By Audrey Levine Staff Writer
HILLSBOROUGH — The township plans to meet almost all of its affordable housing requirements for the next 10 years with three proposed projects totaling 733 new apartments and condos, in addition to already-approved projects, according to the affordable housing plan the Planning Board will hear next week.
The plan reduces the number of affordable units expected to be built from an original figure of 650 to 296.
The reduction also includes a decrease in the amount of market units to be built, from 2,600 to 437, for a total of 733 new properties to be built, rather than the previously assumed 3,250.
The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the township’s fair share housing plan proposal at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Municipal Building. If approved by the Planning Board, the plan will go to the Township Committee for approval.
An approved plan is due to the state by Dec. 31.
With the third-round regulations from the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), the township is required to have 461 units from prior obligations, rehabilitate 19 units and have a growth share of 650 units, all of which must be complete by 2018.
Several previously approved projects are being used in the 650-unit count, according to the township’s affordable housing consultant, Jennifer Beahm, a planner with Birdsall Engineering in Eatontown.
”Between the end of round two and now, the township has approved projects that provided additional units,” she said.
Ms. Beahm said some age-restricted units that had been planned to fill the round-two COAH obligations were not accepted because regulations only allowed a certain number of senior units to count toward the obligations. In addition, the township is able to take bonus credits for rental units, allowing them to count toward the obligations twice.
The township is proposing to include 168 units from previously approved plans and 162 bonus rental units for the third-round obligations.
”Basically, these are projects that have already been approved or couldn’t be used in the past,” Ms. Beahm said. “We are taking advantage of as much development as we already have.”
In the township’s plan, Ms. Beahm said, there are three proposed projects – two on Amwell Road and one on Route 206 – that would meet the 296 remaining obligations.
A 108-unit project of all affordable housing apartments has been proposed by Cherry Hill developer Ingerman Group for a site on Amwell Road east of Piney Woods Drive.
On Route 206 north of Partridge Drive, a development proposed by the Hiller Group Premier Homes of Westfield will have 490 total units, with 352 serving as market rate units and the remaining 138 going for affordable housing apartments.
The New Amwell Development Group LLC project, on Amwell Road just west of Eves Drive, will have a total of 129 units, with 85 being market rate units and 44 being set aside for affordable housing. Of the affordable housing units, Ms. Beahm said there will be 20 condos and 24 two-bedroom apartments.
Ms. Beahm said the two-bedroom apartments will provide the township with two credits each because they are alternative living for developmentally disabled individuals, disabled veterans or others in need. According to COAH rules, the township can receive one credit per bedroom.
These three projects, Ms. Beahm said, are currently awaiting approval from the Planning Board in conjunction with the actual COAH plan.
If these projects are approved, Ms. Beahm said, the township will also need to create six more affordable housing units through a market to affordable housing project, which allows Hillsborough to purchase foreclosed properties and turn them into affordable housing.
”We will be taking advantage of existing properties,” she said.
In terms of market-rate units, Ms. Beahm said by using traditional formulas to determine necessity, 2,600 units would have been required to fulfill the township’s 650-unit obligation. She said when developments are proposed, usually 20 percent are reserved for affordable housing.
To lessen the impact on Hillsborough, she said, the township is taking advantage of other ways to comply with the rules by negotiating higher numbers of properties to be set aside for affordable properties.
Using these methods, Ms. Beahm said, the township will only need to build 437 market units to comply with the 296-unit affordable housing obligation.
To fill the other requirements for the third-round regulations, the township plans to rehabilitate its 19 units through the Hillsborough Township Housing Rehabilitation Program, which is funded by Community Development Block Grants through Somerset County. The plan states that the township will rehabilitate about two per year.
As for the 461-unit obligation from the previous round, 77 of those are prior credits received for units constructed between April 1, 1980, and Dec. 15, 1986, according to the plan. The plan also states that 91 units are taken care of through Regional Contribution Agreements (RCA) with Phillipsburg and Manville.
In addition, 261 units are designed for rental housing, and the final 26 units are designated for the market to affordable program.
Township Clerk Kevin Davis said all of the 461 units have been approved, although not all, including a large segment of 105 units at Gateway at Sunnymead, have been built.

