The Edison Township Council reluctantly approved its affordable housing plan during its regular Dec. 22 meeting. The plan will be sent to the state Department of Community Affairs along with a cover letter lodging the township’s official protest over the state mandate that necessitated the drafting of the plan to begin with.
The letter also noted that if elements of how the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) operates change as a result of the multitude of lawsuits the government organization is currently engaged in, the plan, as written, would also be subject to change. This was considered especially important to note by the council, since Edison will be required to bond for $8.4 million in order to complete its state mandates.
The township’s plan, approved by the Planning Board during its Dec. 15 meeting, was explained to the council by Shirley Bishop, Edison’s COAH consultant, during the Dec. 22 meeting.
COAH is the government entity that oversees the execution of affordable housing regulations mandated by the state. Created in the 1980s, the organization has enacted two previous rounds of obligations requiring that a proportion of all new residential development be devoted to low-cost housing. This number is further influenced by new jobs created. COAH, approved its third round of affordable housing obligations this year. Municipalities, in response, have been scrambling to update their plans in order to meet the organization’s Dec. 31 deadline, lest they be targeted by the state for litigation. The state League of Municipalities sued to extend the deadline but was denied by the state Superior Court in October.
Affordable housing is defined by the state as housing that is sold or rented at below-market rates to people whose income meets regional guidelines established by COAH.
Bishop said that under this most recent round of obligations, towns need one affordable unit for every four market-rate units built, and one affordable unit for every 16 jobs created. She said the plan for how Edison is going to do this is a long and voluminous work spanning many areas.
“Many trees were killed in putting together this plan,” said Bishop.
The regulations require Edison to rehabilitate 173 existing housing units that are deemed deficient by the state but are still occupied by a low-income household. Bishop said the township has completed 54 of these rehabilitations so far and has until 2018 to do the rest, which she said can be paid for through grant money.
Edison will also need to add 1,018 new affordable units to its housing stock as well, under the new regulations. Edison’s plan was made to specifically minimize the amount of new construction that would be required.
First, the township already has 164 surplus vacant units that weren’t counted in the last round of COAH obligations and which can be counted in this one. There is also a plan for 120 units in the Camp Kilmer site, a 23-acre plot of land that the township has been in the process of acquiring since last year.
The bulk of the new units, however, will come from a market-to-affordable program that the township hopes to enact with its many apartment complexes, creating a proposed 427 rent subsidized apartments. Edison will be hiring a consultant to negotiate with the apartment owners so they can enact this part of the plan. While COAH ordinarily doesn’t let plans be composed of that many market-to-affordable units, Edison is seeking a waiver due to what Bishop said are “rents that are not too high they can’t be subsidized at an affordable level.”
Towns also get bonuses toward their housing obligation for including rental units. Edison’s plan gets the township 254 bonus units, the maximum allowed under the latest COAH regulations.
Topping it off are 45 group home units bring proposed.
While this plan will allow Edison to complete its affordable housing obligations, it requires more money than the township currently has allocated for affordable housing purposes. Bishop said that Edison will experience an $8.4 million shortfall as a result of this plan. COAH requires municipalities with such a shortfall to pass a resolution stating their intent to issue a bond in order to address this expense.
Concluding her talk, Bishop did note that COAH is currently the subject of 24 different lawsuits and that certain legislators have taken an interest in reforming the organization’s rules. With this in mind, she said the plan could change should COAH change as well. This is where the cover letter stating that Edison retains the right to amend its plan should COAH be amended comes in.
“This plan is fluid also based on many other housing options you may want to see in the future, and also on the uncertainty surrounding all the documents,” said Bishop.
Bill Stephens, a former council member and a regular commentator at meetings, questioned whether a cover letter stating that Edison can amend its plan has any force of law. Township Attorney Jeff Lehrer said he was confident that it would be sufficient, from a legal standpoint, vigorously disagreeing with Stephens’ assessment. Lehrer reminded Stephens that he does have a law degree. The council, when voting for the resolution making the COAH plans official, backed the cover letter idea as well.
The sentiment among both council members and town residents was that the resolutions ultimately approving Edison’s COAH plans was the product of grim inevitability. No one liked it, but they all knew they had to do it.
“As much as I don’t like the ambitions of this amendment, we really don’t have much choice,” said Sal Pizzi, a former council member and meeting regular.
Councilman Anthony Massaro relayed similar sentiments when he spoke before voting yes.
“I was told when I got into elected office that I would have to vote on some things [while] holding my nose. This is one of those items,” said Massaro.
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