No 'conflict': Court-appointed official can work with Wayne affordable housing, says judge
WAYNE — A judge decided this week that the special master assigned to the township's affordable-housing case does not have a conflict of interest for having worked alongside its attorney on an unrelated matter.
At issue was whether Christine Nazzaro-Cofone, the special master, should be recused from participation in the case due to her involvement as an expert witness in a Planning Board proposal in Edgewater.
The lawyer for the developer in that application, Brian Chewcaskie, is one of the housing attorneys for Wayne.
State Superior Court Judge Thomas Brogan decided that the working relationship between Chewcaskie and Nazzaro-Cofone was too "discreet" to warrant her recusal. It "does not rise to the level" of an "appearance of impropriety," he said during a Zoom hearing.
Brogan's ruling, rendered Tuesday from his Paterson bench, effectively denied a motion to bar Nazzaro-Cofone from the ongoing case.
Nazzaro-Cofone, who owns a land-use consulting company in the borough of Red Bank, was appointed by the court to be the special master in the township's case in November 2015 — four months after it started.
In that role, she serves as a negotiator between the township and potential developers.
The motion to bar Nazzaro-Cofone was made by the owner of 1655 Valley Road, which entered the case after officials were stripped of immunity from builder's remedy lawsuits in November 2020. The property has a 156,941-square-foot office building that is mostly empty.
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Her involvement in the Edgewater matter began last spring and continued into the fall, according to Jeffrey Kantowitz, an attorney for the Valley Road property owner.
Kantowitz tried to persuade the judge that Nazzaro-Cofone's months-long connection to the Edgewater matter and simultaneous association with the local case was grounds for recusal. "That's where the rub is," Kantowitz said. "That's precisely where the rub is. This wasn't a filed application on May 15, with a decision in June for a backyard variance."
The Edgewater project, to include three 25-story towers and 20,000 square feet of retail space on land formerly used as an oil terminal by Hess Corp., was approved in January.
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Matthew Cavaliere, an attorney, opposed the motion on behalf of the township. He said the court should consider that the circle of attorneys and planners who handle affordable housing is "very small."
"Sooner or later, if you do this long enough," Cavaliere said, "you work with everyone."
Because the motion temporarily sidetracked the case, Brogan extended the deadline for the township and Valley Road property owner to come up with a deal for redevelopment of the 11-acre site.
Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: devencentis@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Wayne NJ housing: Court master cleared of alleged conflict of interest
