Zygi Wilf, real estate developer and billionaire co-owner of the Minnesota Vikings NFL team, has sparked anger in New Jersey, where he is pushing ahead with plans to clear an untouched stretch of mountain forest to make way for nearly 500 new homes.
Gothamist reported that Wilf received the initial green light to turn the 120-acre part of the Watchung Mountains into a sprawling complex of 496 apartments, despite long-standing environmental concerns.
Local officials in surrounding West Orange, New Jersey, are under pressure to build more affordable housing — up to 1,000 units over the next decade, per Realtor.com — and the development would fulfill 100 of that quota.
However, critics said that, in addition to bulldozing one of the last remaining forests in the area, the plans are dangerous because they will increase the risk of flooding in the heavily populated West Orange area, which surrounds the proposed development.
Joe Pannullo, president of We Care, a local opposition group, told Gothamist: "This place floods now with 85,000 trees on the site. You're going to split the forest in two. What's the impact of that going to be?"
Flooding aside, forests are crucial carbon sinks and home to a range of wildlife, and the loss of habitat is a key reason species suffer and go extinct. Others, like one Florida woman, have fought similar developments and preserved forests and the wildlife that rely on them for survival.
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While the development plans would help meet affordable housing goals, the homes would be far from the local bus stop, shopping centers, and schools.
Joe Krakoviak, president of the West Orange Township Council, told Realtor.com he has a "tremendous amount of concern" about putting lower-income residents so far away from vital amenities, along with environmental concerns.
Wilf's property company, Garden Homes, wants to build a pool and a clubhouse as part of the development alongside the affordable homes.
The debate stems from a similar controversy in 2006, when the billionaire proposed a project with less affordable housing on the same land. Then, authorities rejected the plan because it would increase the risk of flooding, and there is limited emergency access to the site.
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Definitely 👍 Now, authorities' hands are "very much tied" because of the affordable housing requirements, Krakoviak added, per Realtor.com.
"The township of West Orange has spent literally millions of dollars trying to better handle the stormwater runoff from the top of the mountain," he said. "And that's where they want to put the project."
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