to pay Hightstown
$820,000 in agreement
Payments will relieve town
of some affordable housing
Manalapan expected
to pay Hightstown
$820,000 in agreement
By dave banjamin
Staff Writer
Manalapan will transfer part of its state obligation to provide housing for families with low and moderate incomes to Hightstown.
The Township Committee has passed a resolution that authorizes the execution of a Regional Contribution Agreement (RCA) with that Mercer County community.
That community "was selected be-cause Hovnanian was in discussion with Hightstown," said Business Administra-tor James Devereaux. "As part of the Villages project (now called Hovnan-ian/Four Seasons and Westminster/ Meadows), Lewis Kurland, who represents Hovnanian at the Planning Board, (indicated) they have to fund some of these regional contribution agreement units. They actually had discussions with Hightstown and Red Bank."
According to plans proposed by the developers, there will be 100 units set aside in the Hovnanian/Four Seasons community for people whose income meets regional guidelines and 26 units set aside in the Westminster/Meadows community, when the two Manalapan developments are completed.
Both developments are proposed for the area of Route 33 between Millhurst and Woodward roads.
Tara Lovrich, assistant business administrator, calculated that the number of units in the two communities (Four Seasons and the Meadows) represents 17 percent of Manalapan’s state Council On Affordable Housing (COAH) obligation.
"It’s up to the developer to find the town where they’re going to send the RCA," Devereaux said. "Even though the Villages is not yet ready to go, Hights-town got involved in discussions with Lew Kurland from Hovnanian."
COAH regulations permit communities which have affordable housing obligations to transfer up to 50 percent of that obligation to other towns through the use of RCAs.
Under the agreement, the sending municipality, in this case Manalapan, makes a cash payment to another municipality, Hightstown, known as the receiving municipality. Hightstown in turn creates or rehabilitates housing for people with low and moderate incomes, which is credited toward Manalapan’s fair share obligation.
According to the Township Committee resolution, Manalapan proposes to transfer 41 units of its fair share obligation at a cost of $20,000 per unit ($820,000) in the form of an RCA with Hightstown.
A payment schedule of $300,000 (in 45 days), $300,000 (one year after first payment) and $220,000 (one year after second payment) is included in the resolution.
The township is paying for the RCA out of its affordable housing trust fund which has been funded by previous contributions from developers. Once the certificates of occupancy for the Four Seasons and Meadows developments are issued, those developers will reimburse the trust fund, according to Lovrich.
Manalapan’s fair share obligation is 765 units. The 41 units equals a portion, approximately 5.4 percent, of the total obligation.
Under the contract, Hightstown is required to prepare a project plan for the low and moderate income housing which is convenient to employment opportunities within the regional area.
Hightstown must use a portion of the funds for a scattered site rehabilitation program by spending a minimum of $8,000 per unit in hard costs to repair or replace a major system or systems with an average of $16,000 per unit in hard costs. Semi-annual reports must be sent to COAH and annual audits must show the disbursement of all RCA funds.