Roselle Borough Council gave final approval to redevelopment plans touching a former mansion property on Woodland Drive and nearly a dozen other scattered parcels around town, acting at a regular meeting held on October 28. Officials say the Woodland Drive plan is meant to preserve the character of what has long been a vacant site rather than remake it with something out of scale for the neighborhood.
According to TAPinto, the council passed the Woodland Drive redevelopment plan on second reading that night, after first advancing it at an ordinance introduction on October 14. The same outlet reports the council designated the vacant Woodland Drive lot as a rehabilitation area in July and then authorized preparation of a redevelopment plan for the site in August, setting up the two-reading process that closed out at the end of October.
The Woodland Drive site was previously known as Smith Woods and had sat as an abandoned mansion and property before the borough moved to redevelop it, per the same report. The plan for the lot reportedly includes new infrastructure, but borough officials have framed the project around restraint rather than a dramatic overhaul.
Officials Signal a Modest Footprint, Not a Tower
Denise Wilkerson, identified as Roselle's assistant business administrator, told the outlet that the borough wants the area to remain as it is and development to fit the existing surroundings. She said the intent is to preserve the nature of the complex, adding that officials are not looking to change anything dramatically at the site.
Wilkerson also called the land a good plot and said there will not be a large apartment building at the site, according to the report. Future development at Woodland Drive should complement the surrounding area and avoid significantly changing the area's appearance or scale, the outlet notes, echoing the same restrained approach officials described for the property.
A Dozen Scattered Lots Folded Into One Plan
Beyond Woodland Drive, the council approved a redevelopment plan covering 11 tax lots and one former street bed scattered throughout the borough, the report states. That broader scattered-sites effort traces back to an original ordinance the council adopted on May 14, 2025, which the body then amended on October 28 to authorize the borough planner to include additional two-family homes on an additional lot.
In total, the council approved two redevelopment ordinances that night, addressing both the Woodland Drive plan and the scattered-sites amendment, per TAPinto's account of the meeting. The article appeared in the outlet's government section.
How This Compares to Roselle's Earlier Scattered-Site Push
Roselle has tackled scattered vacant properties before. A borough plan dated March 2017 addressed 10 properties and vacant parcels, according to a Borough of Roselle redevelopment plan document.
Roselle has also pursued larger-scale redevelopment elsewhere in town. A separate redevelopment agreement described a project of roughly 195 residential units, 10 percent of them affordable, along with about 3,200 square feet of retail space and associated parking, according to a Borough of Roselle ordinance record. That same municipal code source shows the borough adopted Ordinance 2775-25 to vacate portions of the Spruce Street and Warren Street rights-of-way, with that measure passed on second and final reading at a regular council meeting on August 27, 2025.
