"The DCA determined that USR's obligation was 233, a totally unrealistic number." That line comes from the Borough of Upper Saddle River's April 2026 newsletter. It begins the chain of events that will decide where the town's next new attached homes go.
The chain ends at one address, 10 Mountainview Road. It is an 18.8-acre parcel with a vacant office building on it. On July 2, 2026, the Mayor and Council adopted Ordinance 10-26. It made the parcel a townhouse district. If you're comparing Bergen County towns and hoping for something newer and lower-maintenance than a large single-family home, this is the one large new-housing site Upper Saddle River has. It is also further from being real than the zoning headline makes it sound.
An Office Asset That Stopped Working
The site's path to housing started with its failure as an office property. Here is the record in order:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| September 2016 | Mack-Cali sold 10 Mountainview Road for $19.7 million to a private investment group led by Moshe Gold. The building was reported as 67% leased, with Sherwin-Williams and Stryker named as tenants. |
| August 2024 | Viewstar LLC, which owns the property, filed Chapter 11 in the Southern District of New York after a foreclosure action and an involuntary bankruptcy petition. |
| June 2025 | A $21.5 million stalking-horse bid was reported in the case. |
| June 2025 | The Planning Board held its hearing on the 2025 Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, which named the office site for inclusionary housing. |
| August 2025 | A bankruptcy judge approved a $26 million sale, above the stalking-horse bid. |
| February 18, 2026 | Date of the mediation agreement between the Borough and Fair Share Housing Center. |
| July 2, 2026 | Ordinance 10-26 adopted, creating the AH-6 townhouse district. |
The bankruptcy petition ties the case to this exact address. It states that the debtor "is the owner of real property located at 10 Mountainview Road, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458." The public coverage we could access doesn't name the 2025 buyer, and we haven't found any announcement from that buyer about residential plans.
For a buyer, the sequence explains why this parcel and no other. A town with almost no vacant land had one large property whose original use had collapsed in court. That made it the easiest place to put the housing the state required.
How a Number of 233 Shrank to One Site
The state's figure was large on paper, but it never applied to Upper Saddle River in full. The steps went like this, according to the Borough's newsletter and its planner's testimony:
- The Department of Community Affairs set Upper Saddle River's Fourth Round obligation at 233 affordable units. The newsletter notes that under the usual 80% market-rate, 20% affordable ratio, this could have meant more than 1,000 total units.
- The Borough's plan found its realistic development potential was zero because it lacks vacant, developable land.
- Judges in affordable housing cases have read the 2024 law to require towns that claim a vacant land adjustment to zone for 25% of the state number. For Upper Saddle River, that came to 59 affordable units.
- 10 Mountainview Road carries 27 of those 59. The rest go to higher densities in existing overlay zones, mostly on commercial and industrial parcels along Park Way west of Route 17, plus a possible eight units at the office building at 578 East Crescent Avenue.
Neighboring towns got numbers on the same scale, as the newsletter points out. Saddle River received 249, Ramsey 503, Woodcliff Lake 423 and Montvale 348. Borough Planner Joseph Burgis told the Planning Board in June 2025 that the Fourth Round certification covers ten years and ends in 2035.
The overlay zones work differently from the Mountainview site. In an overlay zone the existing business or commercial zoning stays in place, and residential redevelopment becomes an option. Units there appear only if an owner decides to redevelop. That makes Mountainview the only site in the plan built around a single large residential project, and the only one where a buyer could reasonably expect a whole new community to go up.
What the AH-6 Rules Allow on That Land
Ordinance 10-26 is detailed enough to show what kind of place the zoning describes. The main standards:
- Use: townhouses. The affordable units may be designed as apartment flats inside a townhouse configuration.
- Density: a maximum gross density of 7.2 units per acre on a lot of at least 18 acres.
- Height: 3 stories and 38 feet.
- Building size: no more than 12 units per structure and no building longer than 208 feet.
- Coverage: buildings may cover no more than 25% of the lot, and impervious surfaces no more than 45%.
- Perimeter setbacks: 50 feet at the front and rear, 30 feet at the sides.
