The state Council on Affordable Housing has sent a premediation report to West Windsor Township which states that the township’s third-round Fair Share plan has a shortfall of almost 100 affordable housing units.
But township officials are saying that one of COAH’s staff members, assigned to the mediation process and who has been reviewing the township’s fair share plan, is misreading one of COAH’s rules, and that the township’s plan conforms under the regulations.
According to Planning Board attorney Gerald Muller, under one COAH rule, COAH assigns a projected number of residential dwelling units it expects to be generated between 2004 and 2013, and a projected number of new jobs. That number is converted into a fair share unit obligation.
With regard to the non-residential growth share generated, West Windsor has to satisfy the need for 491 units as a result of this formula. On the residential side, COAH permits the township to take the sites from the second-round, if the sites are built after January 1, 2004, or are projected to be built after that date, and use them to reduce the residential growth share obligation by the number of those dwelling units.
COAH has determined that there is an overall need for 1,850 dwelling units. By taking into account the inclusionary sites — which include both affordable and market-rate housing units — and calculating the marketable and affordable sites that the township built, township officials came up with a total of 2,020 units, Muller said.
“We subtracted 1,850 from 2,020, and we came up with a zero residential growth share,” Muller explains. “What COAH has said is, ‘You substracted too many units. You can only subtract the number which addresses the second-round obligation.”
“We had more sites than we needed,” Muller said. “What COAH says is if you have more sites than you need for the second round, you have to allocate some to the third round, so we allocated them to the third round.”
But, township officials feel “it’s absolutely clear that they are misreading this rule,” Muller says. “We have a conforming plan.
Still, “even if you read the rules the way they do, we can amend our plan by reallocating sites to the second-round that result in the exact same share that we have originally, and we will still have a conforming plan,” Muller added. “If we reallocate the second round sites to the real second round, we can still come up with subtractions of 2,020, and we would still have a residential growth share, so if we have to do that, that’s what we’ll do.”
The report was released prior to mediation, as the township’s plan has been challenged by two parties — one by InterCap Holdings, which owns 25 acres of property in the redevelopment area, and the other by the Fair Share Housing Center of Cherry Hill.
Since that time, COAH reviewed the two objections and deemed them compliant. The letter advised the township to submit a resolution adopted by the council in which it designates their representatives, authorizes them to negotiate on its behalf, and authorizes one or more of that team to execute any written agreement reached during mediation on its behalf.
During the May 4 meeting, the council adopted a resolution that adds the DiMeglio property to the affordable housing plan as a way of strengthening its position. Council has longstanding agreement with Akselrad for a piece of property on Meadow Road and that there is going to be a swap that would allow for more affordable housing on the DiMeglio site, which would take away the necessity for providing affordable housing in other areas, township officials said.
Muller said the newest premediation report came with a letter to the mayor stating that COAH officials will meet with township officials first, before mediation, to discuss the plan. “That has not yet happened,” Muller said. “That meeting and the mediation is not rescheduled, nor has the mediation been scheduled.”
“We still think we are in good shape, and we think what we submitted originally is correct,” he added. “We still think it is, and we think we are going to prevail.”
However, InterCap CEO Steve Goldin says otherwise. “COAH makes the rules,” he said. “COAH has stated that West Windsor’s plan is short by 100 units.”
“West Windsor has two choices on how to address the shortfall — they can bond for $20 million and build the units themselves, or they can increase the density of a privately-funded project and have the developer pay for the units,” he added. “The choice is clear: Does West Windsor have its taxpayers pay for these units, or does it have a private developer pay for the units?”
Bootstraps. In addition to these two challenges, 16 families living in the Walden Woods development off Old Bear Brook have also filed a petition with COAH, saying that the 10-year affordable housing limit should be lifted this year, according to their deeds, and that it is unfair the township is extending the affordable housing restrictions on their homes to 2028. The township is doing this to meet its third-round COAH affordable housing obligations.
The development, approved in the 1990s, was funded through the federal Bootstraps program, in which they, themselves built their own homes. Muller says the issue is over whether there is a 10-year or 30-year restriction. When developer Jay Tyson build the homes, it was recorded at the county level that the homes would have a 10-year affordable housing restriction. However, Muller said the township was not aware of that, and the township ordinance is written to include a 30-year restriction. Technically, if the homeowners want to get the restriction lifted to be able to sell their homes for market value, they would have to get a variance.
The deeds they signed, however, while they contain a 10-year restriction, also state that homeowners have to comply with local and state law, which means they have to comply with the ordinance and COAH regulations. COAH has ruled, in the meantime, that the 30-year restrictions apply. Muller says the matter has yet to be resolved.
