Residents Taken on Tour of Montville Through the Years

“If we don’t know our history, we’re not going to know our future,” Tom Mazzacaro told the audience at the Montville Township Senior Center on Monday.

Mazzacaro gave a Historic Society presentation entitled “Prospective Town Planning and Development since 1965,” which gave a deep look into how Montville changed in the last five decades to get to where it is today. Mazzacaro, director of the Department of Public Works, served on the township planning board from 1975 through 1990.

“In January 1973, when I moved into Montville Township, it was mostly farms and wooded areas west of Changebridge Road and north of Horseneck Road," Mazzacaro said. “The community park was a working dairy farm owned by the Sisco family. Trinity Baptist Church and Changebridge Road was a horse farm. There was one traffic light in Pine Brook."

Montville's population more than tripled since 1940, but has stabilized in recent years. 

“In 1970, the population was 11,846,” Mazzacaro said. "It had doubled in the '60s from 6,772. At the start of World War II, it was 3,207. The large increase from 1960-70 was due to the development in Pine Brook, largely accounted for by the completion of Route 80.  

“The largest growth period of Montville Township took place between 1960 and 1970. It was in those 10 years that the five existing elementary schools were built. In 1974, the school population was 3,709 students. Today, 37 years later, it has only increased by 511 students to 4,220.”

There were fewer people in 1974 but the number of children per residential unit has gone down.

“In 1974, there were 3,534 residential units in Montville Township," he said. "Today, there are 8,200, an increase of 4,666. One might ask, why the school population didn’t increase at the same rate as in 1974?”

The answer, according to Mazzacaro, is that the average child per residential unit has gone down from 1.05 in 1974 to 0.5 today. The average child per apartment/condo is only 0.2 children, or one child for every five units.

Mazzacaro continued, “If the 1974 trend for children per residential unit remained at the same rate, we could conceivably have a school population of over 8,000. Our taxes would be very much higher, and I am sure many of us would not be here today as a result.”

Mazzacaro said zoning changed the character of the town.

“In the '50s and '60s, and up to 1975, the zoning north of Horseneck Road was primarily industrial. In those years, manufacturing and industrial plants were very prevalent in New Jersey, especially where interstate highways were being planned.

“The per acre selling price was much higher for industrial than for residential. The township committee was mostly farmers or farmer sympathizers. Route 80 and Route 287 were looming, which contributed to the push for the high value industry zoning."

Recreational space had not even been a consideration.

“Incidentally, the township did not have any land preserved for open space recreational use," Mazzacaro said. "In theory, Montville Township north of Horseneck Road was planned as an industry corridor for Route 287, as was done for the Route 46 and Route 80 corridors.”

Mazzacaro was appointed to the township planning board in 1974, and became chair in 1975.

"We did a lot in those early years," he said. "The board used to meet two to three times a month. This time period was extremely crucial to the development of Montville and what it would look like forever.”

Mazzacaro said that a 1975 Supreme Court decision required municipalities to provide for a variety of housing to be available for all income levels of the public. Montville was exclusively single family at the time.

"This resulted in zoning for the Changebridge condos at Route 202, the Campagna, age-restricted condos and 50 two-family housing units where the Meadows condos are now located," he said.  

This was a turning point for Montville Township. 

“Having considered the township was constructing its first municipal well, and that the road infrastructure throughout the northern area would be totally inadequate for industrial development, some 1,800 acres of industrially zoned land was rezoned to residential use,” Mazzacaro said. “A survey of the community at the time indicated the residents preferred that the township develop as a residential community."

The township committee adopted the master plan and abided by it for 10 years.

In 1985, a new Supreme Court decision determined that municipalities provide low and moderate income persons with 22 percent of all new residential and rehabilitated structures to be sold at a fixed, very low market rates. A settlement in a case against Montville resulted in the development of Longview, Rachel Gardens, Chase at Montville, Meadows, Hunting Hills, and Jade Mountain. Montville would provide 20 percent low and moderate units with a certain number allocated to senior citizens, and priority to Montville residents for a period of time. 

“Many local folks availed themselves of this feature,” Mazzacaro said. “There are still varying opinions as to whether the projects were good for Montville Township. The fact is, the residents of the affordable housing zones have been good for the community.”

In 1965, the Township Committee formed the Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA).

“The major reason for a MUA was it’s ability to borrow money separately from the township for construction of water and sewer pipes," Mazzacaro said. "Since 1974, the MUA constructed three municipal wells for purchasing up to two million gallons of water per day from the Jersey City Reservoir, and 250,000 gallons a day from Lincoln Park. As many as 15 sewer pump stations to carry 2.5 million gallons a day were also constructed, which was necessary for the developing and existing properties needing utilities.”

Regarding the Board of Education, Mazzacaro regrets a decision made in 1980.

“The Board of Education and the Township Committee appointed a citizen’s committee to study the declining enrollment in the school system," he said. "The committee recommended closing one elementary school, the middle school and selling off of three old schools no longer used for education. The three old schools were sold but the others were not closed. “

The timing of this proved unfortunate.

“This lower enrollment trend continued to 1994 before starting to rise again,” Mazzacaro said. “If there is one regret I had in this process, it was the selling off the old schools. Today, these schools could have been used for municipal offices and board of education offices.”

Montville experienced a growth spurt following the real estate slump in the early 1990s. 

"In the early 1990s, the state of New Jersey passed a law that extended all previously approved development applications so that they would not need to go back to the planning board for approval,” Mazzacaro said. “Since most developments that took place in the 1990s were approved from 1985 to 1990, the new law jump-started the real estate recovery.

"The recovery lasted 15 years, resulting in Montville Township being almost fully developed in accordance with its zoning and master plans."

The concept of open space changed the rural character of the town.

"In 1990, it was Committeeman Robert Purnell who spearheaded the formation of the Open Space Advisory Committee, Mazzacaro said. "As a result, over the last 20 years, the township acquired over 3,000 acres of preserved forever-open space. I think the preserved open space adds to the value of properties."

The township’s sole source aquifer in Indian Lane in Towaco supplies 90 percent of our annual water consumption. Mazzacaro said studies and zoning ordinance restrictions have been implemented to protect the aquifer from contamination by preserving properties around the aquifer under open space. 

"Residential units are good ratables," he said. "If we had remained industrial, today we'd have a lot of empty buildings and a lot of truck traffic. If there is anything we need to do today, I would say redevelopment of certain areas would add to our town, like the Route 46 corridor. The township and schools are doing a great job of keeping tax rates lower, but you need new development."