The Holmdel Township Committee took the first step in welcoming a development to Palmer Avenue that could go a long way toward satisfying local affordable housing obligations.
At a July 14 meeting, the committee members unanimously authorized a resolution of need for a proposed 60-unit affordable housing rental development, which will allow the developer – the Alpert Group – to seek financing from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA).
The developer would still be required to submit an application and gain approvals from the township’s land use boards before the project could move forward.
“This would be a large component of your affordable housing plan,” Township COAH Attorney Andrew Bayer told the committee. “It would go a long way to satisfying our third-round obligations; it would put a good sized dent in it if we get double credit.”
Bayer was referring to the “double credit” previously afforded to municipalities for affordable rental units under the Council on Affordable Housing’s (COAH) rules. COAH was invalidated in a March state Supreme Court decision, but Bayer said he expects the same rules to hold moving forward, which would mean the Alpert Group development would provide 120 affordable housing credits.
According to Business Administrator Donna Vieiro, that could be as much as 60 percent of the township’s obligation, which has yet to be decided in the Monmouth County Superior Court.
“The number is probably going to be 200 to 300 units, minimal,” Vieiro said. She also added that it’s hard to tell exactly what the court would rule. “We’ve had numbers really high and really low … but who knows what they’re going to do. “We’re in pretty good shape. We have some parcels available and this developer came out of nowhere.”
The precise number of units Holmdel Township is required to provide will be borne out in court. According to Bayer, the township has filed its affordable housing plan and is waiting to learn if the court will grant five months immunity from related lawsuits brought by developers. Bayer said he expects the five-month immunity would be granted.
The township also moved at the meeting to retain Dr. Robert Burchell of Rutgers University to perform a “fair share analysis.
His findings, seeking to reduce the number of units Holmdel be obligated to provide, will be presented to the court on behalf of the township,.
Bayer said he expects the Fair Share Housing Center, a Trenton-based non-profit, to file a counterclaim seeking a higher number of units.
Doubly beneficial to the township is that the Palmer Avenue project qualifies for federal funding as part of the Community Development Block Grant Fund for the Restoration of Multi-Family Housing, which offers assistance to developments that might house people displaced by superstorm Sandy. According to Vieiro, the township would typically have to partially finance the project, but the federal component offsets that cost.
“So, in this case, we get affordable housing, we get credit toward our obligation – whatever that number may be – and we are also going to have that additional money for future developments that we’re definitely going to need,” Vieiro said.
Joseph Alpert, president of the Alpert Group, said he is pleased that Holmdel seemed to initially welcome the proposal.
“We’re very happy about it,” Alpert said in an interview. “It’s the first step of multiple steps we’ll need to get the project approved and funded.”
The Township Committee also introduced an ordinance outlining a payment-in-lieu-oftaxes (PILOT) for the developer, which would require the developer to pay the township 12 percent of the project’s annual revenues for the life of the NJHMFA mortgage. Annual revenue is estimated to be $615,864, which would result in a PILOT of $73,904, according to the introduced ordinance.
That ordinance will be voted on for adoption at the Township Committee’s Aug. 18 meeting, along with an ordinance re-zoning the Palmer Avenue property targeted for the proposed development as an Affordable Housing/Multi-Family zone.
According to Alpert, plans have not yet been submitted before the township’s land use boards, but the developer would have a concept plan prepared by the Aug. 18 meeting.