Goal for all should be to retain affordable units

Hamilton Park is a 25-unit mobile home park on Spring Valley Road, Marlboro, that has been in place since 1985. The development satisfies 22 credits toward Marl-boro's state Council on Afford-able Housing (COAH) obligation.

Hamilton Park as an entity pays $500 a month ($20 per unit) to Marlboro to lease the land on Spring Valley Road. The residents are financially responsible for their own snow removal, road maintenance, street lighting and septic system. The present lease agreement with the township is due to expire in about two years.

Mayor Robert Kleinberg has indicated that he may not be interested in renewing the township's lease with Hamilton Park. Kleinberg has made no secret of the fact that he doesn't approve of the mobile home park, since the residents who live there don't pay local property taxes.

Over the past few weeks, messages regarding Hamilton Park have been posted and quickly deleted on the NJ.com Web site Marlboro message board. Some of those postings have made the same arguments Kleinberg has made about why Hamilton Park should be removed.

Those arguments include the alleged need to send Hamilton Park's residents packing be-cause the resale and income guidelines for COAH units are not being adhered to. Therefore, the mayor maintains, the development is not in compliance with COAH and is no longer needed to count toward Marl-boro's affordable housing obligation.

The comments posted anonymously on the NJ.com message board further stated that the town should help those who really need the help, meaning providing affordable housing units for those individuals with low or moderate incomes. The mayor has expressed a similar opinion on this matter.

Where is Kleinberg's proof that all of the residents who live in Hamilton Park are not in need of help? Has he gone door to door or conducted a survey of every resident who lives there to determine if they meet COAH's income guidelines? If he has, why hasn't he come forward with this evidence? If he hasn't, how could anyone be on such a crusade to kick 25 families and residents out of their homes without knowing the truth?

The mayor's beliefs have hit close to home for one Hamilton Park resident, Paul Schlaflin, who has been outspoken about many municipal decisions.

Kleinberg has made it well-known that he does not believe Schlaflin's concerns regarding the goings on in town should be highly regarded because he (Schlaflin) does not pay property taxes.

Everyone who lives in Marl-boro deserves a voice in the community, regardless of his or her income level or place of residence.

While Kleinberg has professed support for the construction of affordable housing in Marlboro, he believes it should only be for young singles who do not have children.

Unfortunately, that position disregards other people who also need affordable housing.

A point of clarification regarding Hamilton Park was provided by Chris Donnelly, a spokesman for the state Depart-ment of Community Affairs (DCA). Donnelly said that if individual units are sold outside COAH guidelines, that unit would lose credit, not the entire development.

Donnelly also said the affordability controls for mobile home parks are placed on the land the park sits on, not on the units.

That explanation appears to mean that even if all the mobile homes and residents in Hamil-ton Park do not meet COAH guidelines it doesn't matter because it is not the individual unit that counts as COAH credits for the town, it is the land on which those units sit.

So if Kleinberg and others would like to continue to claim they have the right to oust people from Marlboro who may be less fortunate than others, they might want to get their facts straight.

Certainly, times have changed since Hamilton Park was established and it is understandable that everyone should pay their fair share to live in the community. Rather than eliminating Hamilton Park, both sides should try to negotiate a more current financial agreement that allows these residents to remain in Marlboro.