The Bordentown Township Planning Board recently passed a resolution to grant an application for preliminary and final site plan approval of Rising Sun Meadows, LLC’s, an inclusive housing development on Route 130.
The inclusive development has been an ongoing effort between Rising Sun Meadows, LLC, and the township as the project is planned to provide affordable housing units in a development of market rate housing with 227 units consisting of 36 affordable housing units and 191 market rate housing units.
The resolution was passed during the Feb. 14 meeting of the planning board.
Although several components of the company’s application in regards to the township’s regulations were not reported at a board meeting in November of last year, the board members deemed the application conditionally complete with assurance from the applicant that they would meet all necessary requirements on the application for the Jan. 10 meeting.
At the January meeting, the developer provided the township with the necessary items in their submitted application for approval.
With approval from the township for Rising Sun Meadows, LLC, to construct this development, Bordentown Township Administrator Michael Theokas said that the proposed development’s inclusive units help adhere to the township’s state requirements to comply with affordable housing mandates.
“This development and the affordable units in it are a part of our compliance with the Fair Share Housing Association (FSHA),” Theokas said. “This developer was a legal intervener into our affordable housing settlement.”
Along with the Rising Sun Meadows development, Theokas reported that it’s one of multiple affordable housing development planned projects in the township that are in the process of seeking approval for site plans and/or approval from the zoning and planning board.
These projects include an age-restricted development that came to the zoning board in November of last year when the township committee amended an ordinance to rezone property along Rt. 130, which is now approved for the use of residential development.
According to township officials, a parcel of land between Crescent Drive and Highbridge Road is currently being sought after by a land developer for housing development. Officials said that the proposed project site is currently planned to include 92 age-restricted housing units, including 19 affordable housing units as well.
Theokas noted that this project still has to come to the planning board for full site plan approval within the next several months.
As several projects are proposed to be built along Route 130, Theokas said that the township anticipates another inclusive development in the area to come to the planning board as well this Spring.
“We have another project coming up on Route 206 that we anticipate [the developer] to bring a formal application to the planning board that’s similar to the Rising Sun Meadows development,” he said. “It’s an inclusionary housing development that will have an affordable housing component too in the next several months.”
With Rising Sun Meadows’ unanimous approval from the township’s planning board on the preliminary and final site plans, the applicant will now work with the township’s professionals on obtaining permits for water and sewage as well as other engineering projects with county and state professionals to eventually begin construction.
Theokas said that development projects of this size and stature are contingent on outside agency approvals, a part of all planning board resolutions before developers come to the building department for building permits.
This can include confirmation on matters dealing with the sewerage authority and city water department as well as the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) given that the development will have points of access along Route 130.
“With projects this size, there’s a lot of moving parts, but as far as the township is concerned, they’ve formalized and ratified their approval via that resolution,” he said.
Now that the township has passed the resolution for granted approval, Theokas said that he and the municipality’s professionals will work further with the developer to ensure that the company abides by the resolution in their efforts to construct the development.
“It’s a long process, so the next step is what’s called ‘resolution compliance,’” he said. “Myself, the community development office, and our engineers and professionals make sure that prior to the developer moving forward, they’re in compliance with all of the contingencies in the resolution.”