To the editor
I am responding to a letter written by Annette Sammer regarding
Democrat’s broken promises.
Two points first: Ms. Sammer is one of the many
people that live in the neighborhood impacted by the Promenade and the
PEC development. She has a right to be upset with such radical
change.
Secondly, her rage is being directed at the wrong
political party. And now a review of some recent history.To justify its
support for 12,000 housing units, the Republican-led development called
Greenbriar (Bates, Smith, Scherer, Biondi) based its legitimate right
to build in an unsuitable area of Hillsborough by stating it would
furnish the township with all its COAH (affordable housing)
requirements. But, in fact, the COAH obligation was only 100 units.
Part of the COAH legislation states any community who
did not meet their requirements were subject to a builder’s remedy. In
other words, any builder could come to a town, purpose fulfillment of
that town’s low-income housing needs while receiving a reward of
additional housing on the property above its prescribed density.When
Greenbriar began its approval process, Hillsborough was facing a
deadline to comply with COAH. Only one person in the Township Committee
suggested that an inventory be taken of existing COAH housing already
in the township. It was discovered half of our housing obligation had
been met. That person was Democrat David Redlawsk.
Up to that point, Republicans ignored the existing
COAH housing to ensure that their pet project, Greenbriar, would be
approved.
I would also point out to Ms. Sammer that under 20
years of Republican rule, thousands of homes were built here causing
our current skyrocketing school enrollment and taxes. As school
enrollment continues, the school budget grows at an outrageous rate.
And now the state is unable to supplement. Look who’s stuck now with
the Republican bill.
After the Greenbriar court case was resolved by
invalidating all the approvals made by the Republicans, the court then
ordered Hillsborough to deal with the builders remedy lawsuits. The
township by this time had missed the COAH deadline and was saddled with
the consequences of the Republican misdeeds.
Three developers (PEC, Bilansky and Krame) had to be
accommodated by the township. Notably, Hillsborough was ordered by the
court to negotiate with these builders.
Many of the tax problems in Hillsborough are due to a
lack of ratables and too many homes with children attending our
schools.
And now, Ms. Sammer, here are some reasons why you
could stay in the Democratic Party:
1. Since the Democrats have been in power, school
enrollment has stabilized and soon there will be zero growth thus
halting huge increases in school taxes.
2. Hillsborough Promenade could have been slated for
1,200 to 2,500 more students. Instead, the township is getting ratables
in the tune of one million dollars.
3. PEC and Bilansky could have been a combined 1,200
plus homes with another increase in additional students to educate in
our schools. The combination of the developments with single family
homes would have made for a staggering increase in our school taxes as
well as the need to bond for at least two more schools.Now what we have
instead are clean ratables and two housing developments that are age
restricted. This means no additional children to educate.The order of
the court was for Hillsborough to settle with these developers. This
process was paramount with the Democratic leadership. The old
adage "when you have lemons you make lemonade" is appropriate here. The
Democrats cleaned up a mess left behind by the Republicans and in doing
so have saved the citizens from the impact of increasing taxes. All
decisions made by the governing body do not satisfy everyone. Our
governing body made hard decisions for the benefit of all.
One additional point I’d like to make to Ms. Sammer.
Please call the tax office. You will find that the tax rate did not go
up to $2.99 rather it went for $2.65 to $2.67.The facts are clear that
we need to move forward from this Republican fiasco. John Gilardi and
Bill Gold are running for Township Committee on the Democratic ticket
this fall. Their election to the Township Committee will ensure the
slow down of single-family housing and will continue to bring more
ratables.
Merrit Drive