HIGHTSTOWN: Borough, school board join effort to keep age restrictions on housing

By Sean Rupport, Staff Writer
   The Hightstown Borough Council and East Windsor Regional Board of Education have joined the chorus of local officials throughout the state calling for the veto of a bill that would make it easier for developers to remove age restrictions on housing projects.
   Both bodies approved resolutions this week urging Gov. Jon Corzine to veto the “age-restricted housing conversion bill,” which was passed by both houses of the Legislature as Senate Bill S-2577 and Assembly Bill A-3772 in an emergency vote March 16.
   The legislation would provide developers “as-of-right” applications to local planning boards to convert approved age-restricted developments into a market-rate housing as long as it includes affordable housing.
   Critics of the bill argue easing the process for removing age restrictions could greatly increase costs by bringing many more kids into school districts that are not prepared for them as well as burdening other municipal services.
   ”Obviously, if you have over-55 housing that is opening up, that brings children into the school district that no one ever planned for,” East Windsor Regional Superintendent Ron Bolandi said Wednesday.
   ”For the governor to have a bill sitting on his desk that changes that, it could be devastating to us. We are right at about max capacity right now,” Mr. Bolandi said.
   Members of the Borough Council expressed similar opinions.
   ”I really can’t believe they passed a bill like this,” Councilman Jeff Bond said Monday. “It totally undermines local land use planning.”
   East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov panned the bill in a letter to Gov. Corzine two weeks ago and has a message up on the East Windsor school district’s Web site encouraging residents to contact the governor and voice displeasure with the legislation. She went so far in her letter as to call the measure “anti-democratic” and a “fraud.”
   The state League of Municipalities also has come out against the bill as well, according to published reports.