- Amenities allowed: private pools, indoor recreation and community rooms, rooftop amenities and green roofs, EV charging, and roof-mounted solar. Ground-mounted solar is prohibited.
- Set-aside: 20% affordable, whether the homes are sold or rented, with 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom affordable units and at least 13% of the affordable units in each bedroom category set aside for very-low-income households.
The arithmetic follows directly. At 7.2 units per acre, the 18.85-acre lot tops out a little above 135 homes, which is the figure in the Borough's plan. If 27 of those are affordable, about 108 would be market-rate. With a 12-unit cap per building, 135 homes need at least a dozen buildings. Because impervious cover is capped at 45%, more than half the site has to stay unpaved and unbuilt.
The Borough's newsletter says the density is consistent with nearby developments, including The Grove at One Lake Street. The Grove is a Toll Brothers condominium community. Its income-restricted homes were offered through an application process in 2021. That gives the Mountainview plan a local precedent for scale, and it suggests the finished project would look closer to The Grove than to the higher-density buildings the newsletter says Fair Share Housing Center has sought in nearby towns.
The ordinance also took two passes. The Borough adopted an earlier AH-6 ordinance, 08-26, on April 9, 2026. At the Planning Board on June 10, Burgis described 10-26 as revisions to setbacks and "minor tweaks" with "no major change." No members of the public appeared to testify.
The Filing That Hasn't Happened
Zoning creates permission to build. Construction starts only after an application, and that is the step still missing here.
The Planning Board agendas and minutes posted through September 24, 2026 don't show a site-plan application for 10 Mountainview Road. The hearings listed in July, August and September were for other properties. The only 2026 Planning Board item for the site was the June referral of the zoning ordinance itself. The Borough materials we reviewed don't name a developer or builder. They also give no construction schedule, no market-rate pricing, and no decision on whether the homes will be sold or rented.
This is not the first time the site has been on a Planning Board agenda. In September 2024, the Board listed a preliminary, non-condemnation redevelopment study for 10 Mountainview and carried that hearing to November 13, 2024. Two years later, the Borough has settled what can be built. Who will build it is still undecided.
The project's own numbers have also moved. The June 2025 testimony described 132 homes with 26 affordable on an 18.2-acre site. The 2026 newsletter says 135 and 27 on 18.8 acres, and the ordinance says 18.85 acres. None of these differences is large. They do show a plan whose final shape will come from a site plan that doesn't exist yet.
What This Means If You're Shopping Now
For a buyer comparing Upper Saddle River with nearby towns, the rezoning changes the long-term outlook and leaves this year's choices as they were. A future townhouse option at Mountainview is now legally possible. It isn't on anyone's construction calendar, and the property's ownership after the bankruptcy sale is not clear from public coverage.
A buyer who wants attached, lower-maintenance housing in Upper Saddle River during the next year will be choosing among homes that already exist. Our guide to older homes versus new construction in Upper Saddle River covers the tradeoffs within that inventory.
A buyer who is open to waiting, or who is buying a single-family home near Mountainview Road now, should watch for one specific event: a site-plan application for Block 1002, Lot 2 appearing on a Planning Board agenda. That filing will name the applicant. Its hearing will settle the number of buildings, the layout and the amenities, and the record will show whether the homes are for sale or for rent.
FAQ
Is the 10 Mountainview Road project approved? The zoning is approved. Ordinance 10-26 was adopted on July 2, 2026. No site plan had appeared on Planning Board agendas through September 24, 2026.
Will the townhouses be for sale or for rent? That hasn't been decided publicly. The ordinance applies the 20% set-aside "regardless of whether units are for sale or for rent."
Are other sites in Upper Saddle River zoned for new housing? Yes. The overlay zones on Park Way west of Route 17 and the office site at 578 East Crescent Avenue allow residential redevelopment. In those zones, homes get built only if a property owner chooses to redevelop.
If you're deciding whether to buy in Upper Saddle River now or wait to see what happens at Mountainview Road, Jacqueline Vasquez can track the Planning Board record for you and compare it with what's on the market today. Let's connect for a buyer consultation, or get your home valuation if you own nearby and want to know where you stand before a site plan is filed.