Round one to the neighbors, KO for Council?

With JMCK Holding Corp. crying uncle and heading back to the drawing board with its plan for the corner of DeGraw Avenue and Teaneck Road, residents have proven their ability to flex their muscles and push back development in Teaneck's residential neighborhoods. It is too early to say whether neighborhood pressure will compel Holuba Realty to scale back its plans for a massive residential project near Herrick Park, but it is clear that residents are girding for battle. Given the many misgivings neighbors and officials alike have about Holuba's proposals, it would not be surprising if the rather ambitious project under consideration never came to fruition.

Taken alone, these developments are neither good nor bad for Teaneck, but they do have repercussions for the political scene. The newly elected members of the Township Council all campaigned to some degree on boosting ratables in order to ease the homeowner tax burden. As more and more potential projects are nixed by community opposition, the prospects for fulfilling this cornerstone campaign promise dim and the probability increases that current Council members will be forced to campaign as incumbents with nothing to show for their terms in office. Blaming the voters for blocking development is unlikely to work as an excuse.

This puts the politicians in a difficult position. They need to make a meaningful dent in tax bills (or at least slow the rate of increase considerably) and they have committed themselves to doing so by boosting ratables rather than cutting services. With this course ruled out by the residents, the pressure is growing to find shared services arrangements or other sources of savings to cover up the inability of the Council members to deliver on their main promise. Expect to see a frenzy of activity on this front in the future as the urgency is growing by the day...