Morris County's building boom and other top stories of the year − and what's next in 2023
For the first time in three years, the COVID-19 pandemic did not dominate local headlines in 2022.
Instead, the year that was brought explosive development and redevelopment in already-dense Morris County, an unprecedented rise in auto theft, dramatic court verdicts and even a controversial legal challenge to a narrow election victory in former Gov. Chris Christie's hometown.
Here's a look back at some of the biggest stories and issues covered by the Daily Record over the past 12 months − many of them likely to keep playing out in 2023.
Groundbreakings and makeovers in high gear
Local planners and elected officials have been predicting the area would see significant construction since a landmark New Jersey Supreme Court decision in 2015. That ruling empowered local courts to give broad latitude to developers who promise to include affordable housing in their projects.
That forecast was borne out around Morris County in 2022. Work began on long-planned residential and commercial developments, many on the lots of shuttered office parks, factories and mills from the last century that were demolished to make way for new construction.
Mixed-use residential-commercial projects include the 600-unit Parq project and 498-unit District at 1515 development in Parsippany. Another 548 residential units are going up on the 74-acre former Mondelez property in East Hanover. More housing is under construction in Boonton, Boonton Township, Hanover, Morristown and other communities.
Large commercial developments also got off the ground in 2022, including the Morris Marketplace in Morris Township on the former site of consumer-products maker Colgate-Palmolive. Other high-profile projects were approved this year with work expected to begin in 2023, including a training facility and headquarters for the New York Red Bulls soccer club in Morris Township on property formerly owned by Honeywell.
The boom in warehouses and distribution centers seen across the state also made its way to Morris County, with a plan unveiled in September to redevelop the long-dormant Hercules munition plant property in Roxbury.
In most cases, residential construction projects included a 20% low-income housing component to fulfill a town's affordable housing obligations based on the 1975 Mount Laurel Doctrine. That doctrine grew out of a series of state Supreme Court rulings that found towns were using exclusionary zoning to avoid providing their “fair share” of the region’s affordable homes.
Forty years later, in 2015, the court ruled the state's Council on Affordable Housing was still failing to overcome discrimination. The justices' solution was to put the matter back into the hands of municipal courts, where developers pledging to include low-income housing can win "builder's remedy" lawsuits to force towns to approve their plans.
One of the latest fights erupted in Madison, where the town was hauled into court by Drew University as the school seeks permission to sell 53 acres of woodlands to a developer.
Auto theft on the rise
New Jersey's epidemic of auto thefts became a federal issue in 2022 as criminal gangs, often including juveniles, targeted the wealthy suburbs of Morris and surrounding counties. Their favored targets: luxury vehicles left unlocked with key fobs inside.
State senators Anthony Bucco and Richard Codey, whose districts include parts of Morris County, teamed up in the summer to propose legislation to battle the problem, including stiffer penalties.
Their announcement followed a July report by the USA TODAY Network New Jersey that documented a 23% increase in vehicle thefts in New Jersey, based on State Police data.
"Let's not confuse anything: This is a crisis in New Jersey," said Bucco, a Republican. Cody is a Democrat.
By October, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) was also pushing for action in Congress. She co-sponsored a bill that would appropriate $150 million in grants over five years to local law enforcement to combat stolen-vehicle trafficking across the nation.
Tragic losses
No year goes by without breaking news reports of fatal fires, crashes and other accidents. The greater Morris community was shocked when a beloved local couple died in a raging fire in their historic home in Morris Township.
Robert and Gemma Ricciardi died after their home on Normandy Heights Road caught fire early on the morning of Aug. 5. Robert, known to many as Bob or Bobby, was the executive vice president of the Ricciardi Brothers chain of paint stores he operated with his brother, Walter. The company was founded by their father, Joseph, in 1929.
Like the Ricciardis, Oddfrid Tokle, 98, was a beloved pillar of her close-knit community, the neighborhood surrounding Lake Telemark in Rockaway Township. Tokle, who escaped her native Norway ahead of Nazi occupation in 1939, died in a raging house fire in April. The blaze also displaced three surviving generations of her family.
June brought another tragedy in Mine Hill, where two young men drowned in an area of Sunset Lake, where swimming was prohibited due to the strong undercurrent, thick weeds and other hazards.
A conviction and a shocking acquittal
The COVID pandemic slowed the criminal and civil court system for the better part of two years, but in 2022, the legal system got back in gear. Two notable trials in Morris County produced dramatically different results.
Former Newark police officer John Formisano, who in 2019 fatally shot his estranged wife outside their Jefferson home, was convicted in October of murdering 37-year-old Christie Solaro-Formisano. Jurors also found Formisano, 52, guilty of the attempted murder of her boyfriend, Timothy Simonson. The ex-cop was sentenced earlier this month to 79 years behind bars.
