HOPEWELL: Lester and Republicans should be honest about affordable housing

Reader Submitted
To the editor:
Why is it so hard for Harvey Lester to give Hopewell Township the true facts about Affordable Housing?
He fails to note that the current settlement is actually 17 percent better than the one the planning board approved on October 15, 2015, while Lester was mayor and actually sat on the planning board. The township submitted this same plan to the courts later that year as evidence of preliminary compliance, and to preserve our immunity from builders remedy lawsuits. Where was his outrage then?
Instead of spreading misinformation, Mr. Lester needs to acknowledge that the lands now zoned for housing were zoned for commercial building after the township lost a lawsuit in the early 2000s. And once those lands were sold to builders, development was going to happen anyway.
It is time for Mr. Lester and his fellow Republicans to acknowledge all the facts about Affordable Housing in Hopewell Township.
Here are the best facts of all: Hopewell finally has some public servants who got ahead of the problem and came up with a better plan than the best Lester could.
Bruce Gunther
Pennington