A Superior Court judge has reportedly delayed approving of the settlement between West Windsor and InterCap Holdings, saying a more thorough hearing on affordable housing issues is needed.
According to officials from the Fair Share Housing Center, which has argued the plans called for insufficient affordable housing, Judge Linda Feinberg did not approve the settlement at a hearing on April 5.
But West Windsor officials say she has yet to make a decision on the matter. Rather, she is scheduling another meeting for further review.
Feinberg said that “a more thorough hearing on whether it was fair to low- and moderate-income households had to be scheduled and held,” Faire Share Housing Center officials told the News. “That hearing will probably happen sometime in the next few months, and will require a more extensive conversation of whether a 5 percent set-aside for low- and moderate-income households on the site is sufficient.”
The settlement, reached last November, calls for 800 housing units, retail, and infrastructure and amenity improvements on InterCap’s property. The most notable feature is a 50,000-square-foot “promenade” that would provide a public area for residents and a “shared space” between cars, pedestrians, and bicyclists. It also contained a 5 percent set-aside for affordable housing units.
The issue with the 5 percent set aside for affordable housing raised significant concerns — both at the Planning Board and Township Council levels — before the council adopted subsequent ordinances in March to go along with the settlement agreement that it had approved earlier. It also was a concern held by the Fair Share Housing Center.
“Judge Feinberg expressed particular concern as to the fact that the site in the current redevelopment plan has a 18.9 percent requirement for low- and moderate-income households — and so the settlement agreement would go backwards, even though InterCap claimed that they were bringing their lawsuit to increase low- and moderate-income housing on the site,” said Adam Gordon, an attorney with the Fair Share Housing Center. “Fair Share Housing Center has been raising these objections since November and raised them again at yesterday’s hearing. We hope that Judge Feinberg’s ruling will encourage the Township and InterCap to reconsider the reduction in working and middle class homes on the site.”
In March, during the public hearing on the land use ordinances that would put into effect the terms of the settlement agreement, Township Attorney Michael Herbert told the council that if Feinberg found that the 5 percent affordable housing was insufficient, the “deal’s off,” or the developer would have to come up with higher numbers.
Stay tuned for more information on this developing story.
