Marlboro must provide more details on housing
Town trying to comply with state affordable housing regulations
BY TALI ISRAELI
Staff Writer

MARLBORO - Coming up with an affordable housing plan has proved to be no easy task for Marlboro professionals.

On Nov. 29, 2006 the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) issued a report which included a list of 44 additional items Marlboro must provide in its petition for second and third round substantive certification for the township's affordable housing plan.

According to the report, the affordable housing plan submitted by Marlboro does not provide complete information necessary for COAH to grant certification. All requested information and documentation must be submitted to COAH by Feb. 28.

Affordable housing is defined as housing that is sold or rented at below market rates to individuals whose income meets regional guidelines established by COAH.

According to Peter Vandenkooy, a planner with Birdsall Engineering, all of the items requested by COAH are standard documents that the engineering firm is able to provide.

Vandenkooy said Birdsall will respond to each item listed in the report by the Feb. 28 deadline. However, he noted that some issues are more long-term, involving third and fourth parties, and the firm will only be able to provide initial information on those particular issues.

The planner added that none of the items requested will hold up any of the affordable housing projects which are proposed in the plan.

Since the mid-1990s, Marlboro officials have been aware that second round requirements for the provision of affordable housing in the township had to be addressed. However, second round substantive certification from COAH was never received.

Marlboro received first round certification from COAH in the mid-1980s in the state's initial affordable housing requirements.

At the present time, in addition to the second round affordable housing obligation which went unmet during the administration of former mayor Matthew Scannapieco, Marlboro officials also have to deal with a deadline for a third round of affordable housing units under COAH guidelines.

In December 2005 the Planning Board and Township Council approved a housing element and fair share plan that they said would satisfy Marlboro's second and third round obligations through 2014. Township officials have said the housing plan would give Marlboro a 19-unit surplus for future COAH obligations.

The plan for which the township is now seeking substantive certification calls for the construction of affordable units on five properties in town.

+ The first site involves a mediated settlement with builder Michael Weitz. The project calls for the construction of 126 market rate age-restricted units and 49 affordable rental units. The site is in the Morganville section of Marlboro at the intersection of Texas and Wooleytown roads.

+ The second parcel, known as Northpointe, is near the Aberdeen Township border at Lloyd and Nolan roads. The project permits Weitz to construct 299 market rate apartments and 71 affordable rentals; Weitz agreed to fund 14 affordable housing units through a Regional Contribution Agreement (RCA) to be included in a 252-unit deal with Trenton.

The RCAs will permit Marlboro to transfer some of its state-mandated obligation to provide affordable housing to another community.

+ The third housing project, known as the Bluh and Batelli site, is a 76-acre tract on Route 79 just south of Church Lane. The project calls for the construction of 200 market rate units and 50 affordable rental units. The developer will also be funding 65 RCA units to be included in the deal with Trenton.

+ The fourth project calls for the construction of 148 market rate homes and 37 affordable rental units on a property known as Stattel Farm. The 80-acre parcel is at the intersection of Route 79 and Route 520. In this project, 74 affordable housing units will be transferred to Trenton in an RCA.

The residential development on the Stattel property will be constructed on 50 acres on the west side of Route 79; up to 175,000 square feet of commercial development will also be permitted on the site. A 30-acre parcel on the east side of Route 79 will be deed restricted as farmland preservation.

+ The last parcel in Marlboro's petition for substantive certification is what officials are calling a 100 percent affordable municipally sponsored project. The plan proposes that 125 affordable housing units be built on a 19-acre parcel on Texas Road; 73 of those units will be age-restricted.

According to the COAH report, the township proposes to apply 52 non-age-restricted units toward its second round obligation, 58 units toward its third round obligation and have the remaining 15 age-restricted units as excess age-restricted units.

Included in the report's list of missing information were several items relating to the municipally sponsored project on Texas Road. Those items include:

+ Documentation demonstrating that the township has control or has the ability to control the construction project site.

