Groundbreaking for the newest Cranbury Housing Associates (CHA) affordable housing project was held on June 12.
Applewood Court, as it will be called, is being built on a four-acre site on the southbound side of Route 130 and is helping to meet Cranbury’s third round Affordable Housing requirements. The project will have 32 rental apartments consisting of one, two and three bedrooms.
“The Applewood Court Project is one piece of our plan to fulfill our New Jersey State Supreme Court mandated Affordable Housing Obligation municipalities have to fulfill,” said Cranbury Mayor Dan Mulligan in a follow-up email.
Mayor Mulligan said the site was chosen by a previous Township Committee pre-2008 to fulfill Cranbury’s State Mandated Affordable Housing obligation.
“This site, much like the recent site we acquired on Route 130, was chosen due to its closes proximity and walking distance to the village of Cranbury, the school, library and main street businesses,” he said. “Because one of our goals when providing affordable housing in Cranbury is to make this new housing and the new members of our community become included and part of Cranbury.”
Mayor Mulligan said construction for the Applewood Court site is projected to start within the next month with completion of the project being Spring of 2017.
“Overall I would say I am satisfied with our results here in Cranbury and how we have navigated the Affordable Housing rules and regulations,” said the mayor. “We have worked hard to protect and preserve our town, which brings with it a major financial burden for every taxpayer in Cranbury, because we the taxpayers of Cranbury are funding this project. However, if we did not and do not work within the system that is in place for Affordable Housing in New Jersey, we then open our community to being like many other towns around us. Those that are built out beyond capacity and which propagate sprawl that does away with much of the remaining farmland and open space we have worked so hard to preserve here in Cranbury.”
CHA is a volunteer, non-profit affordable housing member organization originally incorporated in 1965 and has assisted Cranbury in meeting its affordable housing obligations since 1986.
Members of the CHA board of directors were joined at the groundbreaking by Cranbury Mayor Dan Mulligan, architect Joe Stevens, construction manager Bill Hotz and CHA property administrator Frank Piazza.
Information about affordable housing in Cranbury can be found on the CHA website, www.cranburyhousing.org.
