Mid'town looks at sites for affordable housing
Housing plan must be filed with COAH by Dec. 31
BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer
Township planners are currently looking at potential sites for affordable housing in Middletown now that transferring that obligation to other towns is no longer an option.

Conifer Village at Middletown

The Township Committee and the Planning Board held a joint meeting on July 30 to discuss where the township could consider placing affordable housing with a Dec. 31 deadline looming for filing a plan with the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).

"Nothing is off the table for us to look at," Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante said. "We've got to play by the rules and have to meet the deadline."

Township Planner Jason Greenspan presented a list of sites the township is considering for affordable housing.

He said that the township is in the consideration phase and officials have had no formal discussions with the property owners regarding acquisition.

The first property Greenspan listed is at the intersection of Exit 114 on the Garden State Parkway and Red Hill Road, a site commonly known as the Murray construction site.

Greenspan said that the tract is about 40 acres.

"It has not had a tenant in it for a number of years," Greenspan said. "The property is being marketed actively for new office tenants, but that hasn't panned out."

A site at the intersection of Middletown-Lincroft Road and West Front Street and an adjacent site, totaling 85 acres, are being considered.

"Currently the site is developed as a three- to four-story office building and a service-level parking area," Greenspan said. "It has previously been used as a golf course, so it has a history of being a developed property."

Other sites include the AT&T site on Laurel Avenue, which has 1 million square feet of approved office space that Greenspan said could be looked at, as well as land that is part of the Bamm Hollow Country Club.

Middletown and Bamm Hollow are involved in a legal dispute over the COAH regulations.

Bamm Hollow submitted a motion with COAH in June 2007 objecting to Middletown's use of Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs) to transfer its affordable housing obligation to other towns. Bamm Hollow argued that Middletown was not acting in good faith to create sufficient affordable housing to satisfy its fair share of the unmet regional need but was instead acting to thwart, avoid, or delay meeting its obligation.

The use of RCAs was recently banned by new legislation.

Now Middletown is considering sites like Bamm Hollow because the township has a mandated affordable housing obligation that must be met.

"Everything is on the table," Greenspan said. "We are looking at every possibility we have."

New Jersey municipalities must submit an affordable housing plan to COAH by the end of the year that will meet the council's revised third-round quotas.

The New Jersey Supreme Court, in its Mount Laurel decisions, ruled that every municipality must provide a realistic opportunity through local zoning to accommodate its fair share of low- and moderate-income housing. The state's Fair Housing Act of 1985 established the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) to calculate housing need, assign affordable housing obligations, and make sure local governments meet those obligations.

Affordable housing is defined by the state as housing that can be bought or rented with 30 percent or less of a person's income.

Round one of COAH's fair housing plan focused on creating reasonable opportunities for affordable housing through zoning ordinances. The second round focused on the rehabilitation of existing housing stock.

The round-three rules released in 2003 required that for every eight new residential units built and sold at market value, one must be marketed as affordable housing. Under revised third-round rules, one in every five units must be affordable.

Under COAH's first two rounds, Middletown was required to build 1,561 affordable housing units, according to township data. During the third round, it will be required to build 463 units, according to Mercantante.

Middletown has 1,449 units of affordable housing on the books for the first two rounds and 121 units already committed for the third round, leaving a total deficit of 454 units.

"Regional contribution agreements (RCA) are not an option anymore, so 100 percent of our obligation has to be done in town," Mercantante said. "Our first- and second-round obligations would have been satisfied if regional contribution agreements were still an option. Those remaining 112 [from the first two rounds] could have been satisfied that way."

Under an RCA, a sending community was able to transfer up to half of its share of affordable housing units to a receiving community within the same housing region.

Gov. Jon. S. Corzine in July signed a new bill, A-500, which effectively ends the use of RCAs.

Mercantante said that the township is facing an affordable housing deficit, but it should not be looked at in a negative way.

"When I say deficit, I don't want you to think that this is a deficit because we haven't done our share to provide housing," he said.

"This is a deficit caused by brand-new rules, and a significant part of that is the regional contribution agreement aspect."

Mercantante said the housing plans need to provide 13 percent of the units for very-low-income housing, 37 percent low-income and 50 percent moderate-income.

For a two-person household, a moderate income is $54,122, $33,826 for low income and $20,296 for very low.

Mercantante said that with the elimination of RCAs, looking within Middletown's boundaries is something the township is forced to do.

"What Middletown is going to be faced with is a housing development that is 100 percent affordable," Mercantante said. "There are housing developments throughout New Jersey that are 100 percent affordable. They are funded through various means such as housing tax credits, a federally operated program funded by the states and various other nonprofit sources."

Mercantante said that the township would have to consider 100 percent affordable housing developments.

"That becomes, ironically, the most attractive way to go because it reduces the number of housing units that you have to build," Mercantante said. "The difficulty is primarily that you have to be sure that there is funding available. Being that it is becoming the most attractive way, the funding will have to be there. Secondly, in order to propose a 100 percent affordable development, you have to show that you have control over that property."

He said that the municipality would have to demonstrate that it is able to acquire the property from the property owner.

"You have to show an economical plan that you can financially do that," Mercantante said. "You also have to ask if that housing development fits within the community."

He said the township has some difficult decisions to make.

"There is no easy answer, no silver-bullet solution," Mercantante said. "There are still some hard and unpleasant decisions to be made in the near future."

Middletown's special Mount Laurel counsel, Jeffrey Surenian, said that Middletown will have to come up with a plan even if township officials are still unsure of what the number of units might actually be.

"Unless COAH mandates a stay on their plan, you should man the torpedoes and go full speed ahead," Surenian said. "Hope for the best and plan for the worst."

He said that COAH's new rules might backfire on the state council.

"It's only a matter of time before the lights go on and they find that they have made a complete mess of it," Surenian said. "It's a time bomb waiting to explode."

Surenian said that this isn't the first time he's been to a township's joint meeting concerning the new rules.

"I go to similar meetings with all of my clients, and I've had the same conversations with all of them," Surenian said. "Everyone I speak to now has the same problem."

Mercantante said that the township is acting as the planner and in a new capacity.

"We are getting into the real estate business now it seems," Mercantante said. "That seems to be what is happening."