+ Demonstration that the project site is consistent with sound planning principles and the goals, policies and objectives of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (SDRP).

+ An agreement with an experienced entity that will be responsible for constructing and administering the municipal affordable housing project.

+ An updated construction schedule for the construction of the project.

+ Demonstration that the mix of ages in the project will not violate the federal Fair Housing Act.

+ An adopted resolution of intent to bond to finance the balance of the RCAs and the municipally sponsored project.

In addition to the items requested regarding the municipally sponsored project, the report also requests a strategy to address what COAH calculates as a two-unit shortfall of Marlboro's second round obligation and a 154-unit shortfall of the third round obligation, including the township's third round rental obligation.

According to the report, the township's second round affordable housing obligation calls for the construction of 1,019 affordable units.

The third round (also called growth share) obligation requires one affordable unit to be built for every eight market rate units that are constructed and one affordable housing unit to be built for every 25 jobs created.

According to the report, the plan submitted by Marlboro for its third round obligation includes a 90-unit residential obligation and a 100-unit non-residential obligation, for a total of 190 units.

However, the report indicates that the calculations and projections presented by the township were not accurate.

The report issued by COAH states that Marlboro's total growth share obligation was recalculated to 323 affordable housing units (119.75 units generated by the construction of homes and 202.8 units generated by the economic provisions).

Including the township's second round and third round obligations, Marlboro's plan should call for the construction of 1,342 affordable housing units, according to COAH.

Vandenkooy said the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) provides municipalities with projections for the number of affordable units a township must build. He said those projections are given a presumption of validity.

Marlboro representatives believed the MPO's numbers for units generated by economic growth were too high, Vandenkooy said. Therefore, officials used municipal data to come up with the number of non-residential growth share units needed, he said.

COAH will allow municipalities to use their own data if those numbers are sufficiently justified, according to Vandenkooy. Although the planner said Marlboro's representatives justified their projections, he said COAH is looking for a more in-depth justification as to why the township's numbers should be considered more accurate than the MPO's projections.

"We are confident we can provide that," Vandenkooy said about justifying the township's projections.

Another issue that township professionals will need to address is COAH's request to provide the status on the amendment to Marlboro's area-wide waste water management plan to include the municipal project and the Weitz mediated settlement project on Texas Road.

According to Vandenkooy, the two projects are not currently in a sewer service plan. He said the obvious choice was to seek an amendment to the Western Monmouth Utilities Authority's (WMUA) franchise to include the two projects. The franchise is the area the WMUA services.

However, Vandenkooy said the WMUA is working with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to get additional capacity because its treatment facility in Manalapan is nearing capacity now for its franchise area.

The planner said due to this information and after speaking with representatives of the DEP, it would be easier for Marlboro and it would give COAH more confidence for the two projects to gain sewer service through the Bayshore Regional Sewerage Authority (BRSA), Union Beach.

Vandenkooy said Marlboro would still have to put in an application with the DEP to include the projects in the BRSA's franchise. He added that Marlboro professionals are initiating talks with representatives of BRSA to confirm that they are interested and to work out the details.

DEP spokeswoman Karen Hershey said the WMUA's permitted capacity is 8.8 million gallons a day and the Manalapan facility still has 3.11 million gallons available.

However, Hershey said, the WMUA is committed to providing service for other planned projects in its franchise area. The DEP is reviewing those projects in an attempt to determine if they will put the WMUA over its daily limit. She said the DEP has not yet made that determination.

Additional information requested in the COAH report that was sent to Marlboro includes documents pertaining to RCAs, zoning ordinances, adequate sewer and water availability and developer's agreements for several projects named in the plan.

According to the report, COAH's review of Marlboro's growth share ordinance found that the law was not in compliance with COAH rules on numerous issues.

In response to that issue, Vandenkooy said there are some aspects of the ordinance that require a closer look. He said although COAH provides a template for drafting the law, the COAH handbook provides several options that municipalities can use to write the law.