By John Tredrea, Special Writer
The Planning Board agreed at its annual reorganization meeting Jan. 22 that the issue of affordable housing would continue to be a dominant one this year.
Controversial in the township for months have been the board’s hearings on whether to adopt a Master Plan amendment needed, as a first step, for the township to rezone land off Scotch Road to enable the construction of a large mixed-use development that would include residences for low- and moderate-income buyers.
Construction of those units would be applied toward the township’s satisfaction of its state mandate to provide “affordable housing” for those with low and moderate incomes.
Tentatively named Jacobs Creek Village at board meetings last year, the proposed mixed-use development, along with rezoning by the Township Committee, would cover about 600 acres and would have about 1,500 residences, to be built over a time period of about 10 years.
The residences would include about 500 apartments — one-, two- and three-bedroom — and about 1,000 modestly sized single-family homes and townhouses.
Last year, the Planning Board said it wanted 20 percent of the residences in the development to be for low- and moderate-income residents. The development would go on both sides of Scotch Road, between I-95 to the south and county Route 546 to the north.
This year’s Planning Board has three new members — Marylou Ferrara and Fran Bartlett, both former township committeewomen, and Kevin Kuchinski, a new member of the Township Committee.
A key unknown is what the township’s affordable housing obligation is going to be.
As of now, Hopewell Township has provided 378 local affordable units, according to a Hopewell Township official.
The current obligation is 1,477 low- and moderate-income units by 2025, Planning Board attorney Ronald Morgan said. But hold your horses. Mr. Morgan noted that the state Supreme Court has ordered the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) to revise the obligations it issued to towns around the state, including Hopewell Township’s 1,477 units.
At the Jan. 22 Planning Board reorganization meeting, Mr. Morgan, who terms the township’s obligation of 1,477 units by 2025 “completely unsupportable,” said the COAH is “dysfunctional.” He said the COAH has repeatedly missed Supreme Court deadlines on revising its latest round of affordable housing obligations issued to towns around the state.
“We’re waiting for the Supreme Court now,” Mr. Morgan said, noting that “we have several new justices” on that court.
Mr. Morgan added that a major problem “is that none of these COAH numbers (on how many affordable units various towns must provide) recognize that some communities have limited sewer service.”
Hopewell Township clearly is one of those communities. It provides no sewer service on its own. It does receive some sewer service, along its southern border, from the Ewing-Lawrence Sewerage Authority (ELSA).
Developments dense enough to provide affordable housing units typically provide public sewer service and public water as well. The portions of the township served by ELSA get their water from Trenton. Most of the 58-square-mile township is served by private wells and septic systems.
Since the hearings on amending the Master Plan began, township officials have discussed, over and over again, whether it made sense to proceed with the hearings when the township is not yet certain what its affordable housing obligation is going to be.
“My question is: what comes first, the rules (i.e., what number of units the township will owe) or the housing plan,” Planning Board engineer Paul Pogorzelski, who also is the township’s administrator, said at the Jan. 22 meeting. “And no one knows what the Supreme Court will say.”
