By Andrew Martins
Staff Writer
JACKSON – More than 70 affordable housing units in a section of the Jackson Twenty-One project will be made available to qualifying low income or moderate income military veterans as the result of an agreement between municipal officials and the developer.
The Township Council approved the agreement Feb. 2. With the deal in place, veterans who served during a war or other emergency conditions will be able to apply for affordable housing in the Gardens section of Jackson Twenty-One.
According to the resolution, the township entered into a Veterans Preference Agreement with The Gardens at Jackson 21, LLC, under the Fair Housing Act of New Jersey.
Councilman Kenneth Bressi, a veteran who served during the Vietnam War, called the move a “no-brainer.”
“Any small thing we can do to show our appreciation to the men and women of our armed forces is worth doing,” Bressi said. “This (agreement) does that and shows we are thinking about them all the time.”
Jackson Twenty-One is a residential and commercial project that is expected to include 1,541 residential units and about 3 million square feet of commercial space on 611 acres off Interstate 195 at exit 21 in Jackson.
Jackson Twenty-One was proposed and championed for many years by Broadway composer Mitch Leigh, who died in March 2014 at the age of 86.
Of the more than 1,500 housing units scheduled to be built, 231 are designated as affordable housing units which will be marketed to people whose income meets regional guidelines. A majority of the affordable housing rental units will be interspersed among market rate housing units.
The agreement between the township and the developer makes all 72 affordable housing units in the Gardens section of Jackson Twenty-One available for veterans. There will be a total of 510 housing units in the Gardens.
“I just wish we could have done more to help our veterans,” Bressi said. “If it wasn’t for those who have given their lives for us, we would not have the freedoms we have today.”
Infrastructure work at the Gardens, on West Commodore Boulevard, west of Route 527, began in the spring of 2015.
