The housing element and fair share plan to address West Windsor’s third-round Council on Affordable Housing obligations, which was adopted by the Planning Board last month, will be on the council’s agenda for its meeting on Monday, December 8.##M:[more]##
The township needs to adopt a plan by December 31 that deals with its obligations under the new third-round regulations created by COAH, or risk being sued by developers.
The sites include a 380-unit development planned on the Princeton Theological Seminary site off Wheeler Way; 35 affordable units from a development in the area of Princeton-Hightstown and Old Trenton roads; four or five credits from a group home the Eden Institute proposes to develop on Wood Hollow Drive; and 15 additional affordable units at the Project Freedom site on the Maneely tract off Old Bear Brook Road. Project Freedom is a non-profit organization that develops barrier-free housing to enable disabled individuals to live independently.
The township’s cumulative fair share obligation for the first through third rounds, using COAH projections, is 1,”413 — 899 for the first and second rounds; 491 in the third round; and 23 third round rehabilitation share credits. With units already accounted for in prior plans, together with rental bonus credits carried over from the second round, 1,”298 of those units have already been satisfied, leaving 115 remaining, officials said.
The Maneely site encompasses 50 acres, 37 of which are developable. The plan calls for mixed-use development of 75 housing units, with a detached office and retail component as well as executive suites.
The seminary site, which encompasses 68.5 acres, will be developing a total of 652 units, including 272 graduate units, and 380 nongraduate units. Of the 380 units, 304 would be market-rate and 76 would be affordable, a 20 percent set aside.
The third site is the 74.7-acre site 43.3 of which are developable and 31.4 of which are environmentally constrained. Officials proposed 140 total units — down from the originally proposed 400 — with 105 being market-rate and 35 being affordable, or, in this case, a 25 percent set aside.
The DiMeglio site, a 14.29-acre tract on Clarksville Road, will produce 114 total units, 91 of which are market-rate and 23 of which are affordable. The township’s obligation will also be met with the help of the Eden Institute, which will be acquiring a single-family home on Wood Hollow Drive to house five adults with autism.
