By JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer
NORTH BRUNSWICK — A settlement agreement has been reached by the Township of North Brunswick regarding Fair Share Housing stipulations.
The declaratory judgment was reached on March 9, pursuant to the township, K-Land No. 54 LLC and North Brunswick TOD Associates. The two entities petitioned the court separately, and the settlements are not related, according to Michael Hritz, director of Community Development for North Brunswick.
“North Brunswick believes that affordable housing will help bring the right mix into our township and make us a stronger place,” Mayor Francis “Mac” Womack said.
The case dates back to Dec. 30, 2008, when the township petitioned the Council of Affordable Housing (COAH) to address its 1987-2018 affordable housing obligation, according to the settlement document. The township had amended its spending plan as part of its Third Round Petition for Substantive Certification in accordance with COAH requests on June 18, 2010. On June 24, 2010, COAH approved the most recent spending plan. On Dec. 19, 2011, the township submitted the amendment to the Department of Community Affairs and was approved on Jan. 11, 2012.
However, this was subsequently invalidated by the Superior Court Appellate Division as of March 10, 2015. The New Jersey Supreme Court established a transitional process in which municipalities could file declaratory judgment actions focused on whether the municipality’s housing plan meets its obligations, the statement said.
Therefore, on June 19, 2015, North Brunswick filed a declaratory action.
David N. Kinsey, in collaboration with the Fair Share Housing Council, calculated the fair share obligation for North Brunswick from 1999-2025 to be 1,161 units. The settlement has reduced the calculation to 700 units. At least 25 percent of the obligation will be met through rental units, including at least half rental units available to families, according to the judgment. Within that, 13 percent of the units must be available to people who are very low income, half of those to very low-income families. A maximum of 25 percent may be age-restricted.
K-Land No. 54 owns approximately 18 acres of land on the southbound side of Route 130 as well as property within the Hidden Lake Town Center. The township has proposed to modify the Planned Unit Development II Zone, which includes Kaplan’s property, to allow for the construction of up to 270 age-restricted units.
Ten percent would be affordable, with 60 percent of those units being low income and 40 percent being moderate income. Thirteen percent of the low-income units must be classified as very low, according to the settlement agreement.
However, as part of the agreement, if the Kaplan organization does not submit development plans for the project within four years, the township has the right to remove the zoning provision.
North Brunswick TOD Associates, which is responsible for building the MainStreetNB project off of Route 1 north, is required to provide very low and low-income affordable housing units as part of its transit-oriented mixed use development. The parties involved agreed that 229 of the 1,875 units, or 12.2 percent of the total, would be affordable units. The township’s zoning ordinance currently restricts the developer to build no more than 300 units prior to construction commencing on the anticipated train station at the site, of which at least 30 are to be affordable units, according to the document. The township will amend the ordinance to increase to 400 if TOD agrees to construct at least 51 affordable units with at least five very low-income, 29 low-income and 17 moderate-income units, according to the agreement.
“This is a relative win,” Womack said. “We believe what we have is a relatively better condition than many of our neighboring towns and by the same token is a fair and right number for trying to meet what is a serious and necessary goal for affordable housing.”
A Fairness & Compliance Hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. April 27 before Judge Douglas K. Wolfson at the Middlesex County Superior Court, Chamber 408, 56 Paterson St., New Brunswick, to determine if the settlement agreement satisfies the affordable housing obligations.
Contact Jennifer Amato at jamato@gmnews.com.
