A vacant apartment building along Route 440 in Hopelawn is being converted into supportive housing for residents with disabilities and high medical needs. A closing is expected in July.
Woodbridge Finalizes Land Swap For New Hopelawn Elementary School
State regulators signed off on a land exchange between the township and the school board, clearing a key hurdle for the Hopelawn school that Mayor John McCormac first outlined in March.
A Google Street View image of 90 Clyde Ave in Hopelawn, the planned site for Elementary School #10. (Google Street View)
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Chris Howell | August 17, 2026
The Woodbridge Township Board of Education voted Thursday to formally exchange land with the township, completing a state-required step for the new Hopelawn elementary school announced by Mayor John McCormac in March.
The board’s resolution says the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the State House Commission have both approved the land swap. The exchange trades part of a protected open space park for the site of the new school.
The new K-5 school is planned on a 4.4-acre section of Clyde Avenue Park, land protected under the state’s Green Acres program, which generally bars construction. To get around that, the township had to offer the state new open space elsewhere. The board agreed to give up 10.4 acres of its own property at Lynn Crest School in Colonia to meet that requirement.
To carry out the exchange, the board is subdividing its Lynn Crest property into three lots. Two of those lots will be transferred to the township and permanently designated as open space. In return, the township is subdividing Clyde Avenue Park and handing the board the newly created lot for the school site. Both transfers are being made for $1 each, plus what the resolution calls “other just consideration.”
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The board also updated its long-range facilities plan to reflect the deal. It authorized district administrators, the board attorney, bond counsel, and the project architect to sign paperwork the state still requires.
Thursday’s resolution addressed only the exchange between Clyde Avenue Park and the Lynn Crest property. It did not mention the former School No. 14 site, which McCormac said in March would also be transferred to the township for use as a public playground as part of the broader deal.
The vote builds on the board’s June decision to submit the school’s construction plans to the state Department of Education, a step that came with a $57,228 payment to the state. As of June, Woodbridge officials were targeting a September 2028 opening for the new elementary school.
McCormac has said the school will be paid through the township’s PILOT program, which redirects payments from developers of warehouses, office buildings and other large projects rather than collecting standard property taxes. He has pointed to the HMH MetroPark office building and the Brookfield warehouse project near the Perth Amboy border as revenue sources, and said the same PILOT revenue is expected to cover roughly $78 million in additional district construction work scheduled through 2028.
The mayor has said the project addresses a decades-old gap in Hopelawn, which has been without its own elementary school for more than 40 years. Children in the neighborhood currently ride buses for more than 30 minutes each way to attend school elsewhere in the township, which McCormac has said keeps them from participating in after-school activities.
As with the June vote, Thursday’s land swap passed without discussion as part of a larger block of finance items on the agenda. No board members commented on the resolution.
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.
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