A homeowner on a quiet cul-de-sac points to the pool cabana two doors down. It went up last year on a lot roughly the same size as theirs, same zone, same setback problem. Surely that clears the path for the oversized garage they want to add. It doesn't, and the reason has nothing to do with luck or who you know at Borough Hall. It has to do with how Upper Saddle River's land-use board is built, and what New Jersey law actually requires it to weigh.
One board, not two
Most Bergen County towns split land-use authority into two bodies. A Planning Board handles master plan work, subdivisions, and site plans. A separate Zoning Board of Adjustment hears variance requests and appeals. Saddle River works this way: its Zoning Board of Adjustment has its own chairman, John Montana, its own vice chair, Robert Howard, and its own roster of members and professionals, meeting on the third Wednesday of each month.
Upper Saddle River does not run this way. According to the Borough's own description of the body, the Upper Saddle River Planning Board fulfills the responsibilities of both a Planning Board and a Zoning Board of Adjustment. The same volunteers who draft and update the master plan also hear your hardship variance for a garage addition. There is no separate forum, no second set of eyes with a different institutional mandate. The people voting on whether your driveway can encroach on a setback are the same people responsible for the Borough's long-range land-use policy.
That matters more than it sounds like it should. A board built this way tends to read individual applications through the lens of what it has already committed to on paper for the town as a whole, because it's the same room, the same evening, sometimes the same meeting.
Two ways to ask, and only one of them cares what your neighbor did
New Jersey's Municipal Land Use Law gives applicants two distinct paths to a bulk variance, and Upper Saddle River's zoning ordinance spells out the harder of the two in specific language. To qualify for what's known as a c(1) hardship variance, an applicant must show that "by reason of an extraordinary and exceptional situation uniquely affecting a specific piece of property," strict compliance would create "peculiar and exceptional practical difficulties" for that parcel. The standard is about the lot itself, its shape, its topography, its physical quirks, not about what the board has approved for anyone else.
The second path, a c(2) or "flexible" variance, doesn't require proving hardship at all. Instead the applicant has to show the deviation actually benefits the community, not just the owner. New Jersey's Supreme Court addressed this directly in Kaufmann v. Warren Township Planning Board, holding that a c(2) variance should never be granted merely because it advances the private purposes of the owner. The benefit has to run to the town's zoning scheme, not just to the applicant's floor plan.
Put those two standards side by side and the pool cabana precedent evaporates:
| What you must prove | What doesn't count | |
|---|---|---|
| c(1) hardship variance | This specific lot's shape, topography, or physical condition makes compliance impractical | That a similar variance was granted nearby |
| c(2) flexible variance | The deviation benefits the community's zoning goals, not just your project | That the improvement would only benefit you personally |
Your neighbor's cabana was judged against their lot. Yours will be judged against yours. A five-minute conversation with a land use attorney before filing usually surfaces whether an application even has a plausible c(1) or c(2) argument, and that conversation is cheaper than finding out at a hearing.
The board's calendar is unusually full this year
There's a timing wrinkle worth knowing before you file in 2026. The same single board that hears your addition variance has spent the first part of this year working through the Borough's Fourth Round affordable housing obligation. Following a mediation agreement reached with the Fair Share Housing Center on February 18, 2026, the Borough introduced two new zoning overlays this year: an OL-5 Overlay Zone and an AH-6 Affordable Housing district, both tied to court-supervised housing compliance and both scheduled for a Mayor and Council vote on April 9, 2026.
None of that is a reason to worry your renovation gets caught up in unrelated litigation. It simply means the board carrying your file this year is also carrying master plan amendments, overlay zone adoptions, and the paperwork of a court-monitored settlement. If your hearing gets rescheduled or your application sits on an agenda longer than a neighbor's did two years ago, that's the more plausible explanation than anything about your specific project.
What the ask actually costs, line by line
The Borough separates administrative zoning review from full Planning Board applications, and the two run on different fee schedules entirely.
For straightforward items like a shed, fence, patio, or low wall, the Borough's zoning application carries an initial review fee of $50, with a $25 charge if plans need a second look. That's the administrative track, no hearing required if the project fits within existing zoning.
Once a project needs an actual variance or subdivision, it moves to the Planning Board, and the fee and escrow schedule looks different: minor subdivisions run $500 for engineering plus $500 for legal escrow, preliminary major subdivisions and rezoning applications run $1,000 plus $1,000, and a standalone variance not tied to a subdivision or site plan costs $100 per variance requested. Larger applications add $100 per acre.
Approval from the Planning Board isn't the finish line. Once a variance is granted, the project still needs a construction permit under the Uniform Construction Code, and those fees are separate again: $3,000 for a new single-family dwelling, $1,500 for additions or alterations up to 1,000 square feet, and $300 for an in-ground pool. Budgeting for one and not the other is a common miscalculation among first-time applicants in town.
Why almost every "new construction" listing already went through this exact process
Here's the part that explains why teardown-and-rebuild dominates the new-home market in Upper Saddle River rather than fresh subdivisions. The Borough's own 2025 Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, filed as part of its court-supervised affordable housing compliance, lays out the constraint plainly. The Borough covers 5.26 square miles, about 3,366 acres, and its housing stock grew more than 6 percent between 1990 and 2000, from 2,410 to 2,560 units. That growth has since slowed sharply. By 2023 estimates, the housing stock had grown only about 2 percent since 2010.
There simply isn't much vacant land left to subdivide. What that means in practice is that the large, updated homes you see listed as new construction almost never sit on a newly created lot. They sit on a lot platted decades ago, often before three-car garages, in-ground pools, and sport courts were standard expectations. Bringing that older footprint up to a modern buyer's wish list usually means asking the same single board for the same kind of relief this piece has been describing, whether or not the listing photos give any hint of it.
Ownership patterns tell a related story. The Housing Element notes that 87.4 percent of the Borough's housing stock was owner-occupied in 2023, down from more than 94 percent in 2000, a shift the plan attributes to multi-family rentals built in town over the last decade. Median asking rent has climbed past $3,500, well above Bergen County's overall median. Upper Saddle River isn't adding much housing of any kind. What it is doing is reworking what's already there, lot by lot, hearing by hearing.
Frequently asked questions
Does a neighbor's approved variance help my application? Not directly. A c(1) hardship variance turns on your lot's specific physical condition, and a c(2) variance turns on whether your project benefits the community's zoning goals, not on what the board has approved elsewhere.
How long does the process typically take? It depends on whether the application needs engineering review, environmental reports, or contested testimony, and on how full the board's calendar is that season. Simple bulk variances can move in a few months. Anything layered on top of the Borough's current housing compliance work may take longer.
Do I need Planning Board approval for a pool or a fence? Often not, if the project fits within existing zoning. Those typically fall under the Borough's administrative zoning review, with its $50 initial fee, rather than a full variance hearing.
Does Planning Board approval mean I can start construction? No. A granted variance clears the land-use hurdle. You still need a Uniform Construction Code permit before any work begins, and that permit carries its own separate fee.
Eleven years on Upper Saddle River's zoning board taught Sheryl Epstein-Romano what a c(1) argument sounds like when it's built on the property and what it sounds like when it isn't, and how a board's calendar shapes what gets a fair hearing and when. If you're weighing a teardown, a major addition, or a purchase where the redevelopment potential is the whole point, Sheryl Epstein-Romano can help you read the site before you file anything. Request a confidential consultation before your architect finalizes plans that the lot itself may not support.