Driving in the car this weekend I heard one of my favorite artists, the late great Jimmy Buffett, sing, in his anti-overdevelopment anthem Prince of Tides: “How can you tell how it used to be when there’s nothing left to see.” I couldn’t help thinking of the impending bulldozing of the Boylan House if people of good will do not speak out against it. That is what made me search “Boylan House history” and discover you post. Hopefully it is kismet, and you will take action to prevent this potential tragedy.

One response to our Mayor’s statement. Mayor Canose states that “the owner has the right to develop the property within the zoning standards, which they have done.” Completely false. The zoning standards for the Downtown Core (which were passed in 2020) would not allow development to nearly this scale. It was only the Council’s decision to grant this politically-influential property owner special treatment through an unconstitutional “Area in Need of Redevelopment” designation that permitted overdevelopment of the lot on this massive scale.

On top of that, the Council handed out a multi-million dollar taxpayer subsidy to the development through a 30 year tax exemption, without which the developer represented to the Council that it could not, and would not, go forward with the development. So your readers should make no mistake – our governing body enabled, encouraged, and financially incentivized (with our money) the destruction of a piece of our history, so that politically-influential individuals could massively profit from the overdevelopment of our downtown. Shameful.

– Aaron Duff, Bernardsville

We’re happy to share the history of the Boylan family and their Bernardsville history. GREAT QUESTION – we added a response from the Bville HPAC to the story, which should be a great source and advocate to save historic icons in the town. We’ve also reached out to the Bernardsville Mayor for comment to see if anything could be done. Not knowing the process of how the Planning Board got to this point, the residents should be the best advocates to demand more from their elected officials. Ask them for options.