In April, a jury in the same Morristown courthouse found former Olympian Michael Barisone not guilty by reason of insanity of attempted murder. The charges stemmed from a 2019 shooting on his upscale Long Valley dressage farm that left a tenant on the property clinging to life.
The 12 jurors deliberated for roughly 18 hours before choosing not to convict Barisone, 58, for shooting Lauren Kanarek twice in the chest, or for shooting at her fiancé, Robert Goodwin.
Following his acquittal, Barisone, who had faced 60 years in prison if convicted, drew support from the tight-knit dressage community, including a GoFundMe campaign that has amassed nearly $70,000 to help him "rebuild his life."
Incarcerated since his arrest in 2019, Barisone was committed to the state hospital system following his acquittal. He remained in custody after a review in September, according to an equestrian website following the case. Now a patient at Greystone Park Hospital in Parsippany, his next review is scheduled for March 8.
Tight Mendham election spurs a lawsuit
Mendham Township Deputy Mayor Thomas Baio and the Morris County Republican Committee went to court in December to challenge his three-vote loss in November's municipal election to Democrat Lauren Spirig.
The lawsuit was filed hours before a Township Committee meeting in which residents complained the controversy had turned the township into a "laughingstock" in the international media. They urged Baio to concede.
The suit alleged 29 mail-in ballots were cast by individuals who were no longer residents and should be invalidated. Democrats claim those voters, identified by name in the lawsuit, were mostly young residents still using their home address; only Democrats were targeted, they said.
Upping the political tension, one voter named in the complaints was the daughter of Amalia Duarte, the lone Democrat on the Township Committee and also the chairwoman of the Morris County Democratic Committee.
The case is still pending, with the township's annual reorganization meeting − including the swearing-in of new committee members − scheduled for next Thursday, Jan. 5.
Roxbury HS students build Habitat For Humanity home
Perhaps the most positive story of the year saw a special group of Roxbury High School students complete a multi-year "assignment" to build a Habitat for Humanity home in the school's parking lot.
The modular home, built in two pieces, was transported across town on a truck and lowered by crane onto a prepared foundation in the Landing neighborhood near Lake Hopatcong. Witnessing the event were the student builders, town officials and the home's new owners, a family of five from Orange. They moved into the house in August.
"I can tell you I never learned so much in high school," said Roxbury High's Corey Smith, who went directly into construction work after graduating in June, hoping to become a crane operator. "It's a beautiful thing to see the family here and know we built a house for them."
Seven towns approve retail cannabis sales
Sales of recreational marijuana in New Jersey were approved by voter referendum in 2020 but the rollout of retail cannabis stores has been slow. To date, only 20 dispensaries have opened for recreational sales around the state, none in Morris County.
But sales moved a step closer to reality in 2022. Officials in seven Morris towns − Boonton, Butler, Dover, Morristown, Rockaway, Rockaway Township and Victory Gardens − approved retail pot sales, though none had a dispensary open by the end of the year.
The Boonton council initially supported a proposal to expand its established retail cannabis zone to accommodate a proposal from one seller. But in December, facing vocal opposition from the public, the council voted 5-4 against the revision.
Rockaway "Proud Boy" pleads guilty in Jan. 6 Capitol riot
A Rockaway Township man pleaded guilty in October to a federal civil disorder charge for his role with the right-wing Proud Boys group during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that sought to keep then-President Donald Trump in power.
Shawn Price, 28, who served as vice president of a North Jersey chapter of the Proud Boys, traveled to Washington, D.C. with around a dozen other members and entered the restricted grounds of the Capitol, according to court documents. Prosecutors alleged Price helped push a crowd forward into a line of police officers who were trying to restrain the riot.
Price, who lived for a time in Hopatcong in Sussex County, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, which carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison.
Wrecking ball claims historic Saint Francis facility in Denville
Most people won't miss the vacant office buildings razed to allow for new construction around the county. But in the fall, Denville residents mourned the demolition of the historic Saint Francis Residential Community just outside the downtown area.
Operating in a stately brick edifice on a sprawling 16-acre campus near Saint Clare's Hospital, the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother stayed true to their mission of caring for seniors for 127 years. But with a dwindling order and a building in disrepair, they turned the property over in 2021 to nonprofit Springpoint Senior Living.
The good news: Rather than taking the usual route and maximizing redevelopment of the pastoral landmark property, Springpoint pledges to build a new facility there dedicated to residential senior care.
Staff writers Kyle Morel and Lori Comstock contributed to this article.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com
Twitter: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Morris County development, auto theft top DailyRecord 2022 stories
