After a nearly two-year process of battling to have affordable housing restrictions removed from their property deeds, the end seems to be in sight for residents of the Walden Woods development.
The state Council on Affordable Housing has sent the Walden Woods residents a letter stating it would give West Windsor Township the full number of credits for the homes, but grant the residents 10-year — as opposed to 30-year — affordable housing restrictions, making them eligible now to receive market value for their homes.
The residents of the 16 units in the development and the mayor are all calling the news a “win-win situation,” while the mayor said he sees no problems in working with the residents, who have asked the Township Council to pass a resolution acknowledging COAH’s statements.
“In West Windsor’s third round housing element and fair share plan, the Walden Woods development is included as part of the prior round obligation,” states the letter from Sean Thompson, the acting executive director of COAH. “COAH does not require the deed controls of units fulfilling the prior round obligation extend through the entire third round. As a result, West Windsor may receive prior round credit for the units in the Walden Woods development.”
Walden Woods, on Bear Brook Road, was created in the 1990s through the Operation Bootstrap Program, which was part of the United States Department of Agriculture Mutual Self-Help Housing Program. The program accepted “sweat equity” in lieu of a down payment, eliminating the primary impediment to home ownership for low-income families, up-front cash. Once the homes were built and occupied, they would fall subject to a 10-year affordable housing restriction.
Now, more than 10 years later, according to homeowners’ deeds, the affordable housing restrictions should be lifted, along with all of the other restrictions that came with the program. The township and the state Council on Affordable Housing, however, had argued that the properties are subject to the 30-year affordable restrictions until 2028.
The issue has been ongoing for nearly two years as Walden Woods residents Voytek and Caryn Trela have been serving as the de-facto representatives of their development. Until now, their efforts seemed to have hit an impasse. In December, COAH ended the residents’ objection process by denying their motion seeking the chance to resubmit their objection to the township’s fair share plan, which was submitted in 2008.
They had filed the motion in August to seek the opportunity to re-filed their objection. The residents argued they filed a timely objection to the plan, but COAH deemed the objection invalid. The residents argued in the motion, however, that their original objection was improperly handled by the executive director of COAH at the time. They argued that according to COAH’s procedural rules, COAH should have given the Walden Woods residents a chance to correct the deficiencies COAH found with their complaint, which they said they never received.
In October, the township announced that representatives from COAH had agreed to go back through their records in hopes of working out a solution that would satisfy both the Walden Wood residents and township with regard to affordable housing restrictions on their homes.
According to the letter, sent May 24, COAH denied the Trelas inclusion in the COAH mediation process. In its resolution, COAH had noted that the homeowners, West Windsor residents, and COAH staff were continuing to meet in an effort to find a resolution to the issues “pertaining to the extension of expiring controls on certain units at Walden Woods.”
The letter also acknowledged that the 10-year deed restrictions have either expired or will expire during COAH’s third round, which spans from 1999-2018. The letter then states that COAH does not require the deed controls to fulfill the prior round obligations.
“The letter basically says the township gets the credit for our houses, and we do in fact have a 10-year restriction,” said Voytek Trela. “The township gets what it wanted, and we get what we wanted. I would hope that this quells any type of misunderstanding and any type of other argument.”
To ensure this, Trela approached the Township Council on June 1, asking Council to pass a resolution to acknowledge and agree that the Walden Woods residents’ restrictions are “in fact for 10 years.”
Township Attorney Michael Herbert acknowledged during the meeting that he and other township officials had received the letter. He said officials would be working out the legal details shortly.
“From the beginning, my position was we wanted to look for direction from COAH and make sure there were interpretations from COAH,” said Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh. “When they got involved, the township didn’t have most of the records. It was between the developer and the state. The developer didn’t come to township for a lot of the paperwork. The township was left with a lot of deficiencies in terms of all the papers being filed.”
Now that COAH has provided that direction, “to me, it’s a win-win,” added Hsueh. “I already promised them we are going to be working on the details. We are going to work with the property owners and hopefully, sooner rather than later, the papers will be ready for property owners and the township to bring this to the final conclusion.”
Hsueh did say that removing the restrictions means residents will have to begin paying taxes based on market value for their homes — a condition that comes along with being considered a fair market value home. Trela said residents are already aware of this and still want to move forward.
