MARLBORO — As the Township Council prepared to vote on Marlboro’s latest affordable housing plan, residents came forward at the Dec. 18 council meeting to express their views on the proposal.
New Jersey municipalities were required to submit their plans to the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) by Dec. 31.
The first two rounds of New Jersey’s affordable housing regulations ran from 1987- 99. According to COAH, Marlboro had an obligation to provide 1,019 affordable housing units for the first two rounds and is faced with a projected growth share obligation of 654 affordable housing units from 2004-18.
In order to meet the third round obligation Marlboro officials have turned to 100 percent affordable housing projects to decrease the amount of market rate residential growth within the municipality.
Resident Paul Schlaflin has been an official objector to previous affordable housing plans put forth by Marlboro. On Dec. 18 he told council members his name would be removed from the list of objectors and he said he would support the current plan.
Schlaflin said he understood the current administration was limited in what it could do as a result of litigation over housing developments included in previous plans.
“To the people of this town, I hope they are wise enough to see just what a good plan this is and they get behind and support it. And to the greedy builders and developers who have historically raped this town in the name of affordable housing, they should know that while Marlboro is open for business, we’re no longer for sale,” Schlaflin said.
Planning Board Vice Chairman Gerald Bergh said Marlboro is also obligated due to litigation to carry forward housing developments that had been included in previous rounds of affordable housing regulations.
Developments such as the proposed Northpointe, off Nolan Road, and a project on the Entron property, Route 79 at Beacon Hill Road, had been in litigation and are a part of Marlboro’s prior obligation. Residents have objected to both projects due to the high density of homes proposed at each of those locations.
“What’s been added this year in putting together a new plan is 100 percent affordable housing developments, which will satisfy our affordable housing obligations and incorporate a lot of bonus credits,” Bergh explained. “I don’t think you can do any better than 100 percent affordable housing.”
Resident John Turi was also an objector to previous COAH plans and has spoken out against the proposal for the Entron property.
At the Dec. 18 council meeting Turi once again expressed his dismay at seeing the Entron site included in Marlboro’s affordable housing plan. He said the main objection to the proposal for housing at the Entron property is not the redevelopment of the brownfields (contaminated) site, but the density that is proposed on the property.
According to previous articles published in the News Transcript, when the Entron property was included in a 2004 affordable housing plan, the proposal was to permit the construction of 245 market-rate homes and 49 affordable age-restricted units on the site. The Entron property was eventually removed from the affordable housing plan.
Under the current affordable housing plan the Entron property would have a total of 250 units — 50 family rental affordable housing units and 200 market rate units — as a result of litigation between the developer Kaplan Companies and Marlboro.
The Kaplan Companies had objected to the township’s 2005 affordable housing
plan, which had the Entron site removed entirely, and litigation followed.
Turi said the local organization Marlboro Citizens for Smart Growth, a 250-member group, was not contacted about the current affordable housing plan. He said as far as he knew, no one on Beacon Hill Road was notified in advance that the Entron property was going to once again be seen under the prior round obligations.
“If we could work to make Entron look nice that would be much appreciated by the residents in that area,” Turi concluded.
Councilwoman Rosa Tragni, who is the council’s liaison with Marlboro’s affordable housing committee, said it is her hope that the affordable housing plan submitted by the township will be accepted by COAH.
“They’ve worked very hard to really think outside the box to get this to work,” Tragni said of the plan and its use of 100 percent affordable housing projects.
Mayor Jonathan Hornik wrote a letter to preface Marlboro’s plan when it was submitted to the state. In the letter Hornik expressed his concerns and frustrations created by the COAH process. He called the number of affordable housing units required by COAH “unreasonable and outrageous.”
“The anticipated growth which Marlboro must account for is substantially in excess of any prudent number of homes which the township’s infrastructure, open space, schools and amenities can reasonable support,” Hornik wrote.
The mayor said he was frustrated by the regulations concerning the COAH plan. He noted that within a 10-day period, 12 possible changes to the regulations were introduced before the state Legislature. Not knowing what might pass and influence Marlboro’s plan, the mayor said officials waited to see the results, one of which might have extended the Dec. 31 submission deadline.
Hornik concluded his letter to COAH by stating, “I do believe that the COAH process is anything but voluntary. When compared to a builders remedy lawsuit, the COAH process becomes the lesser of two evils. This township has historically encountered problems and lost planning control because of builders remedy lawsuits, therefore, I cannot in good conscience ask Marlboro to ‘take its chances’ and not petition COAH” for approval of an affordable housing plan.
Contact Rebecca Morton at [email protected]