SAYREVILLE – Amid debate, the Borough Council has hired a planner to analyze Sayreville’s affordable housing plan as part of an effort to meet affordable housing regulations.
The council voted 4-2 on a resolution to hire Susan Gruel as a review planner for the borough’s Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligations at a fee not to exceed $10,000 during a meeting on June 12.
Council President Daniel Buchanan and council members Victoria Kilpatrick, Ricci Melendez and Mary Novak voted yes on hiring Gruel. Councilmen Steven Grillo and Pat Lembo voted no.
Although Grillo had high praise of Gruel at the meeting, he took issue with how the hiring was being handled. Grillo stated that he received the resolution to hire Gruel only a few days before the council meeting and the borough was due in court on July 6.
When asked by Mayor Kennedy O’Brien how Gruel was selected, Business Administrator Dan Frankel said he received names from Municipal Planner John Leoncavallo and contacted two individuals, Gruel and another candidate. The other candidate had a “time conflict” in terms of the position, according to Frankel.
“I felt this was a bit rushed due to our court date,” Grillo said. “[Gruel] has a couple of weeks to review a plan that took over a year and a half to develop. We were only able to interview two people. I think this is something that should have come up if there was concern on the council back in January or February when we started this debate.”
According to Borough Engineer Jay Cornell during a May 22 meeting, affordable housing was required under state regulations at the Camelot apartments near Towne Lake, but the Planning Board did not require its affordable housing component.
Cornell said that there was litigation between the board and the apartment complex’s developer and the board did not want to accept a proposed settlement that included affordable housing.
As previously reported, council members took issue with the zoning changes captured in affordable housing ordinances that were presented to them in February. Novak said she did not agree with rezoning any parcels when discussing the affordable housing plan, and Buchanan agreed that zoning changes were not disclosed during earlier discussions.
Grillo’s comments prompted a response from Novak, who said she felt Grillo had not properly informed the council about the affordable housing plan while he was the liaison to the Planning Board in 2016.
“There was nothing in [the plan] ever discussed about rezoning, only the number of houses – something I relied on our representative from the Planning Board and our attorneys and our planner to tell us the truth [about],” Novak said on June 12. “There was never anything discussed about this until I got this in February in my package to put all of these new zoning things into effect. That’s the first time I heard about it.
“Your [Grillo’s] job as the representative of the council on the Planning Board was to bring all of this stuff back to us,” Novak said. “And you didn’t.”
Grillo contended that he had properly informed the council of the plan and, noting that the council unanimously voted in favor of it, argued Novak misunderstood it.
“You [Novak] voted on something you didn’t know about,” Grillo said. “We’ve been having the same conversation since February and nobody has done anything to propose anything new.”
Novak retorted that hiring Gruel was an example of the council taking action to change the current affordable housing plan.
The topic of hiring a planner to analyze the borough’s affordable housing plan was initially discussed during the May 22 meeting. Kilpatrick believed the plan should be examined by an individual outside of the borough’s Planning Board, citing concerns she had with the board.
Buchanan, who was also critical of the Planning Board, made a motion to hire an additional planner during the May 22 meeting. As with the vote on the resolution, Buchanan, Kilpatrick, Melendez and Novak supported the motion, while Grillo and Lembo opposed.
Resident Jim Robinson, a former Planning Board chairman, voiced his support during the June meeting of the council hiring Gruel. According to Robinson, Gruel formerly served as the borough’s planner and he worked with her while he was board chairman.
“Given the town’s record, we are sorely in need of good, professional land use planning and legal advice,” Robinson said. “I want to compliment the council for doing two things: picking Susan Gruel and doing it the appropriate way, at a council meeting by vote. I really think we need some additional planning advice to come up with a better idea to address our affordable housing obligation and I would very strongly urge you to support this resolution.”
O’Brien, who was opposed to hiring Gruel and could only vote if there were a tie, alleged that Robinson was responsible for vetting Gruel, which Robinson denied.
“I know you’re close with Susan Gruel, so I assume this was under your direction,” O’Brien said.
In response to O’Brien’s allegation, resident Ken Olchaskey, who also supported Gruel’s hiring, criticized the mayor’s conduct.
“I’m getting a little tired of coming to these meetings and hearing people coming to the microphone and being accused of pitching for somebody,” Olchaskey said. “I consider that an insult to people coming to this microphone, trying to do the right thing for the Borough of Sayreville. It doesn’t appear that we’re on the track of doing the right thing in this COAH thing. We’ve rehashed some of this about the Planning Board for years now, not putting an affordable component in these approvals.”
Contact Matthew Sockol at [email protected].