By Stephen Appezzato
FAIR HAVEN – A recent car accident at a notoriously dangerous intersection has reignited safety concerns and prompted town officials to push for safety improvements.
At the July 14 borough council meeting, Mayor Josh Halpern addressed the car crash that occurred July 7 at the intersection of Ridge Road and Fair Haven Road.
“There was a horrifying accident at the corner of Ridge Road and Fair Haven Road about a week ago,” Halpern said. “It’s a miracle the two young men walked away” with minor injuries, he said.
According to a statement from the Fair Haven Police Department, a “BMW was travelling northbound on Fair Haven Road and failed to stop at the stop sign and struck a black Jeep Wrangler causing the Jeep to flip on its side and skid.”
“Two passengers in the Jeep were taken to the hospital. One with minor injuries and one for precautionary measures,” the statement read. The police issued summonses to the driver of the BMW.
At the town meeting, Halpern said the passengers in the Jeep were from the local community and emphasized the town is taking action to make the intersection safer.
“I just want to make sure that everyone’s aware that we’ve received a lot of emails from the community about this specific intersection,” Halpern said. “We are engaging with the county (and) Rumson is engaging with the county as well, as part of that process. We’re taking this very, very seriously,” he said.
As Ridge Road is technically a county road, county officials have jurisdiction over safety improvements and changes. Following the accident, borough officials contacted the county to begin the process of addressing the intersection, which will require the county engineering department to study the roadways and provide recommendations.
“We recognize that some positive change has to happen in that location and we’re going to be very, very thorough to make sure changes happen,” Halpern said. “Whatever we have to do to make the area safer for traffic, we’re going to do. We’re going to make sure that we make it as safe as possible for our residents.”
During public comment, former council member Christopher Rodriguez spoke about the incident and thanked the council for addressing it.
“I was at the scene right after the accident happened,” he said. “I think this is a good pivot point. We’ve been lucky, nobody has been killed,” Rodriguez said, but noted the intersection is a hotspot for accidents.
“People come down (the hill on Ridge Road) doing 50 or 60 miles an hour,” and it’s hard to stop if drivers blow through the stop sign, he said.
Housing Plan Endorsed
In other business, the council officially endorsed its Fourth Round Housing Element and Fair Share Plan during the July 14 meeting, following its adoption by the borough’s planning board in June. The plan complies with the state’s rule that all municipalities submit updated affordable housing plans by June 30
When the planning board adopted the plan at its June 10 meeting, borough planner Kendra Lelie explained that “every municipality in the state of New Jersey has a constitutional obligation to provide a realistic opportunity for affordable housing,” a requirement that stems from the 1975 Mount Laurel doctrine. While towns don’t necessarily have to build new housing, they must create a realistic opportunity for it to be built.
In the previous cycle, Fair Haven had a total obligation of 371 affordable units. Due to a lack of available vacant land, the borough’s Realistic Development Potential (RDP) was calculated at just four units.
“You have to implement mechanisms, overlay zoning, to address that,” Lelie said. Fair Haven did so and remained in compliance with state rules, and therefore protected from builder’s remedy lawsuits.
According to the fourth-round plan, which addresses the borough’s affordable housing goals through 2035, the borough is currently compliant with the state’s housing rules by providing four affordable housing units, two of which are approved for construction and two are under con- struction, satisfying the obligation. For the current fourth round, the borough has a zero-unit RDP.
“The Borough has a zero (0) RDP with the full obligation of 92 units categorized as Unmet Need,” the plan reads.
“The Borough is satisfying the Unmet Need by slightly increasing the permitted density within one of the five (5) existing overlay zoning districts that were adopted during the Third Round,” it states.
“Since the Borough lacked sufficient land to satisfy its Prior and Third Round Obligation of 371, it obviously lacks suffi- cient land to satisfy the additional 92-unit obligation imposed in the Fourth Round. The Borough’s continued entitlement to a vacant land adjustment for the 92-unit Fourth Round obligation is also assumed to be valid,” the plan further states.
According to the Fair Share Housing Center, the nonprofit group that advocates for affordable housing opportunities in New Jersey, 452 New Jersey municipalities opted into the fourth-round planning process, a 25% increase over the Third Round. Of those, 94% filed their Housing Element and Fair Share Plans by the June 30 deadline.
By meeting fair share housing compliance, the borough is protected from builders’ remedy lawsuits, which developers can make to rezone properties for housing.
The article originally appeared in the July 17 – July 23, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
