Township Committee has until Dec. 19 to approve affordable housing plan and send it to the state. Planning Board is expected to hold public hearing on the plan on Nov. 29. Township Committee could vote on the plan at its Dec. 12 meeting.
By John Tredrea
A marathon Friday night meeting of the Hopewell Township Planning Board produced a draft affordable housing plan for producing 200 residential units over the next 10 years.
Under the plan, 100 of those units would be transferred to Trenton under a Regional Contribution Agreement (RCA) that would result in reconstruction of dilapidated housing in the city.
Township Planning Board attorney Edwin Schmierer is negotiating with Trenton on the RCA. The remaining 100 units would be scattered around the township, both in new structures and existing houses.
"It’s a good plan," Planning Board Karen Murphy said shortly before midnight, after Friday night’s meeting had adjourned. "I’m relieved to have gotten this much done tonight. We’ve tried to spread the units out, and blend them in with the rest of the township, as much as possible."
Most of the 100 units are in the southern section of the township. Ms. Murphy said this is because that is where sewers are available.
About 20 residents attended the meeting. Several of them, including Ted Petrie and Robert Kraeger, opposed putting any affordable housing on the Berwind Property Group (Carter Road II, LLC) tract, off Carter Road. The Planning Board did not include any units on that tract, saying the matter needed further study. A zoning change would be needed to put homes on the Berwind (formerly Townsend) tract.
Resident Anne Moore backed construction of affordable housing in the township.
"There is a need for housing here, and it can make such a change in people’s lives to have the opportunity to live in a community such as this," she said.
Ms. Moore and Mark Solomon said some residents might have a misconception about what kind of people may wind up living in affordable housing. "They’re not people who have to live next to a bus line," Ms. Moore said.
Mr. Solomon said: "The people who would live in this affordable housing are people like you and me. They drive cars like you and me, go to work like you and me."
Under the draft plan, 37 of the 100 units would be built on a 34-acre tract of township-owned land off Scotch Road. Thirty of those units would be new construction. Seven more units would be gained by converting a house on the property to a group home.
Under the draft plan, 23 more units would be built by Beazer Homes on a 70-acre tract behind ShopRite on Route 31. These 23 units would be in addition to 172 townhouses and 40 condominiums Beazer has proposed for this land, of which Beazer is a contract purchaser. The sale would go through once the Planning Board has approved the actual plan for the site.
Another 30 affordable units would go on a tract of about 40 acres, already owned by Beazer, off the eastern side of Route 31 near Denow Road. The township would have to rezone this land from commercial to residential for the units to built. The 30 affordable units would be in addition to 120 townhouses that Beazer would build on this land.
Beazer has held many preliminary meetings this year with township officials and residents on the above two tracts. The firm decided to hold off on pursing the applications and zoning changes needed for the Denow tract until the township officials had finished their affordable housing plan.
The draft plan agreed on Friday night calls for five more group home units in a township-owned farmhouse on Scotch Road, just north of the municipal building.
The Township Committee has until Dec. 19 to approve an affordable housing plan and send it to the state.
The Planning Board is expected to hold a public hearing on the plan on Nov. 29. The Township Committee could then vote on the plan at its regularly scheduled meeting, which would be Dec. 12.