A gap of unclaimed land between Nutley and Belleville has been declared a town, and the man behind it is someone Montclair already knows. John Cozzarelli, who owns Cozz Coffee, the mobile espresso truck that supplies several Montclair shops and helps fund the town’s skate park, calls it Beltley. In six days, it went from a joke video to a News 12 segment, thousands of views online and, according to Cozzarelli, conversations with state officials about making it official.
“I was just walking down the street one day and I noticed one side’s here, one side’s there,” Cozzarelli said. “In between was nothing. So I just made a video about it and it’s kind of taken off. It’s got a whole life of its own now.”
He isn’t the mayor. He’s not sure he wants to be. “So far I’m just the founder of Beltley. We haven’t declared a mayor yet. I’m still debating on whether or not I want to run for mayor… The pressure of being the mayor is kind of a lot. And I like the idea of being the founder of a town,” he said.
Who Is Cozz, the Montclair Coffee Truck Owner Behind Beltley?
Before Beltley, Cozzarelli was already a familiar name to anyone who orders coffee around town, but his relationship with Montclair goes beyond caffeine.
“I love Montclair,” he said. “I work with Minis, I work with Hello Honey, I work with Skip to My Brew. I’ve worked in Montclair, I work with the skate park.” That last one is not a passing comment, Cozzarelli has helped fund and build parts of Montclair’s skate park.
He is also a musician and a skateboarder. According to his coffee company’s website, both hobbies trace back to a shared instinct: individualism and not conforming. That urge to make something out of a place everyone else walked past is exactly what turned a coffee truck owner into a founding father.
Is Beltley a Real Town, or Just a Really Good Bit?
Founding father or bit, Cozzarelli treats the question seriously, even when the answer sounds absurd. He says NJ Globe wrote about the actual steps required to make Beltley a real New Jersey municipality, and that a governor’s signature is the final one on that list.
“There’s plenty of questions to ask Mikie Sherrill,” he said. “In regards to Beltley though, I think it’s really like, how do we get this done? How do we see change happen? How do we make Beltley real?”
Cozzarelli says Sherrill visited his coffee stand at a farmers market once, back when she represented the district in Congress. He also claims an endorsement from U.S. Senator Andy Kim. Neither claim could be independently verified.
What is confirmed is that nobody actually owns the land, at least not clearly. Cozzarelli says he has reached out to officials in both Belleville and Bloomfield and heard nothing back from either. “I think technically the land might be Belleville’s,” he said. “Some are even saying it’s Bloomfield’s. I haven’t heard anything from the mayor of Bloomfield on this, but I think technically the land might be in Belleville, but I don’t know.”
He is not bracing for a fight over it. “I’m hoping it’s not much of a war,” he said. “I’m hoping it’s more, you know, they just let me do this. I don’t see why they wouldn’t. A lot of people really enjoy it, so it seems like a no brainer to just surrender the land to create a new town.”
As for whether Montclair itself is worried, Cozzarelli thinks so. “I think Montclair sees Beltley as a threat, to be honest,” he said, pointing to the town’s long run as the cultural center of Essex County. Montclair hasn’t said anything publicly one way or the other. None of that uncertainty has slowed down his plans for what Beltley becomes next.
What Cozz Wants Beltley to Become, and Where to Find His Coffee Truck Now
Cozzarelli’s vision for the stretch of land starts with what’s already there: a field, bleachers, a playground and a parking lot. Overnight parking is nonnegotiable. “I am adamantly pro overnight parking as somebody who doesn’t own a driveway,” he said.
He has also been digging through old footage and found out the lot used to be a baseball field years ago. He would like to bring that back, with a name already picked out, The Beltley Belts. Food trucks are the other piece. Cozzarelli pointed out that Montclair gets a new restaurant seemingly every week, while Beltley has nothing yet, a problem that a permanent food truck setup could solve.
None of it is official yet, so in the meantime, the actual, physical Cozz Coffee truck is easier to find. It sets up at 727 Geraldman Street in Belleville Tuesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to noon. Look for it at the Bloomfield Farmers Market every Tuesday from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and the Nutley Farmers Market every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cozzarelli also has a parking lot party planned for September 19, with updates posted to his Instagram as the date gets closer.
Whether Beltley ever gets a governor’s signature or stays exactly what it is now, a very good bit remains to be seen.
