Council votes to establish affordable housing zone

Developer will contribute to Meadowbrook II senior housing

BY SUE M. MORGAN Staff Writer

BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN — As another step toward putting a recently settled “builder’s remedy” lawsuit behind them, the Borough Council has unanimously approved a measure to establish specially designated areas for affordable housing.

Five years after a developer once sought to construct 400 townhouses in a 19.7-acre site off Route 35 south of the Monmouth Mall, the council agreed to amend the municipal zoning map to permit an area for placement of low- and moderate-income housing.

The revision to the borough’s zoning map was approved during the council’s Dec. 7 meeting at the recommendation of Jeffrey Surenien, a Toms River attorney who had represented Eatontown in the lawsuit filed in 1999 against the borough by Weston Associates and settled by both parties in March.

The approved ordinance officially establishes the area known as the “R-TH/MLC Residential Townhouse/Mount Laurel Contribution” zone. The borough’s amended legislation is designed to enable the borough to meet its state-assigned obligation of 530 units of Council On Affordable Housing (COAH) residences.

Residential, clustered townhouses, community residences for developmentally disabled persons, family day care homes, or structures or land used by the borough for public purposes are allowed in the affordable housing zones, the ordinance states.

No specific area for the expected COAH homes has been designated yet, but the 24 units in the forthcoming Meadowbrook II senior housing complex on Wyckoff Road will be counted toward the borough’s affordable housing obligation.

As part of the terms of the lawsuit settled in March, Weston Associates has agreed to contribute $25,000 for each of the 24 Meadowbrook II units — a total of $600,000 — toward the borough’s construction of the new senior housing, Surenien explained.

Weston Associates have yet to go before the borough’s Planning Board with their new scaled-back plan calling for 120 three-story townhouse units of market-rate housing that the company hopes to build on Weston Place at the site of Mr. B’s Golf Center, the attorney stated.

During discussion prior to the vote, Surenien showed Weston Associates’ “concept plan” featuring architectural renderings of its latest development scheme, which would be constructed in numerous clusters.

Some 40-foot-high units are included in Weston Associates’ newest plan. The

developer would need to seek a height variance from the Planning Board because Eatontown limits maximum height of residential buildings to 35 feet, Surenien pointed out.

After seeing Weston’s concept plan, Mayor Gerald Tarantolo advised the council to move ahead on the ordinance to create the affordable housing zone as a means of tying up the litigation’s loose ends.

Considering the number of townhouses that could have been built on the site had Weston Associates pursued and ultimately won the lawsuit against the borough, the council should follow Surenien’s suggestions and establish the affordable housing zone, he said.

“We didn’t get everything we wanted. They didn’t get everything they wanted,” Tarantolo said. “I think we have a [development] project we can live with. End the litigation.”

In the original “builder’s remedy” lawsuit, Weston Associates charged that it should be allowed to build its 400-unit development, which would have included some affordable units, because Eatontown had failed to meet its COAH obligation, Surenien explained.

To date, the lawsuit has cost the borough more than $500,000, Tarantolo has said.

A state Superior Court judge will then determine if the settlement is “fair and reasonable,” Surenien went on.

The same judge must also decide whether or not the housing plan incorporated in the newly amended zoning ordinance passed by the council last week creates a “realistic opportunity” for Eatontown to meet its COAH obligation.

A date will be scheduled for the hearing before the judge once all of the settlement paperwork is received from Surenien and Weston Associates’ attorney, Carl S. Bisgaier of Cherry Hill.