The Township Committee unanimously voted to adopt an ordinance dissolving Plainsboro’s Local Assistance Board.
The ordinance, adopted June 10 after a public hearing, comes on the heals of a rearranging of the township’s social services. Officials took steps this year to move most of the township’s social services responsibilities to Middlesex County. Also as part of the changes, the rest of the social services responsibilities at the township level were given to Joanne Lupica, Recreation Department director.##M:[more]##
Other Committee Business. During the June 10 meeting, the Committee also announced the township had received certification from the Council on Affordable Housing for its fair share plan to address third-round regulations.
Because of the affordable housing options selected by Plainsboro in the plans, no zoning changes are needed. The fair share plan has three parts, the first of which is the township’s rehabilitation share. COAH calculated that Plainsboro had a 44-unit rehabilitation obligation, which means that COAH believes that there are 44 housing units in the township occupied by low or moderate-income households that are deficient.
In order to address this 44-unit obligation, Plainsboro will work with the Middlesex County Home Improvement Program, as well as doing outreach to the owners of existing units who may be able to make use of the rehabilitation program.
The next part of the plan deals with prior-round obligations. In total for the first two rounds, COAH calculated that Plainsboro had a 205-unit prior-round obligation. Plainsboro has already addressed this, with 44 for-sale affordable units at Princeton Meadows, 36 for-sale units at Princeton Crossing, a regional contribution agreement with New Brunswick for 25 units, and 52 rental units at Millstone apartments, for which the township also received bonus credits.
Plainsboro’s growth share through 2018 is projected to be 445 units. However, there is a part of the COAH regulations that details exclusions, a part of which applies directly to Plainsboro. If a township had a nonresidential development that had an agreement in place to address this obligation, it can exclude the market-rate units, times four of the affordable units. Princeton Forrestal Center had an agreement with Plainsboro Township that it had to provide 60 affordable units, and it did through the Millstone apartments. Because of that, that number of 445 for the growth share obligation has been reduced to 385 units.
The township also has surpluses from the prior round obligation that are able to address the growth share obligation. Those include 126 family rental units at Wyndhurst that count toward the 385, in addition to eight out of the 60 units at the Millstone apartments that carry over from the prior round. At Princeton Crossing, there are four for-sale units that will also be able to count towards the township’s growth share.
Under the new part of the township’s plan, Plainsboro will be extending controls on 14 family for-sale units approved in Princeton Crossing, which expire between 2014 and 2015. There is an affordable housing agreement in place with each one of these 14 houses which gives the right to the municipality to extend the control by resolution. Also helping Plainsboro to satisfy its affordable housing obligations is the University Medical Center hospital redevelopment area on Route 1 at Plainsboro Road. Officials at the hospital are expecting to have nine assisted living Medicaid bedrooms and possibly 82 independent senior living rental apartments.
Finally, the township will also be able to utilize what is known as the market-to-affordable program, in which a municipality looks at existing houses, whether they are for rent or for sale. If it is a rental complex, officials look into what the market-rate rent would be and what it would cost for controlled rent under COAH regulations. Plainsboro is looking at possibly 60 of these market-to-affordable rental units. Plainsboro has over 5,”000 apartment units in town. The township is estimating it will earn up to 60 rental bonus credits.
Rounding out the rest of the obligations, there is a special needs home known as SERV that currently exists in town for which the township could receive four credits for shared living bedrooms. On top of that, Plainsboro is also proposing two four-bedroom group homes in town.
The township also approved bids for the new library’s mill work and shelving to Library Interiors Inc., of Brick, but rejected bids for the library furniture, all of which “were flawed in one way or another,” said Mayor Peter Cantu. New bids have already been prepared.
