ROBBINSVILLE: Developer’s conversion plan draws heat

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   ROBBINSVILLE — A developer’s plan to convert 150 age-restricted homes for active seniors into housing for people of all ages received a hostile reception last week from the public and some Planning Board members who worried the plan could add too many children to the public schools and cause higher school taxes.
   ”It would be an understatement to say the town is less than pleased with the fact that we’re here asking for this approval,” Tom Troy, Sharbell’s senior vice president, acknowledged in his testimony before the Planning Board on Jan. 19.
   Sharbell received approval in 2006 for a 439-acre mixed-use commercial and residential development on Gordon Road near Route 130 North, but has yet to break ground on the site, known locally as the Gordon-Simpson tract. The majority of the unnamed development’s residential units were supposed to be restricted to people age 55 and older under the terms of the original approvals.
   Mr. Troy said there was no market anymore in New Jersey for active senior housing so Sharbell is seeking to convert the 150 age-restricted units to 120 three- and four-bedroom homes. The 30 remaining units would be affordable housing condos, containing one to three bedrooms, which would be sold to families with low and moderate incomes, he said.
   The Planning Board heard three hours of testimony Jan. 19 before deciding to carry the application over to the Jan. 26 meeting, which was scheduled to begin after The Messenger-Press had gone to print.
   Housing analyst Jeffrey Otteau, testifying on behalf of Sharbell at the first hearing, told the board “the traditional linkage in New Jersey between new home construction and school enrollment no longer exists.”
   Since the early 1980s when half of all homes had children, the U.S. Census has found the number of households with children has been declining, Mr. Otteau said. Today, 64 percent of Robbinsville households are childless, he said.
   ”Our schools would never tell you that,” responded Planning Board member Janet Van Nest, prompting residents in the back of the room to applaud. “I’m sorry, I’ve lived here for a long time and that’s hard for me to accept.”
   Township Councilman Dave Boyne, who also sits on the Planning Board, appeared incredulous.
   ”This is Robbinsville, and I can assure you our school-age population is not declining,” Mr. Boyne said.
   Mr. Otteau stood by the numbers, saying that “absent the frenzied, euphoric, overbuilding hyper-extended real estate construction market” of the past, school enrollments will begin to decline.
   Mr. Troy said that using demographic data from Rutgers University’s “Who Lives in New Jersey?” study on the average number of people who live in homes of different sizes, Sharbell projects the conversion of the 150 age-restricted units would add 72 school-age children to the public schools.
   That number does not factor in the children expected to move into 30 non-age-restricted single-family homes and townhomes and 24-market rate condos that were approved in 2006 and have always been part of the project. The total number of schoolchildren, therefore, would be 91, Mr. Troy said.
   When Mr. Boyne asked Mr. Troy how many schoolchildren live in Sharbell’s biggest Robbinsville development, Town Center, which has 660 homes and townhomes and 84 condos, Mr. Troy said he “would love to know that” but did not have any data from the school district.
   ”Does anyone know how many kids come out of Town Center?” Mr. Troy asked turning to the audience.
   ”Too many!” called out one man in the back of the room.
   Schools Superintendent Steve Mayer, who was not at the public hearing, said in a phone interview Jan. 20 there are 410 students who are bused to schools from Town Center and a large number of preschoolers also live there.
   Mr. Mayer said the K-3 elementary school, which is already using modular classroom trailers due to growing enrollment, expects 335 students in the years ahead from already approved housing developments that are not yet built. That figure doesn’t include the extra students who would come if the age-restricted units in the Gordon-Simpson tract are converted to all-age housing, he said.
   A $39.6 million referendum to build a K-5 school and make repairs to Sharon School and Pond Road Middle School was defeated by township voters in 2010.
   Sharbell’s conversion application for the Gordon-Simpson tract takes advantage of a 2009 state law that permits unbuilt age-restricted housing to be converted into regular housing if 20 percent of units are set aside for low- and moderate-income families and the water, sewer and parking are adequate to support the change. The law requires planning boards to look favorably on applications meeting these conditions unless they pose a substantial detriment to the public good.
   ”Single-family housing (for families) with children is not an inherently negative thing for any community,” Mr. Troy said after Planning Board Attorney Jerry Dasti questioned Sharbell’s experts on what they thought the meaning was of the phrase “detriment to the public good.”
   Mr. Troy also reminded the board that Sharbell was seeking the conversion because the market for active adult communities had collapsed.
   ”I would love to not have to be here tonight and be able to build homes for smiling, shining, happy 55-year-olds, but that’s not happening,” Mr. Troy said. “So we have to look at the reality that’s in front of us.”
   Earlier, Mr. Otteau described the 55-and-over housing market as a “failed concept that is no longer viable.”
   Older residents have lost much of their retirement savings and home equity due to the recent economic collapse, Mr. Otteau said. Instead of downsizing to an active adult community, they are “aging in place” in their current homes and plan to leave the state once they are fully retired, he said.
   ”This has completely cut the legs out of the active adult market and it’s why conversions like these are being discussed around the state,” Mr. Otteau said.
   The Sharbell project, as approved in 2006, had a supermarket, YMCA, commercial and office buildings, 30 single-family homes and townhomes, 24 market-rate condos, 60 Project Freedom units for people with disabilities, a 70-acre “farmette” and the 150 housing units restricted to people age 55 and older.
   The YMCA and supermarket have since been dropped from the plan, Mr. Troy said. The site of the YMCA would be dedicated to the township as open space and the 16-acre parcel that was supposed to be the supermarket at the corner of Route 130 and Gordon Road would become a 248-unit continuing care retirement community operated by Keswick Pines Lifecare called The Pines at Robbinsville.
   Sharbell is seeking to amend its 2006 approvals to relocate the 60 Project Freedom units to the south side of Gordon Road, which would be realigned. There also would be three commercial buildings with a total 58,525 square feet of retail space on the first floors and 75,050 in office space on the second and third floors.
   The 24-market rate condos would be in a separate stand-alone building instead of above the retail shops as in the previous plan, Mr. Troy said.