HOLMDEL Allowing residents to familiarize themselves with this year’s Township Committee contenders, Citizens for Informed Land Use (CILU) hosted a candidate forum.
Four candidates are running for two available seats on the Holmdel Township Committee. Incumbent Republican Mayor Gregory Buontempo along with Republican Dr. Rocco Pascucci will face Democrats Larry Luttrell and Barbara Singer for the three year terms. Election day is on Nov. 7.
More than 20 residents attended the forum, on Oct. 16, at the township Community Center, located at 4 Crawfords Corner Road.
Luttrell and Singer attended the forum, however Buontempo and Pascucci were not present. Buontempo said he could not attend due to scheduling conflicts.
Moderator and CILU’s Vice President of Public Affairs Jenni Blumenthal asked each candidate questions that were submitted by residents during the forum.
Luttrell, 45, has been a resident for 14 years and has been married for 16 years. He has three children in the school system and is an attorney.
Singer, 49, has been a resident for 11 years and has three children in the school system. She is an attorney.
Luttrell and Singer answered more than 10 questions that were submitted by residents. Questions ranged from the township’s affordable housing obligation to the candidates’ stance on maintaining the township’s recreational facilities.
Blumenthal said the township committee currently plans to meet its 110 lower-income housing units requirements by building 590 family rental units, which will increase the township’s school population by more than 30 percent. She asked the candidates, “Do you have a better solution?”
“We do have a better solution it ended as one that requires more planning then has been done so far. We can get more credits for beds that are in nursing homes, we can get a two for one credit..these things require planning and with the whole affordable housing requirement that Holmdel is obligated to fulfill legally we know its coming down the road,” Singer said.
Every municipality has a constitutional obligation to have a fair share of affordable housing. There is a non-profit organization that sues municipalities to force them to comply to their fair share housing agreement. This happened to Holmdel and other municipalities. Now, the township has proposed a settlement agreement with the non-profit organization to meet its fair share housing obligation, according to Luttrell.
Luttrell said that he and Singer are against the township’s current agreement due to it being very builder friendly plan.
“The bottom line is this, a less builder-friendly option would have been to take one of the properties over on North Beers Street which is a farm, it is an exiled farm frankly everything around it is medical professional services,” Luttrell said. “Rezone that to allow some type of assisted living facility where they have to put in let’s say 150 beds that are for affordable housing or veterans and we get the credits satisfied that way. Builders are not happy because they don’t have all of these other projects going on, but it is better for us.”
Blumenthal asked, “What is you position on the maintenance and support of current recreation facilities in the township, both at the schools and the township?”
Last year, when the artificial fields were being proposed at Cross Farm Park, Singer said that she did not think that was the right place for artificial fields to be placed and that she was part of a group that got signatures to oppose it.
“I also felt that it was just a lot of money to spend on a particular group and that is why I believed that it should go to a town wide vote. I don’t think that everything that goes before the township needs to go to a town wide vote, but when it’s that much money and one particular group, I think we should gave the residents a bit of a say in what’s going on,” Singer said.
Luttrell said that he is a big proponent of supporting the recreational facilities, but doing it in a smart way.
“I think what needs to happen is our facilities at Holmdel High School and throughout the schools are poor. My kids dance [and] I have gone to many other schools throughout the state. We are actually in the bottom threshold of what it appears. It is actually almost to the point of embarrassing and I do think that we need to spend it. I know that money is spent on the 2020 initiative hopefully they will tell us the full text when they are able to get that money out,” Luttrell said.
Singer said that if elected to the committee she would like to improve the township’s property development, form of government, and recreational facilities.
“It has to be the development and not just residential, but the commercial development. Route 35 to me is looking too much like Route 9 and not keeping that Holmdel feel and the characteristics that people come to Holmdel for,” Singer said. “The other one is really the form of government, we don’t want there to be where people have to run the party line or have to depend on getting the backing of their party. I think we have residents who are Democrats and residents who are Republicans who would both like to be more involved, but are not able to make their way through that party red tape to do it. So I feel people on both sides are being left out of the system so that is definitely a big issue.”
Luttrell said that if elected he wants to, “Stop the over-development that we are on a crash course for under the current administration. Change the form of government so we have a directly elected mayor that is elected by the people not the politicians. The third thing is I want to do everything possible to help R.A.G.E and to stop JCP&L from putting up those 230 kilowatt poles through town. There are two senior communities that they [would] run right along, it’s going to ruin their property values.”
Stopping New Jersey Natural Gas from building a gas regulator in the township is also another issue he hopes to address if elected, according to Luttrell.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].