The October 14 Planning Board agenda in Warren Township was short. Under "HEARING" it listed one item: PB 26-02, Toll NJ I, LLC, 234 Mountain Avenue, Block 82, Lot 12.02, a preliminary and final major site plan and minor subdivision. The agenda doesn't say much about what's at stake. That parcel is zoned for up to 176 townhomes. It's also the first of five newly zoned sites to reach a site plan hearing. Together, those sites hold most of the attached and age-restricted housing Warren is likely to add in the next ten years.
That matters most to households planning a move within Warren, especially a move to something smaller. The affordable housing plan will add those homes. The Planning Board calendar will decide when they arrive.
A Township With Very Little Smaller Housing
Warren is mostly detached houses. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey estimates for 2020 to 2024 count 5,560 housing units in the township. Of those, 4,857 are detached single-family homes, about 87 percent. Only 138 are one-unit attached homes, which is the category townhouses fall into. Another 528 are in buildings with two or more units, and many of those may be rentals. A longtime owner who wants one-level living or less yard work has few choices inside the township.
The countywide numbers show how big that step down in size and price can be. In September 2026, Somerset County single-family homes sold at a median of $750,000. Townhouses and condos sold at a median of $465,000, according to the NJ REALTORS Somerset County report published October 9. Both segments had 2.9 months of supply that month. Single-family homes sold in 37 days at 101.5 percent of list price, and townhouses and condos sold in 39 days at 100 percent. These are county figures, because NJ REALTORS doesn't publish a public Warren Township report. Still, they show a gap of roughly $285,000 between the two medians. That gap is the equity a downsizer can free up by moving to an attached home. In Warren, very few attached homes exist to buy.
How 262 Affordable Units Became About 400 Market-Rate Homes
The new supply comes from New Jersey's Fourth Round of affordable housing obligations, which covers 2025 through 2035. A court order dated April 23, 2025, set Warren's prospective need at 262 affordable units, plus a present-need obligation of 10 rehabilitation units. The 262 replaced the 181-unit figure the township had first adopted.
Fair Share Housing Center and AvalonBay challenged the township's plan. Warren settled with Fair Share Housing Center, and the court approved the amended plan and dismissed AvalonBay's challenge. A Judgment of Compliance and Repose dated September 4, 2026 confirms the township's compliance through July 1, 2035.
Most of the affordable units come through inclusionary zoning. On these sites, a developer builds market-rate homes and sets aside a share, usually about a quarter, as affordable. That's why the market-rate total is so much larger than the affordable total. Warren adopted five zoning ordinances by the court's March 16, 2026 deadline:
| Site | Ordinance | Housing type allowed | Maximum units | Market-rate | Affordable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toll Brothers, 234 Mountain Avenue | 26-11 | Townhomes | 176 | 121 | 55 |
| Age-restricted site, King George Road and Mountain Avenue | 26-10 | Age-restricted multifamily | 140 | 105 | 35 |
| Bardy Farms, 149 Washington Valley Road and 11 North Road | 26-08 | Townhouses, stacked flats or multifamily | 115 | 87 | 28 |
| Firewood/Silbert, 155 Washington Valley Road | 26-07 | Multifamily | 69 | Up to 52 | 25% set-aside |
| Chua property, Mountain Boulevard and Primrose Way | 26-09 | Multifamily | 64 | Up to 44 | At least 20 |
At the ordinance caps, the market-rate units add up to about 409 homes. Compare that with the 138 one-unit attached homes the Census now counts in the whole township. If every site is built to its cap, Warren's attached and multifamily housing will look very different. Two of these sites are especially relevant to downsizers.
The Hotel Parcel That Became 55-and-Over Apartments
The age-restricted site has history. In June 2020, Chase Warren Partners and Pulte Homes of New Jersey brought a broader plan to the Planning Board for the Block 85.01 tract. It included 220 apartments near King George Road and 115 Pulte townhomes off Mountain Avenue. A separate parcel was held for a future hotel and commercial use under a later application. The minutes placed the site along Route 78, across King George Road from the Warren Corporate Center.
Ordinance 26-10 removes the hotel use from Lot 2. In its place, it allows up to 140 age-restricted multifamily units, including 35 affordable rentals restricted to residents 55 and older, in buildings up to five stories or 55 feet. Before this rezoning, the clearest example of age-restricted housing in Warren's planning record was a 28-unit senior housing project in the Town Center, described in an older Master Plan. A 140-unit building would be a major addition for that segment.
