To the editor:
L. Helena Bouchez wrote in her March 7 letter to the editor that the affordable housing decision is out of the hands of our local government. Yes, the court handed down the decision to build the 653 units, but who determined the additional 2,881 market rate homes be built? That happened in closed door negotiations between members of the township committee and developers this past summer. With no public work sessions offered, citizens could not voice their ideas and concerns. After signing secret contracts with developers without public input, this committee has shown that it does not care about transparency.
Ms. Bouchez also comments that any further discussion about affordable housing should end because it’s not in the best interest of the township. Whose best interest I ask? Perhaps the developers who signed those contracts. What about the residents who live on Diverty Road who were blindsided by the fact that 78 affordable housing units and 301 market rate homes will be built on the Zaitz tract behind ShopRite that will impact all of their homes. Some will have housing units a mere 50 feet from their kitchen windows. These residents had no opportunity for input before the contact was signed. Many months after that action, two information sessions were held advising the Diverty residents about the “improvements to their neighborhood.” These information sessions were not held in front of a formal township committee meeting, where questions and concerns could be publicly addressed and recorded. They were a poorly organized, public relations effort to sell the project to angry residents.
I say that residents need to keep complaining and hold the Hopewell Township Committee accountable for the horrific process. We need to ask the following questions:
- Why is there no money left in the affordable housing trust fund?
- Why do we have to build 2,881 market rate homes?
- Why are we building on the west side of Scotch Road?
- Why did we spend $6.5 million to buy PennyTown at the height of the market, a property which now sits empty and unsaleable? In a township that has always extolled their fiscal management, I note that the affordable housing trust fund sits empty at the very moment that we need to tap it.
- Where are the traffic, environmental, water, and service impact studies?
The committee should welcome, not stifle, opposing opinions. Instead, during township committee meetings, the public can only speak for three minutes and on occasion, they have brought in a police officer to sit at the back of the room. We should all insist on a process that reflects the values of our community, a commitment to open dialogue, and a broad invitation to the expertise that resides throughout our community.
Cheryl Edwards
Hopewell Township
