Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Hopewell Township’s proposed affordable housing settlement, which would provide an opportunity to build low-cost housing and also protect the township from developers’ lawsuits, was approved by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobsen on Monday.
Hopewell Township had reached a settlement agreement with three landowners, who would like to develop their properties, and the Fair Share Housing Center. The nonprofit group has sued many New Jersey towns in an effort to compel them to provide affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households.
The proposed settlement agreement was subject to review by Judge Jacbosen in a “fairness hearing” to determine whether it was fair and reasonable, Municipal Attorney Linda Galella told Township Committee Monday night.
The settlement agreement acknowledges that Hopewell Township met its initial obligation to provide affordable housing units, and that it is now responsible for providing an additional 653 units by 2025.
Those 653 units will be provided through the construction of for-sale and rental units, plus some beds set aside in a continuing care retirement center.
Landowner CF Hopewell has proposed building 2,150 housing units – to include 430 affordable housing units – on land on both sides of Scotch Road, between I-95 and County Route 546.
A continuing care retirement community would be built on land near the Capital Health Systems – Hopewell hospital on Scotch Road. Of the 350 bed, 35 would be designated as Medicaid beds, or affordable.
The former Oasis Garden Center on Federal City Road, near I-95, would be developed into a 300-unit subdivision, of which 48 units would be set aside as affordable housing units by developer Woodmont Properties LLC and Federal City Road LLC.
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. property on the Pennington-Rocky Hill Road would be developed for 250 units, including 50 that would be earmarked as affordable housing units.
On Route 31 on property owned by Albert Enourato, the U.S. Home Corporation – also known as Lennar – would build a subdivision to include 12 affordable housing units.
Also on Route 31, the township-owned Zaitz Tract would be developed to include 78 affordable housing units. The total number of units to be built has not yet been determined. It is near the ShopRite grocery store.
With the judge’s approval in hand, Hopewell Township will be protected from “builder’s remedy” lawsuit through 2025, Galella said. A builder’s remedy lawsuit, if successful, would force a town to zone for high-density housing in exchange for including affordable housing units in the development.
In a builder’s remedy lawsuit, the commonly accepted ratio is four units of “market rate” housing to be built for every affordable unit in a development, thus offsetting the builder’s costs.
A final hearing on Monday’s settlement agreement is slated for Dec. 14, Galella said. In the meantime, the township must rezone the land to permit the density of development that has been agreed upon, and to amend the township’s Housing Element and Fair Share plan, she said.
When Township Committeeman John Hart said the settlement agreement does not make any sense and questioned “how is it fair,” Galella responded that “we are not here to debate the Mount Laurel doctrine.”
The Mount Laurel doctrine grew out of a series of lawsuits – starting with a lawsuit filed in 1975 in Mount Laurel Township – that challenged zoning regulations which discouraged the construction of affordable housing.
The lawsuits made their way through the court system and up to the New Jersey Supreme Court. In its 1983 ruling in the so-called Mount Laurel II court case, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that every town had to provide for its fair share of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households.
