Last weekend, Church Street ran car-free from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for the fifth and final time on the 2026 calendar. The barricades came down on Sunday night. The question of whether they go back up next year is now open, and the township has framed it as a decision it has not yet made.
Montclair never announced Church Street as a pedestrian plaza. It announced a pilot to be measured, and the measuring starts now. The block being measured also looks different from the one that hosted the first closure in June: a gelato shop, a Pilates studio, a dark storefront at the Bloomfield Avenue corner, and a five-story building that still isn't finished.
Five weekends, scheduled as an experiment
The township set the 2026 closures for five weekends, each running Friday through Sunday:
- June 19–21
- July 17–19
- August 21–23
- September 18–20
- October 23–25
The first closure coincided with the township's Juneteenth flag raising at the corner of Church Street and Bloomfield Avenue on June 19. The last one shared its Saturday with the Montclair Film Festival. Montclair Film and the township's Complete Streets department scheduled the free "Meet Us on Church Street" event for Oct. 24, with Oct. 25 as the rain date. The 15th annual festival ran Oct. 16–25, according to Montclair Local.
Before the first weekend, Complete Streets Director Jacob Nieman explained to Montclair Local why Church Street was chosen:
"Church Street is already one of Montclair's most people-oriented destinations, with its wide sidewalks, one-way traffic pattern and dense concentration of shops, restaurants and cultural attractions."
He was just as clear that the closures were a test. "We want to understand how it impacts residents, visitors and businesses before making any decisions about the future," Nieman said in the same Montclair Local report. The township also asked local businesses and nonprofits to propose family-friendly activities for the closed street. Nieman said the proposals ranged from performances to art installations to family activities.
The idea predates this pilot by years. Residents petitioned the town to close Church Street to traffic in 2019, and some businesses raised concerns at the time, Montclair Local reported. The 2026 pilot gave the town actual weekends to judge in place of petitions and arguments.
The block in October isn't the block from June
Any evaluation of the pilot is now an evaluation of a street whose storefronts changed partway through it. Three addresses turned over within about a week of each other this fall:
| Address | What changed | When |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Church St. | Chip City closed | Oct. 2, 2026 |
| 30 Church St. | Crane Studio opened | Oct. 3, 2026 |
| 40 Church St. | Oggi Gelato held its grand opening | Oct. 10, 2026 |
Oggi Gelato moved into the former Oasis retail space at 40 Church St. It is the chain's first New Jersey location, part of an expansion that began in Sicily and has since reached cities across Italy, Greece and beyond, according to Montclair Local. The Oct. 10 opening party started at 5 p.m. with free gelato and a live DJ.
Two doors down, Crane Studio opened at 30 Church St. on Oct. 3 with Pilates, sculpt and yoga classes, as The Montclair Girl reported. A fitness studio draws foot traffic at different hours than a dessert counter or a restaurant patio. That kind of mix is exactly what a car-free weekend schedule would need to serve.
At the Bloomfield Avenue end, Chip City's shop at 2 Church St. closed on Oct. 2 when the company shut all its locations, citing "significant macro-economic headwinds" in its announcement. The Montclair shop had opened on Oct. 27, 2023, so it closed a few weeks short of three years. No replacement tenant has been announced for the corner space.
The closure was part of a companywide decision, and the gelato shop was announced months before it opened. Oggi's arrival at 40 Church St. was first reported in April. Nobody can credibly tie these changes to the pilot, in either direction. They do change what the street offers on the next car-free weekend, if there is one.
The other end of the street is still under construction
The largest variable on Church Street sits at 59–65 Church St., where a partially built 74-unit apartment building has occupied a 0.84-acre site for years. The plans approved in 2020 include eight affordable units and 3,936 square feet of ground-floor retail.
Wayne-based Dobco Group took over the project after the previous developer exited through a $24.6 million foreclosure sale completed in September 2025, according to Montclair Local. Construction restarted in April with no changes to the approved plans. On Sept. 15, the Township Council gave final approval to transferring the project's existing tax agreement to the new owner, Jersey Digs reported.
Two dates are worth tracking. Second Ward Councilor Eileen Birmingham said in August that officials had told the developer, "we want you to finish at least the façade of this building by Oct. 31." That is this Saturday. As of early September, the blue construction wrap still covered the building, Montclair Pod reported. Dobco's business development manager, David DeConde, put full completion "on or about" spring 2027.
On that timeline, the building could be finishing up around when the township would set any 2027 closure calendar. A finished facade, ground-floor retail space and 74 households living on the block would make for a different Church Street than the one this pilot tested.
Where the decision sits now
With the season's last closure behind it, the township is collecting opinions. Montclair's September 2026 newsletter says the Complete Streets Department "wants to know what you think about Church Street being closed to cars." There are three ways to respond:
- Fill out the Complete Streets feedback form
- Read more on the township's streets page
- Email [email protected] or call (973) 509-4933
The township's public statements describe a pilot followed by an evaluation. None of them commits to a permanent plaza, a return of the weekend schedule, or an end to the program. To make the case for the closures, Nieman pointed to a New York City Department of Transportation study. It found that open-streets corridors there "significantly outperformed" comparable nearby areas in sales growth and business retention. Those were New York results. Montclair's own evidence will come from this year's five weekends and from what residents and businesses report back.
The township's form is open now, and it is the channel Complete Streets has set up for residents and businesses to weigh in before the township makes any decision about the street's future.
At The Morales Group, we follow changes like these block by block, because a street's schedule and storefronts shape what everyday life on and near it feels like. If you're thinking about how changes downtown could affect your home in Montclair, request a Personalized Market Plan and we'll go through the details with you.
