If purchase goes through, 60 units of affordable housing could be built on the land
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
The Hopewell Township Committee plans to wait until Dec. 8 to vote on a proposed bond ordinance that would appropriate $7 million to buy the Pennytown Shopping Village.
The property is located off Route 31 between Route 654 and Marshall’s Corner-Woodsville Road.
The decision to hold off on the vote came Monday. The proposed ordinance was introduced Oct. 27.
If the purchase goes through, 60 units of affordable housing could be built on the land.
Officials say the purchase price would be covered by affordable housing fees collected, and expected to be collected in the future, from developers. That means none of the purchase price would be covered by the municipal tax base.
Township Administrator/Engineer Paul Pogorzelski says the township needs to include a Pennytown component in an affordable housing plan the township must submit to the state by year’s end.
If the township does not file a plan that satisfies the state, Mr. Pogorzelski and Township Attorney Steve Goodell say, the township would forfeit over $3 million in affordable housing fees already collected from developers.
In addition, they say, failure to file a satisfactory plan could result in the township’s being hit with a builder’s remedy lawsuit. Such a lawsuit, which would be filed by a developer, could result in the township’s being forced to provide four or five market-priced units for each affordable unit built. That could translate to over 1,600 new housing units over the next 10 or so years, Mr. Goodell said.
”A builder’s remedy lawsuit is nothing you want to run the risk of,” Mr. Goodell said. “It can be devastating to a town. A judge can order the infrastructure (sewers, for example) necessary to build the housing. It can be enormously expensive and the planning would be in the hands of a judge.”
Mr. Goodell sounded an additional cautionary note: “Hopewell Township is a place developers are looking at all the time. It’s a very attractive place. The state is not hesitant to require the kind of suburban sprawl we want to avoid here.”