Zoning Sets a Maximum, and Warren Has Seen That Before
The ordinances allow these homes. They don't mean the homes will be built on any particular schedule. Warren's last round shows how long the gap can be.
- February 28, 2019. Warren adopts the AH-1 ordinance. It allows up to 192 townhouses, stacked townhouses and apartments on Block 208, with 48 of them affordable.
- June 8, 2020. Chase/Pulte presents its 335-home plan and says it hopes to start the townhomes in the first quarter of the following year.
- January 2022. K. Hovnanian presents The Hills at Warren on the AH-1 tract: 192 for-sale stacked townhomes, 144 market-rate and 48 affordable, between Hillcrest Road, Emerson Lane and Route 78.
- March 28, 2022. The Hills at Warren hearing is carried to a later meeting, three years after the zoning passed.
- 2026. Part of the Chase/Pulte tract is rezoned again, this time for the age-restricted apartments.
Three years from rezoning to an unfinished site plan hearing is common for New Jersey inclusionary projects. Anyone hoping to move into one of the 2026 sites should plan around that kind of timeline.
What Moves a Site From Zoning Map to Construction
The five sites are at different stages. Toll Brothers has a site plan application, PB 26-02, which makes it the furthest along. The board's next meeting after October 14 was scheduled for October 28.
Bardy Farms is at the other end. TAPinto Warren reported in April that inaccurate text messages about the site filled a Township Committee meeting. Public comment ran about 90 minutes, and Mayor Shaun Fine told the crowd the circulating information was wrong. According to TAPinto, no formal application had been submitted and there was no construction timeline beyond the general ten-year window. The plan calls for a mixed development with about 25 percent affordable townhomes. Residents raised concerns about traffic, wetlands, how close the site is to existing homes, and the capacity of North Road. Township officials said those issues are reviewed during the Planning Board process.
Sewer service is less of an obstacle than it might be. At the February 25, 2026 Planning Board hearing, the township engineer said sites that drain to Middlebrook had no current capacity issues. Wetlands at the Silbert site were also discussed at that hearing.
The plan itself has also changed along the way. A proposed 60-unit, 100 percent affordable rental project at 67A and 67B Mountain Boulevard was the original Fourth Round approach. At that same February hearing, the planner said it hadn't moved forward by the March 15 deadline. That's why Firewood/Silbert, Bardy Farms and the Chua property were added. The Echoes-Sentinel described the Chua property as the Village Square mall site.
Planning a Move Around These Sites
For a household with a detached home in Warren and a smaller home in mind, timing is the main question. Each site will move at its own pace. The sale side follows the current market. In September 2026, Somerset County single-family homes were selling in about five weeks at slightly above list price, with countywide sales down 11.4 percent and the median down 5.1 percent from a year earlier.
Choosing between selling now and waiting depends on your own health, finances and family plans. A site plan hearing is the first public sign that a specific project is getting close to construction. Other milestones include an approval resolution and, later, a builder announcing sales. The township keeps maps, planning documents and court filings on its Round 4 Affordable Housing page, and Planning Board agendas are posted ahead of each meeting.
This post reports on public zoning and court documents and is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Please confirm the details of your own situation with the right professional.
A Few Distinct Questions
Are the market-rate units on the age-restricted site also limited to 55 and older? Ordinance 26-10 calls the whole project age-restricted multifamily development. It specifically says the 35 affordable units are restricted to residents 55 or older, and that no one under 18 may live in an age-restricted unit. A site plan application, once filed, should give more detail.
Will these homes be for sale or for rent? The ordinances set housing types and unit counts, not ownership. The Toll site is zoned for townhomes. The other four allow multifamily buildings, and the age-restricted affordable units are described as rentals.
Could the unit counts change? Yes. The maximums in the ordinances are higher than the earlier settlement estimates. For example, Bardy Farms was estimated at 100 units and is now capped at 115, and Firewood/Silbert was estimated at 60 and is capped at 69. The final number for each site will come out of its site plan review.
If you're weighing a move out of a longtime Warren home and want to time it around what's actually coming to Mountain Avenue and Washington Valley Road, Christine Cura can help you lay out the sequence before anything goes on the market. Let's Connect.
