WALL, NJ - Residents went on the offensive Monday night against the township's plan to fulfill its state-mandated affordable housing requirement. Township officials are up against a Dec. 31 deadline to file the municipality's plan with the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) to avoid potential lawsuits from developers seeking to build in the township.
Residents also complained about the 10 potential affordable-housing sites that the township is considering in its COAH plan. "We would have preferred to not have to choose any locations, but the state and COAH are mandating we build these units," said Laurie Aromondo, chairwoman of the township Planning Board.
The plan counts on several affordable-housing sites that have already been built or approved that were not claimed for credit in the two previous rounds of COAH obligations. Those sites include: a Habitat For Humanity project approved last year for a single-family home on Eighteenth Avenue; eight beds at the Sunnyside Manor assisted-living facility on Ramshorn Drive that qualify under COAH rules for senior citizens' rental; 26 units at the Colfax Senior Apartments complex on Belmar Boulevard; and 37 new units at the Bearmore Mobile Home Park off Route 35.
Also included in the plan are the township's negotiations with Bearmore Mobile Park owner Joseph Frezza to build 63 pad sites off Hurley Pond Road and a site on Asbury Road that could provide 35 units toward the COAH plan in the first phase of the work and as many as 72 units once the complete COAH plan is implemented.
A new senior rental facility with 100 units would be built off Holly Boulevard, according to the approved plan, and the first 50 of a potential 250 townhouses on a site off West Hurley Road could be built to fulfill the township's first phase, third-round COAH requirements.
Residents were up in arms over the plan's focus on the northern and central portions of the township, and away from the south Wall area. Several residents were worried the plan would exacerbate overcrowding in township schools. "There is no way Central (Elementary) School is going to be able to absorb that amount of housing and the students that will come with it," said Pat Smith of Wall. Central School and the high school are already well above capacity.
Deputy Mayor Michael Clayton later said the potential of overcrowding at schools because of the COAH mandate may force the township to redraw its school district. Wall officials had been fighting COAH's mandate to build at least 667 affordable housing units by 2018. The township has argued there is no space to accommodate low-income, affordable housing and filed or joined various lawsuits throughout the state in an attempt to force COAH to reconsider its plans. The Township Committee has scheduled a special public meeting for Dec. 29 at 2 p.m. to discuss and vote on the plan the municipality will submit to COAH.
Source: APP.com