The redevelopment of the former Helme snuff mill property in Helmetta took another step forward during a contentious meeting before a close-to-capacity crowd in the borough courthouse July 13.
The borough Planning Board approved both a settlement agreement with developer Kaplan at Helmetta LLC and preliminary amended site plans for the construction of 200 luxury apartment units on the site of the former Helme snuff mill. The board’s action came two days after the Helmetta Borough Council voted to authorize the settlement.
“We are excited,” said Jason Kaplan, president of the Highland Park-based Kaplan Co. “After owning the property for years and paying taxes, we’ll be glad to finally see some action here … and create some jobs and create some ratables for the town.”
The board’s decision officially ends over a year of litigation between Kaplan and the Borough of Helmetta over the builder’s desire to drop the age restrictions from its previously approved housing development. New Jersey Superior Court ruled in favor of the Helmetta Planning Board’s denial of Kaplan’s application to drop the age restrictions from its housing proposal in June 2010. Kaplan appealed the decision, and a ruling was expected by the end of this month.
However, while Helmetta Mayor Nancy Martin said she and other members of the board would rather have seen an age-restricted development, this settlement brings an end to costly legal fees and is a “fair and reasonable agreement.”
“We got everything we pretty much asked for other than the age restriction,” she said. “I believe that the Borough of Helmetta is going to benefit from this project. ”
Under the development agreement, Kaplan will create 200 luxury rental apartments in the town, consisting of 110 two-bedroom apartments and 90 one- bedroom apartments. One hundred eighty of the 200 apartments — 90 onebedroom and 90 two-bedroom— will be built into the former Helme snuff mill buildings. Kaplan will construct new buildings for the remaining 20 two-bedroom apartments.
The agreement allows for 11.1 percent of the constructed apartments to be used for affordable housing if the borough needs them to meet state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) or any successor state agency’s requirements.
The apartments will also feature 2,500-3,000 square feet of community space as well as a swimming pool.
The owner of the housing development will pay the borough $275,000 or 10 percent of annual gross revenue, whichever is greater, each year as part of a 22- year Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program. The borough will receive 95 percent of the funds, with Middlesex County getting the remaining 5 percent.
“It’s a great revenue generator for the town,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan will also construct an 8,000-square-foot community center for the benefit of the borough. Sports fields will also be constructed on the site.
“It’s a great facility for the town,” Kaplan said. “People will finally have an essential gathering place they can call their own.”
The agreement, though, was met with harsh criticism from Spotswood officials and many Helmetta residents who were present at the July 13 meeting.
Spotswood Mayor Thomas Barlow was troubled by the impact the new development could have on the Spotswood School District, which takes students from Helmetta.
The developer believes the rental units will result in 20 to 25 new students attending the recently regionalized school district. However, after looking at the number of students who enter the district from the George Street Apartments, Spotswood Garden Apartments and Parkview Manor complexes in Spotswood, Barlow said the Kaplan development can be expected to generate 50 to 60 new students.
Barlow said that it costs $14,000 a year to send a student through the Spotswood School District.
“Fifty students is $700,000,” he said.
Because the property is part of a tax-exempt urban renewal plan, Barlow said the cost of these students would be passed on to other residents who pay taxes to the school district.
“The residents that live there and generate the children are not going to be paying taxes toward it,” Barlow said. “The other residents of Helmetta are going to pay for it, and the residents of Spotswood.”
Residents of both towns would also have to bear the burden of any school expansion that is needed to accommodate the students, Barlow said.
If a large number of students were to come into the district without a funding source following them, the school board might be forced to go to the state to renegotiate its agreement with Helmetta, Spotswood Board of Education Attorney David Rubin said.
“We may have no choice but to apply to the Department of Education to modify the current funding formula and allocation between our two districts to assure that Helmetta bears a greater, fair share of those students,” Rubin said. “[That’s] something we hope we won’t have to do.”
Spotswood Councilman Curt Stollen, who also owns property in Helmetta, noted that none of the money from the PILOT agreement will go toward school taxes. As such, school taxes for residents could be on the rise, Stollen said.
“Being a person who is involved with municipal budgets and with the past cuts we’ve had from Trenton lately, the $262,000 that the borough would get probably would just fill the holes that you currently have,” he said.
And he said that while Spotswood generally likes to work with Helmetta, he said he is frustrated that Spotswood’s opinions are not being heard.
“You have to understand that this situation is almost like taxation without representation,” he said. “We will assume a great burden from this, and yet our residents have no voice against this.”
Several Helmetta residents, including Nicole Mactonic, also spoke out against the Kaplan deal. Mactonic, who moved to Helmetta 16 years ago, said she worries about the number of students who could enter the district and the rise in taxes that may come with them. Single and without children, she said it is unfair that she will have to pick up the cost for any students who come as part of the development.
“I think it is a very unfair process,” Mactonic said. “I think it is wrong to have nonage restricted homes. I think it will hurt the town of Helmetta, and I think it will be a downward spiral.”
However, Martin said that the student figures presented by Barlow are based on apartment complexes that are a different type of product than the restored mill buildings.
She said that like any property owner, Kaplan has the right to develop its land.
“Kaplan owns a piece of property, and they are entitled to build [on] that piece of property,” she said. “In all fairness to the borough residents, our taxpayers, we are going to develop that property.”
Martin also said that if Spotswood and the Board of Education felt there was a concern regarding an apartment complex and the number of students who could come from it, they could have involved themselves in the litigation process.
“They were asked to enter into the litigation but both chose not to be a part of the litigation process,” she said.
Martin said it is a plan that she believes will improve Helmetta, and so she had to move forward with it.
“We are doing this for the best interest of the borough of Helmetta and no one else,” she said.