METUCHEN — The borough is not alone in facing the issues relating to the construction of new single family homes.
Borough Planner James Constantine of Looney Ricks Kiss Architects, Princeton, said it is an issue that spans the nation from New Jersey to California.
“There’s a problem that many established communities, single family neighborhoods, primarily with a lot of character, face,” he said. “There’s regional market pressure that’s got very high housing costs and there’s limited places where the housing can go.”
Constantine discussed the issue with Mayor Peter Cammarano and the Borough Council at a meeting on July 17.
The issue has been a hot topic in Metuchen with the borough becoming a more and more desirable place to live. In January, Cammarano appointed Councilman Reed Leibfried to spearhead the efforts in researching what the borough can do to curb the issue.
Constantine said his firm will conduct a 60-day analysis and report back to the council on recommendations on a form-based code proposal for the construction of new single family homes.
“There’s a number of people who don’t want a new home located at the edge of a corn field where they can’t walk to anything and where they have to drive to everything,” he said. “People want to be located in established communities, in neighborhoods with tree lined streets, in walkable downtown sidewalk cafes and ideally with a train station.”
Constantine said Metuchen is seeing all of those things coupled together.
“I know the governing body is hearing about it and these are pressures that are not entirely unique to Metuchen,” he said. “They are occurring in other established communities throughout the region.”
Constantine said part of the issue is the size of new construction homes that are currently being built.
“In a preliminary analysis, the first thing we found was that any changes that are occurring in Metuchen are not really occurring because of granting new subdivisions,” he said.
Constantine said over the past decade, the borough has seen about two lots per year created by way of subdivision. He said the issue lies with the county.
“There have been anywhere between 500 to [more than] almost 1,000 lots created in the last two years — 2015 and 2016 [across Middlesex County],” he said.
Constantine said what borough residents perceive as the construction of new single family homes is really occurring through tear downs and rebuilding of existing single family homes on undersized lots.
“Right now under [the zoning regulations], you can build on undersized lots as long as you meet the setback requirements for a conforming lot,” he said adding that it’s known as ‘stuffing the envelope’.
Constantine said Metuchen has had some of its zoning regulations in place since the 1920s.
“Historically you had a pattern where you found homes that might have been smaller on those undersized lots,” he said.
Today, Constantine said, because of those regional pressures of wanting to have a new home in an established community, the pressures are delivering a four bedroom, 2,500 square foot house with the phenomenon of building the garage in front of the home.
Constantine said members on the Zoning Board of Adjustment often times would struggle with applications on undersized lots, where the application meets the setbacks.
“There’s too much house stuffed in that envelope,” he said.
Constantine said Metuchen did put in place in 2000 a number of design standards in response to housing pressure that the borough saw back then.
“Times have changed,” he said. “The market pressures and dynamics of what is happening today is different from 15 to 20 years ago and so that really creates a situation now where we are being asked to take a new look and try to come up with some tools and policies and strategies that will respond to the new level pressure.”
Constantine said his firm will compare what exists in an established character of the neighborhood and look at regulations that relate to bulk standards.
He said officials are only allowed to regulate on single family homes and his firm will look at some cases on whether or not to decrease the garage setback distance so there’s less mass up the street and also revisit the front façade setback requirement.
Constantine said the borough can also explore secondary setback requirements on the side yards and look at things such as the building coverage as it relates to detached garages and impervious surfaces and looking at potential floor area requirements.
He said the borough has to find a very delicate balance.
“You don’t want to apply something so strong armed where you basically preclude any change in the neighborhoods,” he said. “We do not necessarily want to produce a document where it has photographs of homes certain folks don’t feel fit in; I think that calls too much attention.”
Constantine said his firm will perform an analysis with the interaction of local officials, the community, architects and developers.
Cammarano said the issue is very complicated with a lot of moving parts and a lot of legal issues involved.
“We need to do it in a very methodical, appropriate manner so we are not challenged,” he said.
Councilman Jay Muldoon said Metuchen has a diverse housing style with two and three bedroom homes.
“There’s still a market for those smaller homes,” he said. “They are not being built today, but that’s not because there’s no market for it today. Hopefully as a result of all this work we can get to the point where from a construction perceptive the diversity of housing types will increase.”
Muldoon said it is critical to engage the real estate community and developer community as well as the public.
“I really think there could be a win-win,” he said. “We’re fortunate that we have this problem, it’s a good problem to have. Metuchen obviously is very attractive to residents. It’s an attractive market for developers, but I think that it’s clear we have some issues.”
Councilwoman Dorothy Rasmussen said along with the concerns discussed, she asked the planner and borough officials to look at the depth of basements at homes being constructed and landscaping of the homes.