By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Middlesex) has introduced legislation aimed at amending the affordable housing growth share and challenging the Council on Affordable Housing warehouse-to-job ratios.
COAH’s current formula estimates one job for every 1,000 square feet of warehouse and requires municipalities to account for one affordable housing unit for every 16 jobs.
Using initial data collected from a Cranbury warehouse survey, Sen. Baroni is proposing this formula be changed to .26 of a job for every 1,000 square feet of warehouse.
In a press release, Sen. Baroni refers to warehousing districts in Cranbury, Monroe and South Brunswick that he says do not reflect the “unrealistically high warehousing measure” set forth by COAH.
”In the end, these decisions are not based in the reality of the warehouses in the towns that I represent,” Sen. Baroni said. “What I deal with is reality. This is a very critical moment in these three towns and for the character of these three towns. We need legislation based in fact and logic that isn’t crushing to the taxpayers.”
Mark Berkowsky, president of Cranbury Housing Associates agreed.
”I think it would certainly and more accurately reflect what we suspect are the actual warehousing numbers,” he said.
Cranbury’s current third-round affordable housing obligation is 269 units.
Cranbury Township Administrator Christine Smeltzer said although Sen. Baroni’s bill would help reduce Cranbury’s obligations, she hopes COAH will look at warehouse-to-job data municipality by municipality.
”I think it’s a start in the right direction,” she said. “But there’s a wide range (of ratios) depending on the industry that’s using the warehousing.”
Monroe Township Engineer Ernie Feist said he would expect some changes to Monroe’s current third-round obligation of 1,178 affordable housing units if Sen. Baroni’s bill succeeds in amending the warehouse formula, but probably not the dramatic changes that would be in store for neighboring towns.
”We certainly don’t have the number of square footage housed in our warehouses that Cranbury does,” Mr. Feist said. “But if Baroni’s bill is going anywhere, that will reduce our numbers.”
Monroe Township Planner Mark Remsa agreed with Mr. Feist’s assessment, but said Sen. Baroni’s bill could impact the township favorably in future planning as a large portion of Monroe’s zoning allows for industrial and commercial use.
”Monroe has a balance — a mix of community development, office development and warehouses,” he said. “The township has been and probably will be a strong market for the warehouse industry.”
The state’s affordable housing program was created in 1985 after state Supreme Court decisions on Mount Laurel I and Mount Laurel II required all municipalities to provide housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income residents.
The 1985 Fair Housing Act created the state Council on Affordable Housing, which was given responsibility for determining and monitoring each town’s housing obligations. It also created the RCA option. Two previous rounds of affordable housing requirements have been completed, and new third-round rules await the Council on Affordable Housing’s review and adoption.
A state appellate panel ruled in January that some of the new COAH rules, including those that allow municipalities to determine their own housing obligations and allow half their units to be age-restricted, were insufficient.
Mr. Feist said he is more concerned about recently passed legislation, Bill A-500, that eliminated Regional Contribution Agreements, which allow municipalities, at additional cost, to satisfy their obligations by shifting some of their affordable housing units to urban areas.
Both Cranbury and Monroe had RCAs with Perth Amboy that had been executed and submitted to COAH. However, COAH failed to certify those agreements prior to the legislation passing.
Monroe had plans for transferring 200 affordable housing units while Cranbury had an agreement to transfer 81 affordable housing units.
Although both township’s professionals have been hard at work preparing to have their third-round affordable housing plans completed and submitted to COAH prior to the Dec. 31 deadline, municipalities around the state are hoping recent talks about a deadline extension will come into play.
”If there’s no extension of time, we will certainly make the deadline,” Mr. Feist said. “But we could always take advantage of another month.”
Some state legislators have been supporting the deadline extension to give municipalities additional time to plan around the recent changes made by Bill A-500 as well as the number of amendments being proposed to the bill and the State Fair Housing Act.
”This legislation is meant to be a part of an on-going discussion — it’s what’s called the COAH fix,” Sen. Baroni said. “This (bill) was rushed through by legislators. Now we need to do everything we can to fix this legislation.”
Sen. Baroni expects his proposal will be absorbed into a much larger bill, grouping several legislators’ proposed amendments together.
”We need to have a realistic discussion at the state level about towns being made to build hundreds of new homes,” he said. “We do have a moral responsibility to build affordable housing, but we need to do it in the right way.”
Cranbury officials, worried about the impact affordable housing obligation costs could have on taxpayers, have been searching for outside sources of funding.
Last week, Mr. Berkowsky presented the township with a $300,000 check, a Middlesex County grant that will help with the cost of constructing 20 affordable housing units at a site on Old Cranbury Road site.
”I think it’s important for taxpayers to know we’re out there looking for outside funding,” he said. “I don’t think we can do it without outside funding.”
