Two parcels in Haworth's small downtown are now zoned for the same kind of building. One is 320 Haworth Avenue. The other is 139 Terrace Street. On both, the rules call for three stories at most, a business or office on the ground floor, and apartments only on the second and third floors. The zoning text also sets where on the lot each building can stand and what has to face the sidewalk. Whatever the Planning Board approves at either site will have to meet those rules, and they will shape how the Terrace Street block looks and works for years.
Two Lots, One Template
The borough's February 2026 housing plan rezoned what a Town Hall email called "the two downtown bank sites," 320 Haworth Avenue and 139 Terrace Street, to allow more homes than before, including affordable units. State banking records show a Bank of New Jersey branch opening at 320 Haworth Avenue in 2008. The current application for 139 Terrace Street describes that lot as "currently improved with an office building."
Side by side, the two sites follow one template at two sizes:
| 320 Haworth Avenue | 139 Terrace Street | |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum homes | 15, including 3 affordable | 10, including 2 affordable |
| Height limit | 35 feet, no more than 3 stories | 35 feet, no more than 3 stories |
| Ground floor | Business or commercial use plus a residential lobby | Business or commercial use plus common space |
| Apartments on ground floor | Not permitted | Not permitted |
| Required parking | 27 spaces, including 1 ADA space and 1 EV-ready space | 16 spaces, including 1 ADA space and 1 EV-ready space |
| Lot size | Zoning minimum of 19,600 sq ft | About 11,780 sq ft |
Together the two sites allow up to 25 apartments. Both zones also bar apartments on the ground floor, so whatever gets built at either corner has to keep commercial space at street level. A downtown block that adds homes without that rule can lose its storefronts to first-floor units over time. Haworth wrote the rule into both zones.
Three and a Half Feet From Terrace Street
The text for 320 Haworth Avenue goes further and says where the building must sit. The minimum setback is 3.4 feet from Terrace Street, 6.4 feet from Haworth Avenue and 10.8 feet from Houston Place, with a 5-foot minimum side yard. So the site faces three streets, and on the Terrace Street side the building can come within a few feet of the sidewalk.
The same section allows building coverage of up to 56 percent of the lot and impervious coverage of up to 87.7 percent. Parking can be surface lots, structured parking or both, and the plan must include at least eight bicycle storage spaces. Those are main-street proportions. The ordinance also deals with the bulk this allows. It requires "fenestration, step-backs, variations in building height and rooflines and varying color schemes" to break up the building's mass.
The design itself is tied to existing drawings. The site layout must be "substantially consistent" with a concept map from MCB Engineering Associates dated November 25, 2024, and a four-sheet set of architectural plans titled "Terrace Street Development" from Zampolin & Associates dated April 25, 2025. That means the general form of the 320 building was settled in the zoning before any site plan reached the Planning Board. The board's review covers the details inside a shape that is already set.
What Already Shares the Block
Whatever is approved would sit beside a food and retail row that is already busy. Within a few addresses of 139 Terrace Street:
- Guzzo's BakeHouse, 149 Terrace Street
- Alessandro's Trattoria & Pizzeria, 157 Terrace Street
- Graze Craze, 160 Terrace Street, Unit 2B
- Jersey & Co Gelato, 160 Terrace Street, Suite 2A, which opened on December 20, 2025, in the space Fitzie's Ice had occupied, as The Local Girl reported
Any new ground floor would join this row. At 139 Terrace Street, the current application proposes about 1,872 square feet of ground-floor office space. That would bring daytime office use, not another place to eat, to the stretch between the bakery and the gelato shop. The zoning for both sites allows any business or commercial use permitted in the borough's Business District "D." Who ends up in each ground floor is up to the owners and the market. The zoning only rules out apartments there.
The street is also busy with work that has nothing to do with either building. PSE&G's Haworth gas-main and service-line replacement page lists Terrace Street from Haworth Avenue to Christie Avenue among its work streets. The utility expects the program to run through 2026, generally on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with possible Saturday or evening work. PSE&G updates its Haworth construction page weekly, so check it for the current week's streets.
Where Each Application Stands
The two sites are at different stages, and their paths so far have differed.
320 Haworth Avenue. Ordinance 2026-004, adopted March 10, 2026, set a 15-unit residential portion at this site. It required two of those units to be reserved for very low-income households and one for a moderate-income household. The owner and developer, 320 Haworth, LLC, sued over the very low-income requirement. On September 8, 2026, the Borough Council unanimously approved a settlement agreement dated September 2, 2026, resolving all claims in that suit. The council resolution, recorded in the September 8 minutes, approves the agreement but does not spell out its terms. Two days later, a borough Town Hall email announced that the site plan would go before the Planning Board on Wednesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. The owner's professionals would present the plans, followed by questions from the board and then comments from residents. The borough's Planning Board minutes page lists August 2026 as its most recent set, so the official record of that September session is not posted yet.
139 Terrace Street. The applicant, 139 Terrace Street, LLC, published a notice on October 1, 2026, for a hearing on October 21 at the Municipal Building, 300 Haworth Avenue. It is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval for the three-story, 10-unit building described above. According to the published notice, it also asked for a de minimis exception from New Jersey's Residential Site Improvement Standards, N.J.A.C. 5:21-4.16(c), to allow a 22-foot parking aisle where a minimum of 24 feet is required for 90-degree parking. The notice says the hearing "may be continued without further notice" on other dates the board sets, and that figures may change if the plans are revised during review. The 22-foot aisle request comes from fitting 16 parking spaces on a lot of about 11,780 square feet. That is the kind of detail that tends to change between a notice and an approved plan.
Both projects come under a borough plan the court has certified. According to the September 10 Town Hall email, Haworth has met the certification's conditions and is protected from exclusionary zoning suits through June 30, 2035. In practice, these two corners are the downtown sites the plan names. The rules for each are in place, and what's left is site plan review.
The Calendar From Here
The Planning Board page says the board meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 8 p.m. at the Municipal Center, and that it will not meet in November 2026. To follow either site:
- Check the borough's Planning Board minutes page for the September 16 and October 21 sessions once they are posted. Those minutes will show whether each application was heard, carried to a later date or decided.
- If a hearing was carried, the third-Wednesday schedule makes December 16, 2026, the next regular meeting date, since there is no November meeting.
- The 139 Terrace Street notice says application materials can be reviewed at the Planning Board secretary's office in the Municipal Building, 300 Haworth Avenue, during normal business hours.
- The full zoning text for both sites is in the borough's amended housing element and fair share plan.
Whether each building is approved, and in what final form, is up to the Planning Board.
If you own a home near Terrace Street and want a quiet conversation about how these two projects might fit your own plans, Rebecca Day is glad to go through the zoning and the hearing record with you. Request a private consultation.
