By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP — Characterized as being “caught in a vise” of ongoing affordable housing litigation, the township is formally requesting state legislators and the governor to “get into the game” and take pressure off municipalities wrestling with the current legal process.
The Hopewell Township Committee on Monday passed a four-page-long resolution “imploring New Jersey’s governor and legislators to take immediate action to extend the deadline for adoption of affordable housing plans and to adopt meaningful and sustainable revisions to the New Jersey Fair Housing Act of 1985.”
The resolution is based on a letter drafted by Karen Murphy, chairwoman of the Hopewell Township Planning Board, according to township attorney Steven Goodell.
The resolution, Mr. Goodell said, highlights a number of issues, which are important to address in terms of affordable housing that the Legislature ought to consider. He said the resolution also was vetted by the township’s affordable housing attorneys as well as Frank Banisch, the township planner.
“I think that at this time, it’s important to send something official to the various state agencies to let them know what it is the municipalities are going through,” the township attorney said. “Municipalities are really caught in a vise right now. We’ve got a legislative act, the Fair Housing Act, that created COAH (Council on Affordable Housing), but COAH is nonfunctioning. Because COAH is nonfunctioning, the courts have taken over.”
All three branches of state government, Mr. Goodell said, have a hand in the current situation.
“It involves the legislative branch that passed the law, the executive branch, which is responsible for COAH, and the judiciary,” he said. “The towns are the ones that are really suffering. They are being bounced around between these different branches of government not knowing exactly what their responsibilities are.”
He added, “The courts, I think, recognize they are not necessarily the best place to have these issues hashed out. So if there could be some kind of reform, if COAH can be reinvigorated, if the Legislature could amend the Fair Housing Act, those would be good ways to try and find a way out of this situation. If not, or if those proposed solutions come too late, what we’ve got is a court process, which we’ve been dealing with now for the past six months and will be for a while more.”
Mayor Harvey Lester at the Monday committee meeting described personal conversations he recently had with two state legislators, explaining to them the township’s concern over the deficiencies of the Fair Housing Act and also expressing to them that the both the Legislature and governor “need to get into the game and that us trying to protect this township is a challenge given the current rules that exist. They need to be changed.”
The resolution explains in detail the reasons why Hopewell Township officials are so concerned with the current process, Mayor Lester said.
Of primary concern is that the township may have to approve the construction of about 1,000 housing units for low- and moderate-income buyers over the next decade, plus many thousands more market-rate units if the courts agree with the opinion of the affordable-housing advocacy organization, the Fair Share Housing Center.
Before the resolution was passed, Committeeman John Hart said he wanted to make sure language was contained in the resolution, stating the township does not have its own sewer service and water service, which is a factor in building both affordable and market rate housing in the township.
“Also, the schools are near capacity,” Mr. Hart said. “That’s one thing I thought was important.”
Mayor Lester said it is imperative to tell the legislators that there is only one high school in the Hopewell Valley Regional High School district and the affordable housing “rules may force us to have a second high school.”
“That’s something that everyone can understand, what that would entail, unless these rules are made (with) more common sense,” the mayor said.
Deputy Mayor Todd Brandt said, “It’s pretty eye-opening when you could have four pages” worth of language in a resolution, stating “why the governor and legislature need to get involved.”
“This looks like it covers everything,” Mr. Hart said about the resolution, which was amended to include Mr. Hart’s suggestions.
The final version of the resolution was not available for review prior to press time. Township Committee members Vanessa Sandom and Kevin Kuchinski did not attend the Monday committee meeting.
