Mercer Mobile Homes will be acquired by Allies Inc.
By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE The Zoning Board of Adjustment last week approved an amended subdivision request that paves the way for the $5.5 million sale of the Mercer Mobile Homes trailer park to a nonprofit affordable housing group.
Under the plan, Mercer Mobile Homes owner Larry Kaufman retains ownership of two adjacent lots totaling 4.5 acres that front Route 130 South. The 14-acre tract behind these lots, where the mobile home park is located, is under contract to be purchased by the nonprofit organization, Allies Inc., and the zoning board’s action approving the subdivision allows that deal to move forward.
The sale, which is made possible by a $2.1 million contribution from the township’s affordable housing trust fund, is expected to close sometime after Jan. 1, according to Elise Tretola, the vice president and chief operating officer of Allies, who was present at the Oct. 12 township zoning board meeting.
Mr. Kaufman’s attorney, Lori Greenberg, did not reveal any specifics about the redevelopment plans for the two highway lots, saying only that her client’s goal was to make the site “compatible” by putting something there that “residents of the mobile home park could use and enjoy.”
”We have not sold the frontage yet and when we do we understand that we have to come in with a site plan and get approvals,” Ms. Greenberg said.
The zoning of the two front lots on Route 130 was recently changed to highway commercial (HC), which is why the previously approved subdivision application was back before the zoning board last week.
Although the subdivision application itself was the same as the one approved in 2007, the new zoning presented the need for new variances.
One condition of subdivision approval requires that Allies Inc., as the buyer of the mobile home park, be given an easement so that mobile home park residents can continue to use the access road that runs between the two highway-fronting lots in order to reach Route 130. A second emergency access road must also be provided in the park, but its location will be determined by the preliminary site plan.
”There will always be an exit from the mobile home park,” Ms. Greenberg said.
The residents of Mercer Mobile Homes have been fighting their landlord in court over rent increases and the park’s deteriorating sewer system for years, and several residents used the public comment portion of the meeting to welcome Allies. Officials from Allies reiterated their pledge at the meeting to fix the trailer park’s sewers, noting they were applying for $800,000 in grants to fund the project.
Zoning board member Kristen Appelget asked Allies officials what would happen to the sewer project if Allies were unsuccessful in obtaining the grant.
”We are committed to repairing the sewers,” Ms. Tretola said. “If we do not get the grant, we will secure the funds to repair the sewers.”
In an interview after the meeting, Ms. Tretola said the sewer project could cost up to $1.2 million because of the need to repave the roads and fix the curbs after the sewer work beneath is completed.