Hopewell Township hopefuls assess the use of RCAs

Responses to HVN question

By Ruth Luse, Managing Editor
   Four candidates are seeking offices in Hopewell Township on Nov. 6. They are running for two seats (three-year terms) on the Hopewell Township Committee.
   Recently, the HVN asked these candidates the following question:
   Should state law permit the transfer of affordable housing obligations through Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs) to neighboring municipalities? If yes, why? If no, why?
   Under an RCA, the property owner makes a financial contribution toward the construction of affordable housing units somewhere else, usually elsewhere in the state.
   Candidates answers are:
   • Jim Burd (Republican) — As both a son of retired parents, who spent their lives working in Hopewell Valley, and the father of recent college graduate who is looking to return to the community in which he was raised, I see first hand the need for affordable housing in Hopewell Township. Following retirement my parents, understanding the confines of living on a fixed income, relocated to a more affordable area. My son, upon returning from college, desired to remain active in the community as a volunteer EMT, was unable to find an affordable place to live within the township, and now resides elsewhere.
   However, as an advocate for protecting our community’s vast farmlands, rolling countryside and woodlands, I also understand the need to protect our township from uncontrolled growth.
   I feel the law should permit the Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs) to neighboring municipalities. The NJ Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) has already utilized the first and second rounds of methodology of RCAs. We are currently awaiting the third round, which is being tested in the courts.
   Our wastewater management program, which depends on the Ewing-Lawrence Sewer Authority and the Stony Brook–Millstone Regional Sewage Authority, greatly restricts our community’s ability to take on its entire affordable housing burden without RCAs. Building outside these sewer areas requires wells and septic systems, which drive up construction costs making it impossible to create affordable units.
   It is our responsibility to prepare for our township’s predicted increase in affordable housing. This must be done as we review the current Master Plan of the township and conclude on what is most applicable with Smart Growth in the future. Smart Growth is based on the utilization of existing infrastructure as well as establishing areas with the greatest potential for expansion of such public systems. Our plan must be designed to meet the needs of those requiring affordable housing without affecting the property values of the existing neighborhoods.
   We are obligated to create affordable housing so young people who grew up in our community have an opportunity to raise their children in the township, and seniors can find appropriate housing to live out their retirement years in the community that they have worked so hard to build.
    • Robert Giangrasso (Democrat) — Yes, Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs) that permit the transfer of affordable housing obligations to neighboring municipalities should continue to be allowed in New Jersey. Actually, the current law describes RCAs as the process where a municipality can propose to transfer up to 50 percent of its affordable housing obligation. The City of Trenton has been the recipient of these financial transfers from Hopewell Township over the past decade.
   By using RCAs, Hopewell Township can continue to contain overdevelopment and preserve the precious farmland and rural character we have here. RCAs are a way to channel growth to redevelopment areas and simultaneously protect sensitive rural/environmental areas. In Hopewell Township, we do have affordable units, and will continue to provide them. Indeed, the 50 percent transfer limit ensures that those who need affordable housing the most in our community — such as firefighters and police, EMS workers and teachers — will continue to find a home here.
   Conversely the urban areas that receive this money from Hopewell Township benefit also. In the words of Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer, whose city has benefited from RCAs from Hopewell Township, “ New Jersey’s Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs), which, while flawed, nonetheless has been the only real, constant funding mechanism that urban areas have to remove blight and create neighborhoods attractive for working families …”
   It is important to recognize that, ultimately, development density needs to be contained by ecological constraints and environmental attributes, as well as the reality of transportation and other social infrastructures in the local and regional community. The presence of RCAs is consistent with a vision of Hopewell Township’s future which embraces the understanding that New Jersey needs to keep the distinct character of the different municipalities alive. The potential loss through development of precious farmland and rural zones threatens not only our way of life in Hopewell Township, but also the future sustainability of our community for coming generations.
   I view RCAs as a win-win solution for Hopewell Township and the receiving urban municipality. Hopewell Township has used RCAs in the past, and I would support their use in the future.
