MARLBORO — Applause erupted in Town Hall when residents who had packed the building to express their concerns about Marlboro’s affordable housing plan were told that the town’s officials would take action on a resolution which calls on state officials to put an end to the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).
Municipal officials have been trying to find a way to explain to state administrators that building more houses in Marlboro to satisfy the required number of affordable housing units decreed by COAH will damage the municipality.
Residents have told municipal officials that they do not want to see any homes — affordable housing or market rate units — built in Marlboro.
Affordable housing units are sold or rented at below market rates to people whose income meets regional guidelines established by COAH.
With what township officials deem to be a staggering number, COAH has determinedMarlboro’s obligation to be 1,673 affordable housing units for three rounds of affordable housing (1987-2018). Township administrators were required to submit a plan for these units to the state by Dec. 31, 2008 and COAH has recently deemed Marlboro’s plan complete.
Residents and municipal officials have expressed their dismay about the potential number of homes that could be constructed as a result of this obligation.
To convey their feelings on the impact the COAH obligation could have on Marlboro, the Township Council on Feb. 12 passed a resolution which asks Gov. Jon Corzine and the state Legislature to suspend the requirements of the New Jersey Fair Housing Act.
In the resolution, Mayor Jonathan Hornik and the council said the current state of the economy has virtually halted residential and commercial development across New Jersey and the nation. Concerns were also raised about the planning and development issues facing municipalities such as Marlboro, which face potential residential overdevelopment, destruction of open space, and the placement of undue stress upon local infrastructure such as schools and roads.
While acknowledging that the creation of affordable housing is an important governmental objective, the resolution notes that current economic conditions and sound planning for a municipality’s infrastructure must be considered.
Resident Susan Grossman spoke out about the construction of affordable housing in Marlboro and its potential effect on the township’s schools.
Grossman noted that with families moving into the proposed affordable housing, there would be an increase in children fillingMarlboro’s schools. She pointed out that the state has a new requirement which states that children who receive a free or reduced price lunch are now required to receive fullday preschool.
At the moment, administrators in the Marlboro K-8 School District have worked out an agreement with the Freehold Township School District to have those Marlboro children who meet the requirements for fullday preschool to be taught in Freehold Township schools for two years due to a lack of space in Marlboro’s schools.
Grossman said she believes children who live in the affordable housing developments will qualify for the mandatory preschool and make an already tight situation worse.
Councilman Frank LaRocca and Councilwoman Randi Marder agreed with Grossman’s sentiments.
“We are overbuilt already,” Marder said.
In explaining the reasoning behind the council’s resolution calling for the suspension of the requirements of the New Jersey Fair Housing Act, Hornik said, “COAH is a disaster. It is wrong coming down from governor’s office, to the state Assembly to the state Senate. It is being forced down municipalities’ throats and it’s being forced into our lands.”
Councilman Jeff Cantor likened COAH to the practice of arranged marriages. He called the regulations old fashioned and antiquated.
“You may not want to marry someone, but are forced to,” he said.
New Jersey Department of Community Affairs spokesman Chris Donnelly has said the third round affordable housing quota under COAH pertains to growth share obligations.
“Growth share is a way to measure a municipality’s affordable housing needs based on actual growth that takes place. Under growth share, one unit among every five housing units created in a municipality must be affordable; one affordable housing unit must be provided for every 16 jobs created in a municipality, measured by new commercial development. But keep in mind that a municipality is only responsible for building affordable housing when they have built market rate housing and commercial development. If neither market rate units nor commercial developments are built, affordable units do not have to be built because no growth has taken place,” Donnelly said.
According to COAH, Marlboro’s growth share obligation for the third round of COAH is 654 units, leaving 1,019 units to be built from the first two rounds. The 654 figure is based on a housing projection of 1,804 units and an employment projection of 4,684 jobs.
The 1,019 units from the previous two rounds will be completed through developments previously included in other plans and will contain market rate and affordable houses.
The third round component of the plan which Hornik’s administration crafted contains 100 percent affordable housing options, which he chose in order to reduce the number of houses that would be constructed in Marlboro.
Included in that proposed portion is a 176-unit development off Ticetown Road, near Provincial Drive; a 92-unit senior rental project to take over the Marlboro Motor Lodge on Route 9; 12 units in a proposed assisted living facility on Route 520; and a 115-unit site which does not have a location at the moment.
“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 reasonably support,” Hornik continued.
The mayor said the job growth in Marlboro that has been projected by COAH through 2018 is more job growth than has been seen in the township in his lifetime residing here — almost 40 years.
“To project the numbers that Marlboro has to plan for without accounting for any of these contingencies, while using scientific methodology which has no connection to practical or regional realities is beyond the realm of good planning,” Hornik wrote to COAH when the township’s plan was submitted at the end of 2008.
State Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth and Mercer) noted in a recent guest column in the News Transcript that a study conducted by Rutgers University found that the state overestimated the supply of developable land by 15 percent and buildout capacity was overestimated by 17 percent.
When asked about the impact building more homes in communities such as Marlboro may have on local school districts, Donnelly said affordable housing would not generate any more children than market rate housing would.
“Gov. (Jon) Corzine has implemented a new school funding formula where money for public schools is based on actual child enrollment. So as new students move into a community, additional funding will be provided by the state to that school district depending on the unique educational needs of the children,” Donnelly said. “Over 300 municipalities, including Marlboro, have signaled their intent to participate in the COAH process, which is a voluntary process. Municipalities are in no way obligated to take part.”
Hornik has disagreed with the state’s contention that participation in the COAH process is voluntary.
“When compared to the builder’s remedy lawsuit, the COAH process becomes the lesser of two evils,” the mayor said.
LaRocca took issue with a new affordable housing regulation which prohibits a town from transferring a part of its obligation to build affordable housing to a community which would rehabilitate substandard housing within its borders or construct its own affordable housing. This previous program was known as a Regional Contribution Agreement (RCA).
“RCAs were not a pompous move to push affordable housing out of a township as some had said, but was a way for overstressed communities to help the towns that do need affordable housing.” he said.
LaRocca said in speaking with other mayors, he learned that communities such as Lakewood, Trenton and Asbury Park would accept funds from Marlboro in order to build affordable housing for the people who live in their communities.
Hornik called on Marlboro’s residents to speak up at the state level and to voice their objections regarding New Jersey’s affordable housing program to assemblymen, senators and the governor.
“I hope that each of you remember what we are being forced to do when you go to the polls this November. Because this is wrong, nobody here wants this to be happening,” Hornik said.

