By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
The Hopewell Township Committee is proceeding to form a plan to sell the publicly owned 25-acre former Pennytown property at the junction of routes 31 and 654.
In 2008, a previous Hopewell Township Committee voted to buy Pennytown, formerly a shopping center, for $6.65 million with the intent to use the land for affordable housing. Last year, township officials decided that Pennytown was no longer needed to meet the municipality’s affordable housing obligation.
Mayor Kevin Kuchinski described the two-part plan.
“One is that the township attorney, Steven Goodell, is going to do some additional legal work to understand what our options and opportunities are regarding that parcel,” the mayor said at the March 28 Township Committee. “Secondly we are going to appoint a sub-group within the Township Committee to evaluate next steps and our options regarding that parcel.”
The bipartisan sub-group, she said, will be led by committee members John Hart, a Republican, and Julie Blake, a Democrat.
“Really the goal is, as that group moves forward, the consensus at this point is that the Hopewell Township Committee is going to explore its opportunities to sell that parcel in a way that maximizes the value we get, putting uses there that are compatible with the surrounding neighborhood and preserves the area’s character,” Mayor Kuchinski said. “There are no formal decisions by the Township Committee about Pennytown beyond those two next steps.”
The mayor in his inauguration speech in January said selling Pennytown was part of a “multi-year plan to reduce the township’s net debt.”
“Debt service currently consumes almost 30 percent of total township spending, and we have kicked the can down the road for too long,” Mr. Kuchinski said in January. “We will accomplish this by divesting properties like Pennytown that we no longer need to meet our affordable housing obligation, and using the proceeds to pay down debt.”
In early February, during an informal debate by Township Committee members about selling Pennington, Mr. Hart cautioned that if the property is sold, “you’re not going to get that money back that you paid for it.”
