West Windsor officials are taking a slightly less confrontational approach in responding to the new third-round affordable housing numbers released by the state Council on Affordable Housing after hearing from their professionals that they might not be as devastating as originally believed.##M:[more]##
Still, they acknowledged the new rules’ market rate-to-affordable unit ratios are more stringent and place more of a financial burden on municipalities, and that they are also contradictory to other state policies, including smart growth, in that municipalities wouldn’t be able to follow through with smart planning initiatives because of their new obligations.
Under the proposed third-round rules released in December, the ratio of affordable to market units would double from eight to four, and the ratio of affordable units for new jobs would increase from one affordable unit for every 25 jobs to one for every 16. The costs of Regional Contribution Agreements would double from $35,”000 per unit to $67,”000 to $80,”000 per unit. The ratio of affordable units to office space, retail, restaurants, hotel space, and parking garage space, also dramatically increased. Actually, the ratio dealing with parking garage space jumped 1,”250 percent from one unit for every 125,”000 square feet to one for every 10,”667 square feet.
Township and planning attorneys Mike Herbert and Gerry Muller will work on merging their ideas into a response resolution in time for the Township Council’s meeting on Monday, February 25, when council will vote on sending that response to COAH.
Muller told the council at its February 11 meeting that “it’s the opinion of the staff now that the obligation is not going to be nearly as challenging as we thought it would be.”
“Given all the planning we’ve done and given all the overage we have from our very robust second-round, which is fully built out, the obligation might be relatively modest,” he said.
Muller originally believed that the new rules would have required the town to provide for 833 affordable housing units, in addition to 23 for rehabilitation, for a total of 856. COAH did reduce the first and second round regulations by 52 units, leaving a net of 804 units the township would need to provide through 2018, he said in January.
But the actual number should come to about a 500-unit obligation, Muller now says. And, if the township is permitted to carry over its bonus rental credits from the second round (which permit each rental unit to count as two COAH units), they could satisfy part of the town’s third-round obligation.
At first, Muller thought that this wasn’t permitted, but “when I went back and looked at the summary, it became clear to me that COAH very well might be saying, ‘Yes, you can carry over all those rental bonus credits,’” he said. “For us, that’s worth 125 credits. That goes a long way in satisfying our third-round obligations.”
Muller said that urging COAH to clarify the language in the proposals would keep West Windsor in good shape. He suggested taking a “very focused, fine-print approach” and suggested the township should try to “keep the ear of COAH,” which has highly regarded West Windsor’s practices and even changed some rules in 2004 based on the town’s feedback.
Muller and Madden had prepared a memo highlighting these suggestions to the council. At the same time, Herbert drafted a resolution that was more in line with the League of Municipalities’ more critical approach. Herbert said COAH’s numbers were “picked right out of thin air.”
The resolution he drafted stated that the excessive fair share burdens placed on municipalities diminish the incentive for voluntary compliance and that the regulations “will force municipalities to increase taxes to pay for the cost of compliance and will force municipalities to pay lesser attention to their legitimate planning concerns.” The draft resolution also stated the township’s opposition to the proposed regulations and urged COAH to reconsider its proposals and “devise sensible regulations that establish reasonable fair share goals.”
“You have to keep in mind that you’ve got an agency in Trenton that’s coming up with something totally unrealistic and placing the burden entirely on the municipalities,” Herbert said. “Someone’s got to send a message down there statewide that this approach is unrealistic.”
Still, Madden said in reference to his and Muller’s suggested approach: “We feel that COAH really has a higher regard for West Windsor. What we’re trying to do is work our good will to get some of the rules changed.”
Further, Madden said a lot of other groups, including the League of Municipalities and builders have been saying exactly the same thing as Herbert’s resolution, and that COAH has been blasted many times already.
“I don’t disagree with what’s in this memo,” Madden said. “Gerry and I feel we’re going to stand aside and maybe get something positive done out of these rules that would help us, and let others make these claims.”
Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman said she was most concerned with how the COAH rules would affect the redevelopment area. With the ratio of 4-1 for residential units, at least 20 percent of the residential units in the redevelopment zone might have to be affordable units, she pointed out.
“I think West Windsor’s done a really good job at trying to create residential communities where the affordable housing is somewhat invisible,” Kleinman said. “Put that in a context of a mixed-use development, then you have to include all of the units that are generated by the parking garages and office, and you’re putting that all on the same site. We’re not anywhere near the 20 percent residential units if you’re trying to decide a mixed-use development. West Windsor’s trying to do the right thing in terms of smart growth and incorporate good planning, and on the other side, these COAH regulations are going to create a residential environment that, to me, is no longer an invisible affordable housing component.”
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said he would relay the message to state Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria at the state Planning Commission meeting. “There’s no incentives for any townships to follow smart growth principles,” he said.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers said she was concerned about the cost of the COAH regulations and the burden it places on municipalities. “It’s great to have all this housing, but it brings in all these children, and the state hasn’t come up with any plans to subsidize the growth in student populations in town,” she said. “I would love to see the council pass a resolution with a focused approach, and maybe it could be a little bit more tailored, or personalized for West Windsor.”
Councilman Charles Morgan, similarly, said he supported Herbert’s resolution but said a “dose of politics” needed to be added. He suggested converting all of the ratios listed in Herbert’s resolution to percentages. In effect, this would show how much of a percentage each ratio was increasing, causing a more dramatic effect. He pointed to the 1,”250 percent increase in the units needed for parking garages.
“We can generate a lot of the sympathy for West Windsor, and a lot for the state, if we simply lay out the reality of what they’re doing,” he said.
Morgan also suggested emphasizing the “smart growth conundrum” into the resolution. “They’ve created a Catch 22 here,” he said. “They are perhaps doing a reversal of what they intended.” Morgan said the fiscal impact issue also needed to be emphasized because “they’re asking our taxpayers to fund affordable housing, and that is illegal.”
He did say, though, that he agreed that the township professionals should recraft the resolution to include a slight change in emphasis and tone, as Muller suggested, and invite COAH to work with township officials. “If we are held in the highest standard, the invitation to have professionals work with them could be a much more effective way to go.”
