JACKSON – The Zoning Board of Adjustment will hear additional testimony on Feb. 21 from representatives of an applicant that is proposing to build market rate single-family homes and affordable housing units at Whitesville Road and East Veterans Highway in Jackson.
Representatives of Swanborne, LLC, appeared before the zoning board on Jan. 17. Swanborne was represented by attorney John Giunco and planner Arthur Bernard, the applicant’s affordable housing expert.
Swanborne wants to develop a 158-acre parcel at 980 East Veterans Highway with a mix of single-family homes and buildings that would contain affordable housing apartments. An existing home will remain on the property and the parcel will include four storm water lots and open space, according to the application.
The property is bounded by three Ocean County roads: East Veterans Highway (Route 528), South Hope Chapel Road (Route 547) and Whitesville Road (Route 527).
The application proposes the construction of 185 single-family homes to be sold at market rates and 46 apartments to be rented at below market rates in accordance with affordable housing regulations. The apartments are proposed in six two-story buildings that will contain six or eight apartments.
Swanborne is seeking a use variance for the density of the residential units.
The applicant is not required to make the affordable housing units the same type of housing as the proposed single-family homes, according to its representatives.
“This application includes what is called a set-aside for low- and moderate-income housing. That means a percentage of the proposed housing units are reserved for low- and moderate-income households. Not only are they reserved for low- and moderate-income households, they are also priced to be affordable to (those households) and deed restricted so they remain occupied by and affordable to low- and moderate-income households,” Bernard said.
According to Bernard, the median income of a two-person household in this area was almost $75,500 as of 2017.
“So a household at 80 percent of median earns 80 percent of $75,500, or about $60,360, so that is the upper income limit, that is how much a person can earn in Ocean County and still qualify for this housing, and at the other extreme, someone at 30 percent of the median can earn $22,636, now someone with lesser income can get a unit if they can afford it, but the units are supposedly priced for somewhere (around) $22,000,” Bernard said.
Bernard said it is important to note that low- and moderate-income households are about 40 percent of all households in New Jersey.
“Many of us have been low- and moderate-income households, we have friends who are low- and moderate-income households, they are starting teachers, nurses, social workers, paralegals and firefighters. They include our kids who are starting out and older people on fixed incomes,” he said.
Bernard said in order to obtain an affordable housing unit, an individual has to go through a credit check and a criminal background check “like any other person,” so “there is no reason to think they would not be an asset to the community.”
He explained that what the applicant is proposing and referring to as affordable housing is not housing where the costs paid by residents are subsidized by the government. Bernard said the individuals in those units will pay their own rent.
The board’s vice chairman, Sheldon Hofstein, asked specifically, “There will be no Section 8 (government subsidized) housing?”
Bernard said there will not be Section 8 housing in the development.
Hofstein expressed concern about the “isolation” the affordable housing units have as shown on the plans for the development.
“For anybody who is coming and going, they have to pass through this expensive, affluent (single-family home) neighborhood,” Hofstein said. “How would the people (who live in the apartments) be treated by neighbors who are more affluent and may not like that (individuals who live in the apartments) are passing through their neighborhood, and will the children on school buses be subjected to harassment and bullying?”
Bernard said he believes children from throughout the development will play together.
“Some people are going to accept people of different incomes and different housing types, some people probably will not,” the planner said. “A lot of people will not care.”
Hofstein asked if Jackson residents will have first consideration for the affordable housing units, but Bernard said that preference is illegal.
“Would there be any consideration for reserving the apartments for veterans and their families?” Hofstein asked.
Bernard said the applicant cannot do that.
The zoning board’s attorney, Sean Gertner, asked if the applicant would be adverse to allowing a veterans preference if it was legal, as part of the board’s recommendations and requests, if the application is approved.
“We are certainly willing to provide any benefit to veterans that is permitted, but (the applicant) is subject to the rules of anti-discrimination, ” Giunco said.
During the public hearing, resident Josephine Sienkiewicz said she lives near the site where the development is proposed. She said residents of the area use well water and septic systems and are concerned the project will negatively impact their water.
“(The applicant) made a comment that this housing and development would have no impact on the area and I really think it will because with all of that housing and runoff, we are not connected to (municipal) water and sewer, we get the direct runoff from this area. Even though they are putting in a retention basin, other runoff occurs, and with the affordable housing placed almost directly in front of (us) and very adjacent to a horse farm, there is really not a buffer zone that is significant,” Sienkiewicz said.
She said the significant amount of development is a concern for her after living in Jackson for 40 years.
During a previous hearing on the application, traffic engineer John Rea Rea testified on behalf of the applicant.
“The property itself is basically bracketed by Route 528, Route 547 and Route 527 and three critical intersections are included in the traffic study,” Rea said. “The three critical intersections are all under the jurisdiction of the county. They are all intersections where two county roads intersect and they are all signalized.”
Hofstein, asked Rea if the applicant considered that 1,000 homes are proposed to be built nearby at the Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Lakewood.
“I know you are speaking about an ideal (traffic) situation, however, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has given the go-ahead for over 1,000 housing units to be constructed on the (golf course), and more than likely (the developer) will be building it, which means more traffic coming to the area, basically Cross Street, but a lot of that traffic will find out it is much easier to go down to Whitesville and then come around on to Hope Chapel and you are talking about (thousands of cars) … plus trucks, school buses and so on,” Hofstein said.
Rea said a site plan for the residential development in Lakewood that Hofstein mentioned has not been approved.
“The DEP may have approved that number of homes on that site, but it is my understanding that (the applicant) has not received Lakewood or Ocean County approval for any site plan yet, so they have not received their final approvals, it is just a DEP approval,” Rea said.
He said county representatives will have to make decisions regarding regional issues.
“But yes, that (1,000-home Lakewood development) is part of the regional issue and needs to be addressed on a regional scale. I can tell you the county is looking at several possibilities for improving Cross Street because of the increased volume on Cross Street. They are looking at the possibility of adding a two-way center turn lane and leaving it one lane in each direction, or possibly widening it to five lanes,” Rea said.
