Vanessa Sandom
NOTE: I am writing this as a member of the public, not as a member of the Hopewell Township Committee.
I had the pleasure of sitting in the lobby of the Hopewell Township Municipal building on Thursday, Aug. 20, for almost 90 minutes waiting for the Planning Board to complete its executive session on the subject of “housing: litigation.”
Perhaps they covered important ground behind closed doors, but in the public session, there was very little said about this critical issue for Hopewell Valley.
The Planning Board did not discuss things like what are they going to do with Pennytown? Will it be in or out of the housing plan? And what about the three developers who have filed to be interveners in the court proceedings?
Nope, not discussed.
What about other areas in the township that might be appropriate for affordable housing?
Well, apparently, if these areas don’t have access to public water and sewers, then they’re all off limits. Because that’s what the Master Plan calls for.
So what did our planners discuss, you ask? Well, they reviewed their planner’s report, which was not available to the public during the proceedings. Apparently it’s online now, at www.hopewelltwp.org/coah_round3.
It would have been helpful to have had a copy of the report in hand as the planner presented it during the meeting, and, hopefully, the public will get handouts in the future.
The report is a recapitulation of where we stand now, but it doesn’t break any new ground nor does it make any recommendations so why the report was kept “confidential” before and during the meeting is beyond me. Then again, the Planning Board members didn’t even get the report until Tuesday evening before the Thursday meeting so maybe the public shouldn’t complain too much.
In fairness to the board, it did decide to keep all future affordable housing confined to current residentially zoned areas in the township’s wastewater management plan (i.e., areas with public water and sewers.) So that includes the Zaitz-Hutchinson area around ShopRite at the Route 31 circle. It includes Pennytown. And they want to include the east side of Scotch Road where the ex-Merrill Lynch/Capital Health facilities are.
The majority of the board members were firm that they don’t want to change zoning in the township to accommodate affordable housing so, except for Pennytown, all the affordable housing will go in the southern portion of the township with all the corresponding impacts on traffic and elementary schools.
How about 180 units on the circle? Sure. How about four- or five-story buildings on the east side of Scotch Road? Sure. No problem. Unless, of course, our affordable housing obligation turns out to be greater than 500 units, maybe even as high as a court-imposed potential cap of 1,000.
No worries. They’ll just put more on the circle and Scotch Road.
I’ve repeatedly tried to get clarity on what the distinct roles are of the Planning Board and the Township Committee in developing our constitutionally mandated affordable housing methodology, number and plans. Who exactly in the township is responsible for creating our methodology, for developing our number, due to the court by Sept. 30?
Turns out, no one has an answer they’re willing to let the public know about. Some throw up their proverbial hands and say we’re in uncharted territory and we’re making it up as we go. Others point fingers at the courts, at the Legislature, at the court-appointed master, at Fair Share Housing, at the attorneys, at the housing experts Drs. Kinsey and Burchell, at the interveners, at the developers.
Others remain completely silent in public, choosing to put their heads in the sand, hoping it’ll all go away and they’ll never have to make a decision as our mayor did, whose only comment during the entire evening was to ask the attorney if he had to make a decision at all.
One thing seems certain — the less our leaders, both on the Township Committee and Planning Board, do to control this development, the less controlled that development will be.
You can find Mercer County Superior Court Assignment Judge Jacobson’s sessions on affordable housing on YouTube. Listening to them will give you a good sense for how the judge assigned by the New Jersey Supreme Court to handle Mercer County’s affordable housing obligation is thinking — unfiltered, unabridged, unadulterated. Make your own decisions about where we’re heading.
In the meantime, based on what I’ve heard, the latest on the schedule for how and when this will all play out is bulleted below. Judge Jacobson is expecting to finalize this schedule this week. Can it change? Sure, but as of now, this is as close to a schedule we have to work with.
Beginning Aug. 10 the special master will schedule meetings with Hopewell Township and the three interveners.
List of experts submitted by the municipality and the interveners to the court on or before Aug. 31.
List of rebuttal experts submitted by the municipality and the interveners on or before Sept. 16.
Briefs and expert reports supporting our fair share methodology and affordable housing calculation developed by Hopewell Township and the interveners to be submitted to the court on or before Sept. 30.
Draft fair share plan by municipality sent to the interveners by Nov. 16 and to the special master by Nov. 23.
The interveners shall provide their comments on such draft Fair Share Plan by Nov. 23.
Adoption of the fair share plan by the Planning Board and endorsement of the plan by the Hopewell Township Committee no later than Dec. 7 and submitted to the court.
So who is the captain of this ship called Hopewell Township? And is that an iceberg I see on the horizon?
Nah, let’s just rearrange those deck chairs.
Vanessa Sandom is a Hopewell Township resident..
