0.59-acre site, up to four stories or 50 feet. That is by far the densest single proposal in the plan.

AHO-1 — four Route 22 properties. Block 58 Lots 21, 22 and 23; Block 59 Lots 1 and 12; Block 159 Lot 6.01; and Block 161.01 Lots 2 and 3. All are on or contiguous with Route 22 and all are currently or formerly commercial. The overlay permits up to 20 dwelling units per acre at three stories or 45 feet, with a 20% minimum set-aside and parking at one space per two units. If you own or are buying near any of those blocks, that is the zoning change to understand.

Per the draft ordinances at Appendix 3 of the adopted Amendment to the Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, amending Borough Code Chapter 22 §22-113B (AHO), adding §22-113C (AHO-1) and §22-113D (AHO-2). The AHO-2 age-restricted zone is capped by unit count — 49 units plus one staff unit — rather than by density. Draft ordinances still require adoption; confirm current status with the Borough.

If you're buying, check the block and lot against the overlay list. The four AHO-1 properties are identified by block and lot in the ordinance, not by street address, so a casual search won't surface them. A neighbouring property permitted at 20 units per acre and three stories is a material fact about a street — not necessarily a negative one, but something to know before you offer rather than after.

If you own commercial or multi-unit property, the overlays may have made it more valuable. A site permitted at 42 units per acre where it was previously 35, or a former retail parcel now permitted for multifamily at 20 per acre, is worth more to a developer than it was before the ordinance. That is the mechanism by which fully-built towns produce housing — and it is a windfall for whoever happens to own the right parcel. Our multi-family investor's guide covers what operating here actually involves.

There's a borough-wide rule worth knowing too. Under §22-133, any residential development of six or more units at a density above six units per acre permitted through a variance or rezoning must provide affordable housing — 20% for-sale or 15% rental — and the ordinance expressly forbids subdividing a project to duck the threshold. That applies anywhere in the borough, not just in the overlays.

And on the tax side, new ratables cut in your favour. A revaluation redistributes an existing levy; a new ratable expands the base it's spread across. Villa Maria alone, at the officials' estimate, would add roughly 1.7% to the borough's collections from land that previously paid nothing. That doesn't offset the assessment gap we cover in the market report, but it moves in the right direction for existing owners.

Per the adopted Amendment to the Housing Element and Fair Share Plan and published reporting on the Villa Maria proposal. Draft ordinances require adoption and individual projects require Planning Board approval — designation in a plan is not a construction schedule. Confirm current status with the Borough.

Read the housing plan before you buy anywhere in this borough — it's public, it's free, and it names every site. Municipal housing elements are filed with the Superior Court and posted by the Borough, and they tell you more about what a street will look like in ten years than any listing ever will. Almost nobody outside the planning world reads them, which is exactly why they're useful. Twenty minutes with that document and the zoning map and you'll know things the seller's agent very likely doesn't.

"Buyers ask me constantly whether anything is 'going up' near a house, and most agents answer from memory or rumour. In North Plainfield you don't have to guess — the town has published, adopted, and filed in court a document naming every single site. Seven of them. With block and lot numbers. I'd rather hand a client that list and let them decide than have them find out about a rezoning after closing, which is how those conversations usually go."

— Anthony Licciardello, Broker, The Prodigy Team

Knowing what a town has actually committed to build — by block and lot — is part of the job. I'm Anthony Licciardello, Broker of The Prodigy Team, dual-licensed in New York and New Jersey, a member of the Staten Island Growth Management Task Force, and a former Director of Community Affairs in the Bloomberg Administration. Reading municipal planning documents is something I did professionally before I did it for clients.

Our Above the Streets cinematic drone series extends that reach — aerial storytelling that markets entire towns rather than single listings.

Anthony Licciardello · Broker, The Prodigy Team · 718-873-7345

A commercial parcel newly permitted for multifamily at 20 or 42 units per acre is worth something different than it was last year — and to a different buyer. If your block and lot appears in that ordinance, it's worth knowing what that's actually worth before anyone approaches you.

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What new development is planned in North Plainfield, NJ?

The Borough's amended Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, adopted March 4, 2026, names seven sites. The Villa Maria site on Grove Street is approved for redevelopment with 32 rental units proposed. Three affordable housing overlay zones cover the "Old Mill" property at Brook Avenue and Pearl Street, a former convent at 99 Westervelt Avenue where 49 age-restricted units are proposed, and four commercial properties on or beside Route 22. The plan states that no large development projects are anticipated because the borough lacks vacant, developable land.

What is being built at the Villa Maria site in North Plainfield?

Villani Realty Group of Dunellen has proposed eight multi-family buildings of four rental units each — 32 units total on 2.06 acres on Grove Street north of Route 22, with 13 affordable and 19 market-rate units ranging from 846 to 1,162 square feet and 58 parking spaces. The Somerset County Improvement Authority bought the land for $4.7 million in 2019 and the Borough Council adopted a redevelopment plan in 2020. Borough officials have estimated the project could generate roughly $1.2 million a year in taxes on a previously tax-exempt property.

What is an affordable housing overlay zone?

An overlay zone sits on top of existing zoning and permits an additional use — here multifamily residential with an affordable set-aside — in exchange for higher density, without removing the underlying permitted uses. An owner may still develop under the base zoning. North Plainfield's amended plan modifies the existing AHO zone and creates two new ones: AHO-1 across four Route 22 properties at up to 20 units per acre, and AHO-2 at 99 Westervelt Avenue for up to 49 age-restricted units.

What is North Plainfield's Fourth Round affordable housing obligation?

A Present Need of 427, addressed through rehabilitation of existing housing rather than new construction, and a Fourth Round Prospective Need of 60 units for 2025–2035. Because so little land is developable, the Borough qualified for a Vacant Land Adjustment reducing its Realistic Development Potential to four units, leaving an Unmet Need of 56. The plan proposes 78 units and credits plus 15 bonus credits, totalling 93.

Does every new development in North Plainfield have to include affordable units?

Not every development, but the trigger is low. Under Section 22-133 of the Borough Code, any residential development of six or more dwelling units at a density above six units per acre that is permitted through a variance or rezoning must provide affordable housing — 20% of for-sale units or 15% of rental units. The ordinance expressly prohibits subdividing a project to fall below the threshold.

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The Multi-Family Investor's Guide to North Plainfield
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