Manalapan officials OK change
to local affordable housing plan
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN — An amended Housing Element and Fair Share Plan is expected to be sent to the state Council On Affordable Housing (COAH).
In a presentation before the Township Committee, Richard Cramer, the township’s planner, asked officials to endorse an amended Housing Element and Fair Share Plan which will fulfill Manalapan’s obligations to COAH.
The plan provides the details as to how Manalapan will meet its state-mandated obligation to provide housing for people whose incomes meet regional guidelines. The housing is typically referred to as Mount Laurel units.
"This item is being submitted to you in order for the township to maintain its status as a certified community and to proceed with a change in plan for the development of the area originally known as the Villages (presently known as Hovnanian Four Seasons and Westminster Meadows, both on Route 33)," Cramer said. "It’s necessary for the Township Committee to formally endorse a change in plans that were approved by the Planning Board."
Cramer said the change will reduce the number of units that will be built on Route 33 between Millhurst and Woodward roads. Under the plan adopted in 1996, there were 2,680 housing units to be built at that location, including 436 Mount Laurel units.
Under the amended plan adopted by the Planning Board in March, the number has been reduced to about 1,300 units. The developers of Four Seasons and Meadows will make payments of an estimated $9 million to fund the partial transfer of Man-alapan’s affordable housing obligation to other municipalities, while a portion of the funds will be used to rehabilitate existing substandard housing in the township.
"The township, with this change, will still satisfy its low-income obligations to COAH," Cramer said. "Under the old plan, there were going to be 536 credits that the township cut out of this obligation. Under the new plan the township continues to have 536 credits toward the qualification, but there is far less building that is going to be taking place in the township, and the costs for the transferring the units will be fully assumed by the developer."
This is one step in the process to amend the certification, Cramer said. Other items — certification change papers and changes in the township spending plan — will be submitted later, he said.
Cramer asked the committee to formally endorse the change in plan and to authorize the submission of the change to COAH.
Mayor Drew Shapiro asked what the Planning Board vote on the amended plan was. He was told that the board’s vote had been unanimous in favor of the change.
Shapiro, Deputy Mayor Rebecca Aaronson and Committeewoman Beth Ward voted in favor of endorsing the amended Housing Element and Fair Share Plan and to repetition COAH for substantive certification of the plan amendment. Committee members Mary Cozzolino and Bill Scherer were not present at the July 9 meeting.