    • Janet Krommes (Democrat) — I believe state law should continue to permit the transfer of affordable housing units to neighboring communities as one of the options in meeting the township’s goal for affordable housing.
   The question of how best to ensure that all communities provide a range of housing opportunities has bedeviled communities throughout New Jersey since the original Mt. Laurel decision in 1975. That decision was meant to change the driving force behind development from purely economic to long-range land-use planning. Unfortunately, significant confusion in the interpretation and implementation of the law has resulted in more litigation than progress.
   First, when we are talking about whom this housing is intended to help, it should be mentioned that in our region the income limit for affordable housing for a family of four is $82,046. So, we’re talking about teachers, police officers, and young families starting out in life as candidates for this housing.
   The Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) has gone through several stages of refinement. The current round (#3) of rules revision is primarily designed to give municipalities more flexibility yet, at the same time, less latitude in interpretation of the law. The intention is to decrease litigation by giving a municipality a number of options that can be combined to satisfy the requirements.
   The question of whether state law should permit the transfer of obligations from one municipality to another must be understood in the context of the intent of the third-round revision — that is, to give municipalities options so that the process can move forward.
   COAH obligations stem from two things: the building of new residences, and new jobs. Development of new jobs requires one affordable housing unit for every 25 created jobs. This includes all new or expanded non-residential construction within a municipality, as well as relocation (NJSA 40:55 D-1 et seq).
   Some (though not all) of the options that we as a township can consider include: “Buy-downs,” in which a municipality pays the market rate for a house and then sells it to a qualified buyer at an affordable price; “Inclusionary housing,” a housing development built with a range of prices and with the appropriate percentage of affordable housing; “ECHO,” elderly cottage housing opportunity where old housing stock is converted to senior-appropriate use; “Age-restricted” affordable housing for seniors; and “Regional Contribution Agreements” (RCAs), in which a municipality can transfer up to 50 percent of its COAH obligations to a designated municipality.
   Choosing a combination of these options allows communities to both meet their own needs in the best way possible and to honor the spirit of the law, which is to have some diversity in housing. The constraints that our township faces are unique to us and our solutions for growth should be unique as well and debated in an open public manner. The more choices we have, the more likely we will be able to direct growth in a way that preserves the character of Hopewell Township.
    • Michael Markulec (Republican) — In New Jersey, municipalities have a constitutional obligation to provide for “suitable and affordable” housing for citizens of low and moderate income. The Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) sets fair share numbers for each municipality and administers a program which certifies municipalities as having met their obligation to plan accordingly.
   The Fair Housing Act permits several approaches to meeting municipal COAH obligations, from rehabilitation of existing substandard housing to the construction of Special needs/group homes. One approved method is through Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs), where a municipality is allowed to transfer up to half of its affordable housing obligations to other communities in its region by giving urban centers money to renovate existing affordable housing or build new units.
   I support Regional Contribution Agreements, which bring much-needed money to construct affordable housing in urban centers, while allowing communities like Hopewell Township a sound planning tool. Certainly, suburban and rural communities must honor their responsibilities to provide affordable housing within the COAH approved framework, and RCAs are just one of many instruments to do so.
   According to the League of Municipalities, RCA transfers are responsible for more than $173 million in construction and redevelopment in 42 municipalities during the past 15 years. Susan Bass Levin, the NJ Department of Community Affairs commissioner and chairwoman of the COAH, has said “RCAs are an effective urban revitalization tool.”
   Two pieces of legislation recently were introduced in the New Jersey Legislature. These proposed to eliminate the RCAs and to create a housing rehabilitation and assistance program for grants to municipalities. The net effect of this legislation would reverse almost two decades of sound planning in Hopewell Township, while depriving urban areas of critical funding for rehabilitation.
   Regional Contribution Agreements have been a valuable approach for meeting municipal COAH obligations, both for Hopewell Township and our neighboring communities. Eliminating the positive contribution of the RCA now would undo years of sound planning, hurt urban revitalization efforts across the state, and ultimate drive property taxes higher.