Cranbury candidates talk COAH

By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
    CRANBURY — Both candidates for Township Committee say they will devote themselves to dealing with affordable housing obligations.
    COAH released new round-three requirements in December, after its original round-three rules had been invalidated by the state Supreme Court a year earlier. The new rules were part of an effort to increase the number of new affordable housing units from 52,000 to 115,000 that would be required to be built in the state within the next 10 years. The rules were met with opposition from local officials from suburban towns around the state that argued that the amount of units created would increase the population so much that quality of life would decline and the schools and other infrastructure would be overburdened.
    Cranbury’s obligations stand at 269, up from the 160 the township originally anticipated under the original round-three rules.
    Cranbury is particularly concerned with the warehouse-to-job ratio used to determine affordable housing requirements. The formula stipulates that for every 1,000 square feet of warehouse space there should be one employee and one affordable housing unit for every 16 jobs. Some township officials disagreed with the figure, prompting a local survey of Cranbury’s warehouses, which has yet to be completed.
    In addition, legislators recently passed a bill eliminating regional contribution agreements, which had allowed towns to pay urban communities to take on up to half of their obligations. The bill also increased a developers’ fee from 2 percent to 2.5 percent of the equalized assessed value of a building, a sum many critics say is not enough to pay for the new units generated by new development.
    In past months, the township has entered into two lawsuits against COAH, one with the state League of Municipalities that focuses the broader issues of the new third-round rules and another, with Clinton Township and hand full of other municipalities, that focuses on more specific grievances, in this case the inaccuracy of the warehouse-to-jobs formula.
    Republican nominee Win Cody said that instead of trying to tackle each problem separately he would like to see the town lobby for an entire review of the new third-round rules.
    “I want to lobby for a total amendment to the affordable housing rules,” he said. “We need good, fair, productive affordable housing rules.”
    Recent efforts to seek amendments through COAH have not paid off for Cranbury, Mr. Cody said.
    Mr. Cody said he supports the township’s current affordable housing plan, in respect to the layout for its next project on the Route 130D site, and maintaining these units as rentals, which have allowed the township gain bonus credits.
    “I support the range in the plan,” he said. “The houses we already have are great. (Renters) are really nice hard working people.”
    Although he’s still skeptical of the outcomes, entering into the lawsuits with larger organizations and other municipalities is “a step in the right direction,” Mr. Cody said.
    Mr. Cody said he was disappointed that the township hasn’t completed its warehouse survey but said that he believes the findings will make a case for Cranbury’s obligation to be lowered.
    “We can apply for a waiver. I don’t know if it will go anywhere,” he said. “You build based on jobs, let use our numbers, not projected numbers.”
    Mr. Ritter said municipalities should band together for lobbying purposes, especially as it pertains to the warehouse-to-job formula and the elimination of RCAs.
    “Where do we need to apply more energy?,” he said. “We need to lobby effectively for changes. We should work together and cooperatively with other municipalities to identify a small set of amendments that would be of value to all municipalities.”
    Legislators need to address whether or not they plan to honor pre-existing RCAs, a huge issue for Cranbury, which has an agreement to transfer 81 units to Perth Amboy for round three.
    As for the warehousing numbers, Mr. Ritter said he hopes the township will apply for a waiver and believes COAH should begin to reevaluate how it’s assessing each town’s obligation through a “one- size-fit-all” formula.
    “I think there needs to be an approach that allows municipalities to calculate affordable housing based on actual job numbers themselves without going through a waiver process,” he said. “No municipality should have to create affordable housing based on non-existent jobs.”
    Before he takes a stance on whether the units should be rentals or owned units, Mr. Ritter said there will need to be much more detailed plans to see the tradeoff between the two. He said there may be better sites for development than the ones already chosen. He’d also like to see the 130D site scaled back.
    “130D was planned at its current density under the original third round regulations,” he said. “I think that it should be scaled back given that we now have to plan for more affordable housing.”
    Mr. Ritter said he believes the township has taken the appropriate steps so far.