How It Was Justified

Borough officials argued the purchase was necessary to end nine years of affordable housing litigation with developer HAL Entities, which had been pushing for high density housing on the site. Residents were told the threat was real, the deal was time sensitive, and there was no alternative.

The municipal attorney at the time, Richard Clemack, drew a comparison to the 2007 purchase of the Jerry Wyckoff Natural Preserve, framing the Pagano acquisition as a similar act of responsible land stewardship.

That comparison deserves scrutiny. When Ringwood purchased the Wyckoff Preserve for $600,000, the financial burden to taxpayers was $50,000. Green Acres contributed $300,000. Passaic County Open Space contributed $250,000. The municipal trust covered the remainder.

For the Pagano purchase, taxpayers were on the hook for every single dollar of $1,050,000. No Green Acres funding was sought. No county open space money was pursued. No grants were applied for. No one on the council asked why.

What The Borough's Own Professionals Said - Going Back To 2017

The limitations of the Pagano property were documented by the borough's own professionals seven years before the $1,050,000 check was written.

In August 2017, the borough's planning board attorney Tom Dunn presented a detailed analysis to the council, prepared alongside Borough Manager Scott Heck and Borough Attorney Richard Clemack. That presentation described the Pagano property explicitly as "vacant and undisturbed" with "substantial steep slopes, wetlands and rock outcrops." Even in the most optimistic scenario, only 2 to 3 acres of the property could potentially be included in a Highlands Redevelopment Area, and that required Highlands Council approval which the presentation described as uncertain.

The sewer infrastructure needed to support any meaningful development was estimated in that same 2017 presentation at $3,395,000 just for the force main alone. That project required DEP approval which borough officials were told would be a "heavy lift," and would need to cross watershed boundaries that DEP specifically discourages.

In other words: the borough's own attorney, working alongside Scott Heck and Richard Clemack, told the council in 2017 exactly how limited this property was.

Seven years later, in 2024, those same people spent $1,050,000 of borough reserve funds to buy it anyway. In under a week. With no outside funding sought and almost no public notice.

And the borough's own 2025 Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, prepared by a certified planner and submitted to the Superior Court of New Jersey in January 2025, confirmed what the 2017 presentation had already shown: "There is no vacant developable land available in the Borough and the Borough's Realistic Development Potential is zero (0)."

And further: "The Borough lacks public sewer. Due to its location in the Highlands Preservation Area and the lack of developable land, it is unlikely that sewer service would become available within the Fourth Round period."

The borough knew in 2017. It knew in 2024. Its own planner confirmed it in 2025.

The question is not whether they had the information. They did. The question is why they spent over a million dollars of your money anyway.

Who Really Benefited From This Purchase?

The borough spent $1,050,000 of reserve funds to remove Ron Pagano from the picture. Pagano's property sits immediately adjacent to the Fieldstone shopping center, owned by the Azarian Group.

Residents deserve to ask: was this purchase primarily about protecting Ringwood from affordable housing that Highlands restrictions made essentially impossible anyway? Or was it about clearing an obstacle that someone else needed removed?

Who pushed for the urgency of this deal? Who benefited from Pagano being bought out? And now that the purchase has been made, what exactly is happening at Fieldstone? Half the storefronts are vacant. The parking lot is full of potholes. The roof is leaking. Residents have been waiting for something to change for years.

For the full story of what has happened at Fieldstone, who owns it, and what the borough has and has not done to hold that owner accountable, see our Fieldstone page.