Two new apartment buildings could be constructed in a suburban municipality in Morris County.
A complex with 126 apartments is in the works for a 5.3-acre site along Columbia Turnpike in Florham Park. The project, which is being referred to in county documents as the “Palmont at Florham Park,” is expected to be constructed at 147 Columbia Turnpike near Hanover Road and the Florham Park Rink. The site is near multiple shopping plazas, including one with a Trader Joe’s location, along with a stop on Community Coach’s 77 bus between Morristown and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.
The property currently contains a three-story office building that would be torn down should the current plans move forward. Minutes from an October 2019 meeting of the Morris County Planning Board show that 25 of the apartments at the Palmont at Florham Park would be designated “low and moderate income units.” The Florham Park Eagle reported in November that the development would contain one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom apartments.
Borough records indicate that back in 2018, an ordinance was adopted in Florham Park allowing for 147 Columbia Turnpike to be designated as an MF-6 Multifamily Residential Zone, the purpose of which was reportedly “to establish very low, low, and moderate income multi-family housing units in conjunction with market rate units.” In the time since, the developer and property owner, Palmont Associates, LLC of Short Hills, applied to the Florham Park Planning Board for approvals associated with this project. The matter was scheduled to be discussed by the board during meetings in October, November, December, and January.
