Mayor Fried to challenge enabling state statute
ROBBINSVILLE — Mayor Dave Fried says he will challenge in state Supreme Court a law allowing the Sharbell Building Co. to convert approved age-restricted housing to non-restricted units.
An appellate court ruling Feb. 27 has given Sharbell the right to proceed with construction of as many as 150 single-family units on a tract at the intersection of Route 130 and Gordon Road.
The mayor has been critical of the 2009 state law giving developers the right to convert housing approved for seniors into developments for any age groups. He did not elaborate on how or when a challenge would be mounted.
”Obviously I’m disappointed,” the mayor said this week of the appellate court ruling, “but not surprised.”
The township Planning Board appealed Superior Court Judge Linda Feinberg’s January 2012 reversal of the board’s denial of Sharbell’s plan to convert the 150 units. The board approved Sharbell’s original plan in October 2006 for a total of 264 residential units, a farmette and 60 barrier-free housing units for Project Freedom, for people with disabilities, on 439 acres.
”We conclude that Judge Feinberg realistically applied the law to the circumstances she found in Robbinsville, and rightly upended the board’s improvident denial of conversion relief,” the court wrote in its Feb. 27 decision. The appellate division comprises Judges Joseph L. Yannotti, Jonathan N. Harris and Richard S. Hoffman.
”We’re happy they upheld Judge Feinberg’s decision,” Tom Troy, Sharbell senior vice president said on March 1. He said the company plans to move quickly to begin work on the project and expects to seek sub-division approval for other parts of the project as soon as an April Planning Board meeting.
”I’m disappointed they upheld the ruling,” said Township Council President Ron Witt, a Planning Board member, on Feb. 28. “It creates challenges for an already overburdened school district.”
The board had fought Sharbell’s August 2010 proposal to convert 120 single-family and 30 duplexes from age-restricted to housing for families of any ages, saying that it would add more school-age children to a crowded school district, among other arguments.
In May 2010 Sharbell had received approval for a four-story continuing care facility, to be known as the Pines at Robbinsville. The approval came after the township adopted an ordinance permitting that type of facility in that area in February.
Sharbell’s conversion application contended that economic conditions had changed, making the original plan no longer viable. A 2009 state statue granted developers the right to make the conversion to non-age-restricted housing because of the change in economic conditions and the need for “workforce housing.”
In upholding Judge Feinberg’s decision, the court wrote that “the board’s unfortunate focus on the project’s impact on the public fisc, rather than to the land use concerns, renders its decision palpably unreasonable.”
The Planning Board held five hearings in 2011 on Sharbell’s application before denying it in April that year. Both residents and public officials argued the conversion proposal would create an influx of school-age children into a district that was already overcrowded and leading to school tax increases.
Mr. Troy said March 1 that Sharbell has seen signs that the real estate market is strengthening and the company is eager to get the project underway. He said the company is negotiating with potential customers for its commercial portion of the development, at the corner of Route 130 and Gordon Road. He also said that if Robbinsville is interested in acquiring the property that was the subject of the suit, Sharbell is ready to listen to a proposal.
”The issue is timing,” he said, as the real estate market improves. “If the town has the ability to do something we are ready to discuss it intelligently.”
”I am encouraged to see Sharbell willing to talk about the possibility of selling some of the property as open space,” Mayor Fried said. “There is no way the town can absorb 150 residential units, with 150 to 300 kids, in an already suffering school district.”
”It will be an expensive purchase,” he continued, “but the cost will be significantly less than the $1.5 to $3 million in new school taxes.”
The mayor said Robbinsville currently has about $5 million in its open space fund. He said the township will look to the state and county for additional funding.