Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Hopewell Township’s settlement of a lawsuit over affordable housing, filed by the Fair Share Housing Center, has cleared the way for the potential construction of more than 3,000 housing units – including 653 units earmarked for low- and moderate-income households.
But what does that really mean for Hopewell Township and its residents, and how will be they be impacted?
To answer that question, the township committee will hold a public information meeting – set for Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Hopewell Valley Central High School auditorium – to explain the impact of the lawsuit settlement on the township.
The information session will be moderated by Hopewell Township Administrator/Engineer Paul Pogorzelski and professional planner Philip Caton, who lives in Hopewell Township. Caton has also served as a Mount Laurel special master in the courts.
Deputy Mayor Julie Blake said the presentation will provide general background information on municipalities’ affordable housing obligations, as well as an opportunity to address residents’ questions regarding the settlement and its impact on Hopewell Township.
The settlement agreement, which was approved in Mercer County Superior Court last month, acknowledges that the 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 community.
Property owner 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 beds, 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 Enouarto, the U.S. Home Corp. – 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. The property is near the ShopRite grocery store.
With the settlement in hand, Hopewell Township will be protected from “builder’s remedy” lawsuits through 2025. Such a lawsuit, if successful, would force the town to zone for high-density housing in exchange for including affordable housing units in a development.
Following a series of lawsuits that began in 1975, when a group challenged zoning regulations in Mount Laurel Township that discouraged the construction of affordable housing, New Jersey declared through the court system that every town must provide for its fair share of low- and moderate-income housing.
