Township settles PRC suit

Age restriction rules to change.

By: Leon Tovey
   MONROE — The township plans to amend a zoning ordinance restricting the age of residents in its planned retirement communities to allow one resident per household to be under the age of 55.
   The change is the result of a settlement reached last week with a pair of developers that filed suit to overturn the ordinance.
   Currently, all residents of age-restricted communities are required to be at least 55 years old.
   Under the settlement, one resident of each household in the communities will be required to be at least 55 and the other at least 48.
   Mayor Richard Pucci announced during Monday’s Township Council meeting that a settlement had been reached with the Kalian/Spectrum Monroe and Toll Brothers Inc., the developers of Encore and Regency at Monroe, respectively.
   The settlement also will allow around 100 residents who have already purchased, or are under contract to purchase, houses in the Regency at Monroe and Encore developments to remain or close on their houses, even though they don’t meet the 55/48 requirement. However, they will not be allowed to sell their houses to anyone who doesn’t meet the requirement.
   Additionally, Kalian/Spectrum and Toll Brothers Inc. will be required to pay a combined $175,000 toward the construction of a new, free-standing township senior center, which is currently in the planning stage.
   Township officials learned in November that houses in the two developments had been sold to people under 55, in violation of the age-restriction ordinance, which was passed in 1991 at the behest of residents of the township’s five other planned retirement communities.
   In January, the township sent out letters demanding a census detailing the ages of the residents of both communities. WCI, which owns a controlling share of Kalian, and Toll Brothers Inc. responded by filing suit in a federal court in Newark on March 4, alleging that the age-restriction ordinance violates the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968.
   Mayor Pucci said the township maintains that its ordinance is legal because the section of the act cited by the developers allows for more restrictive ordinances.
   But he said the township agreed to settle with the developers rather than fight the suit because it wanted to settle the question of whether residents under the age of 55 who had already purchased houses, or are currently under contract to purchase houses in the developments, would be allowed to remain in, or close on, their houses.
   Mayor Pucci told more than a dozen such residents at the March 7 Council meeting that they would be allowed to close on their houses.
   "We’re happy that we could avoid protracted and expensive litigation and I hope we can put this behind us," Mayor Pucci said Monday.
   That announcement drew a sigh of relief from several residents attending the meeting, many of whom were ready to close to or under contract to buy houses in the two developments and had been waiting since March to find out whether they would be allowed to proceed.
   "Thank you all very much" was the response of Howard Deutsch of West Orange, who is waiting to close on a house in Encore. "Thank you."
   Not all the residents were as happy with the arrangement as Mr. Deutsch, however. Carl Foreman, another Encore resident criticized the settlement, saying it unfairly restricted his ability to sell his house and that the ordinance still placed an unfair burden on residents — and potential residents — of the communities.
   "I have a friend who would like to move down here and he has a 37-year-old, mentally disabled son," Mr. Foreman told the council. "What about him?"
   But some residents were too relieved to even stick around for the conclusion of the meeting.
   John Rebelo, 53, has been living with his mother in Newark for the past several weeks while waiting to see if he and his 54-year-old wife, Doris, would be able to close on their house in Encore.
   After the announcement, Mr. Rebelo left the council chamber with his cell phone to call his wife, who has been staying with her mother in Whiting in Ocean County.
   "You got your house," he said.