Three Township Committee Seats Also on the Ballot ¶
Three of the five Township Committee seats are up on Nov. 3: two full three-year terms and one unexpired one-year term. As of the county clerk's Sept. 8 candidate list, each seat has exactly one nominee — Peter J. Melchionne and Roger J. Lane for the full terms, James A. Schappert for the unexpired term — all on the Republican line, with no Democratic or independent nomination filed for any of the three. All three are sitting members of the Committee. The list is unofficial, and a later filing could still change it.[8]
Ballot Question Available in Spanish and Korean ¶
Wyckoff's open space question and the official explanation printed with it appear on the county clerk's list in English, Spanish and Korean, as do the questions from the six other municipalities and districts. The county marks the whole list unofficial and subject to change.[2]
Government
What the Open Space Question on Your November Ballot Actually Changes
Voters created Wyckoff's Municipal Open Space Trust Fund in 2006 and have renewed it every five years since. The question on the Nov. 3 ballot would raise the levy cap from a half cent to a penny per $100 of assessed value and remove the five-year renewal entirely.
Wyckoff voters created the township's Municipal Open Space Trust Fund in 2006, and three times since — in 2011, 2016 and 2021 — they have voted to keep it going another five years.[1] On Nov. 3 they will be asked a fifth time, and if they approve it, there will be no scheduled renewal vote again.
Ordinance 2093, adopted by the Township Committee in June, doubles the fund's levy cap from a half cent to one cent per $100 of assessed valuation and drops the five-year term. In its place, the ballot says the authorization runs "unless and until modified or repealed by future public referendum."[1][2]
What the ballot says
The question voters will see opens:
"Shall the Township of Wyckoff continue, maintain, and fund the existing Municipal Open Space Trust Fund through the collection of an annual tax levy in an amount not to exceed $0.01 (1 cent) per $100 of assessed valuation ...?"[2]
It goes on to list six permitted uses: acquiring land for recreation and conservation; developing and maintaining that land; acquiring farmland for preservation; historic preservation; debt service on borrowing for any of those purposes; and Blue Acres projects.[2]
Underneath the question, the ballot prints a second block of text called an interpretive statement. That is the official explanation of what the question means — not the ordinance itself, but the description of it that voters read in the booth. Wyckoff's runs five paragraphs.[2]
What it costs
The municipal open space rate has been 0.005 — a half cent per $100 of assessed value — in each of the last four years for which the township has published a rate table, 2022 through 2025.[3]
On the township's own worked example, a home assessed at $810,700, that line came to $41 in 2025, or 0.25 percent of a $16,425 tax bill.[3] The $41 is rounded — a half cent on that assessment is $40.53. Doubling the rate doubles the line, to about $81. Those are our calculations from the township's example, not figures the township has published.
The interpretive statement puts the townwide total at the full rate at "approximately $486,930 annually," based on the 2026 Tax List.[1] A half cent against the same list would raise about $243,000.
One caveat on all of these numbers: the levy is charged per $100 of assessed value, and Wyckoff's assessments are about to change. Township Administrator Matt Cavallo told the Committee in June that the state had approved a one-year extension of the township's property revaluation, which will now be completed by Oct. 1, 2027 for implementation in the 2028 tax year.[4]
What changes from the current ordinance
The ordinance was published with its markup intact — deleted text in brackets, new text underlined — so the before-and-after is legible.[1] Four things change:
| Current (approved 2021) | Proposed | |
|---|---|---|
| Levy | "the annual tax levy of $0.005 (1/2 cent)" per $100 | "an amount not to exceed $0.01 (1 cent)" per $100 |
| Term | five years, commencing Jan. 1, 2022 | "unless and until modified or repealed by public referendum as provided by law" |
| Blue Acres projects | not a permitted use | added as permitted use (subsection G) |
| Return of monies to taxpayers as tax relief | permitted use | struck |
The levy change is not a straightforward doubling. The current text sets the levy *at* a half cent; the new text sets a ceiling of one cent and does not require that the full amount be levied. Approval would authorize up to a penny, not automatically impose it.
The term change ends a cycle that has run for twenty years. The fund was established by referendum on Nov. 7, 2006 and renewed by referendum on Nov. 8, 2011, Nov. 8, 2016 and Nov. 2, 2021 — each time for a further five years.[1] Under the new language there is no expiration date and no scheduled return to the voters.
The deleted clause is the fourth item. The current ordinance permits trust fund monies to "be returned to the taxpayers of the Township of Wyckoff as tax relief." Ordinance 2093 strikes it.[1] Neither the ordinance nor the discussion at either public meeting gives a reason for dropping the five-year term or deleting the tax-relief clause.[1][4][5]
What the fund has paid for
The ordinance's findings describe the fund as having been used to "preserve, maintain, and improve municipal recreational facilities and historic properties throughout the Township," naming among them the Zabriskie House and the Larkin House.[1]
The township preserves and maintains approximately 152.04 acres of open space, including the roughly 21.04-acre former Maple Lake property acquired within the last five years.[1]
One recent project shows the fund covering the local share of somebody else's grant rather than buying land. At the Feb. 3 meeting, the Committee was told that a grant and matching gifts would cover $164,000 of the Pulis Field lacrosse wall, and the Municipal Open Space Trust Fund another $28,000. Officials put the project total variously at $190,000 and $193,000 in the same exchange.[7]
What Blue Acres is
Blue Acres is a state program that buys residential properties "located in floodways, floodplains, or other at-risk areas" from owners who choose to sell. Participation is voluntary, and after a purchase the Department of Environmental Protection "converts the property to open space or uses it for recreational or wetlands management, or other disaster risk reduction practices."[6]
The ordinance adds Blue Acres to the list of things the fund may pay for. It does not name a property or commit any money.[1]
What the interpretive statement covers
The interpretive statement gives the new cap, the permitted uses, the acreage and the revenue estimate, and says the authorization runs until modified or repealed by future referendum.[2]
It describes the proposal in its own terms rather than against the ordinance it replaces: the half-cent rate now in effect and the end of the five-year renewal cycle are in the ordinance but not in the statement.[1][2]
The two texts also differ in wording. The ordinance's title describes a public question "to continue and expand the Municipal Open Space Trust Fund." The question voters will mark asks whether the township should "continue, maintain, and fund" it.[1][2]
Interpretive statements also vary in how far they go in translating a rate into dollars, and the same page of the county's ballot list carries a comparison. New Milford is asking its own open space question on Nov. 3 — an advisory one, where Wyckoff's determines whether the ordinance takes effect — and its statement tells voters that "[a]t the maximum rate, property owners will be contributing $10 to the Trust Fund per $100,000 of assessed value."[2] Wyckoff's gives the cap and the townwide revenue estimate rather than a per-home figure.
The Committee authorized the clerk in June to make non-substantive revisions at the county's request. None were made — the text on the county's list matches the ordinance word for word.[1][2][4]
How it got here
The Committee introduced Ordinance 2093 on June 9 and held the public hearing on June 23.[4][5] No member of the public spoke on it at either meeting, and it was adopted 5-0 — Bogdansky, Boonstra, Melchionne and Schappert voting yes, Mayor Roger Lane voting aye.[4][5]
The ordinance takes effect Jan. 1, 2027, and only if voters approve it.[1]
Polls are open Nov. 3.
Every claim in this article is drawn from public Wyckoff records. To dispute a fact, request a fact-check, or ask that personal information be removed, contact the ombudsman.