By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Affordable apartments — encouraged and even incentivized by the township — will likely rise next year on a 3.7-acre parcel on Amwell Road opposite Pleasant View Road.
The Township Committee cleared two major hurdles for RPM Development on Tuesday night by granting the company $928,000 from the township’s affordable housing fund, as well as a 30-year tax abatement that would spare it from paying full property taxes on the buildings. Instead, RPM would pay 8 percent of its annual gross business revenue.
Several residents rose to question aspects of the project, but the ubiquitous, almost unrebuttable, response from the Township Committee was that 54 units of affordable housing would help the township meet its nearly 600 unit regional low- and moderate-income housing obligation in effect since 2008.
Committee members were unwavering in saying the small number of apartments was better than the alternative of 500 or more housing units that would have had to be allowed in order to achieve the same number of housing “credits” from the state Council on Affordable Housing agency.
The 54 apartments will include 14 specifically for people with special needs. Not only does that fulfill a societal need, such units are given extra credit in COAH’s count.
The Planning Board resolution on July 9 gave final approval to the plan, which lies in a redevelopment area envisioned in 2010 and passed by the Township Committee on May 12. RPM filed its application the same week.
The so-called Amwell Commons (it will be renamed to avoid confusion with a commercial and office complex down the road) would build 14 three-bedroom units, 32 two-bedroom (including the ones for special needs) and eight one-bedroom units.
RPM is pressing its application for mortgage financing through the N.J. Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency by the end of the month, according to Brendan McBride, a company vice president.
The $928,000 from the township’s affordable housing fund will help make the project affordable. None of the money comes from property taxes, but is generated from a fee on new construction.
Residents questioned the payment in lieu of taxes because 95 percent of the money will come to township coffers, five percent to the county and none to the school board, which takes two-thirds of each property tax dollar. Township Attorney Eric Bernstein said the developer will pay traditional property taxes on the land assessment, providing some money to the school.
Residents questioned the money for schools in light of the 33 children the development is estimated to house.
Amadeo D’Adamo of Renate Drive and Ann Harris, a former township schools supervisor and a Democratic candidate for Township Committee this fall, said they thought the number was too low an estimate. Mayor Doug Tomson returned to the alternative — how many children would come from 500 housing units that would be needed to equal the affordable housing effect of the 54 apartments?
The application embraces lots at 495, 503, 505 and 507 Amwell Road. Four dwellings along the street would come down to make way for the apartments.
The apartments would be on a 3.7-acre strip along 750 feet of Amwell Road. The remaining 17.17 acres at the rear of the property would be reserved for future development, presumably as single-family houses or stacked townhouses. A redevelopment proposal floated last fall speculated that 45 single-family homes and 30 market-rate townhouses could be built.
Mr. D’Adamo questioned access to the rear 17 acres of the property. He was told there would be two accesses: one via a 50-foot private road between the two rectangular apartment buildings, and another via an easement on the easement on the eastern boundary, bordering a medical office property.
No application has been brought for the back land. A redevelopment proposal floated last fall speculated that 45 single-family homes and 30 market-rate townhouses could be built there.
The entire complex would need to stay affordable for the entire 30-year period of the tax abatement. Three one-bedroom units with 822 square feet would go for $800 a month for people with low incomes; another seven for moderate incomes would cost $975.
Five two-bedroom units of 934 square feet would rent for $935 for low incomes; 11 others for moderate incomes would go for $1,160 per month. The cost of three bedrooms would rent for $1,050 to $1,325, said Mr. McBride.
