Planning board OK’s affordable housing plan
Page 4 • Wednesday, August 8, 2018 • The Hammonton Gazette
PLANNING, from Page 1
will be determined by New Jersey
Superior Court Judge Nelson
Johnson by the end of the month.
Bishop said during the board’s
meeting on August 1 that the town
is seeking a final judgment of
compliance and repose in its
affordable housing process, which
would grant the town immunity
(through 2025) from any builder’s
remedy lawsuits, which are
lawsuits filed by real estate
developers in an attempt to force
municipalities
to
allow
construction of any multi-family
housing complexes that include
some affordable housing units
alongside standard apartments.
Prior to reporting to the board,
Bishop said the housing element
and fair share plan was recently
upheld by the Superior Court of
New Jersey during a fairness
hearing, and can now be
considered for an amendment to
the town’s master plan.
The town’s settlement with
FSHC is composed of three
elements. The first is the town’s
number of deficient, inhabited
housing units, which the FSHC set
at 145 units—an amount that both
Bishop and Johnson acknowledged
is inaccurately large due to the fact
that it is primarily influenced by
U.S. Census statistics and “does
not mirror reality.”
Bishop said that in the coming
days, the town will perform an
exterior survey to assess the actual
amount of deficient units in
Hammonton.
The second element is the
remainder of the town’s affordable
housing obligation from 1987 to
1999 (257 units), which was
established during the second
round of substantive rules set by
the New Jersey Council on
Affordable Housing (COAH).
Bishop said Hammonton satisfied
the entirety of its 257-unit, prior-
round requirement via “alternative
living arrangements,” such as
group home bedrooms, senior
housing, family rental housing and
rental bonus credits.
The final component of the
settlement is determining the
town’s third-round affordable
housing obligation, or its
“prospective needs number,”
which will be constitutionally
required for completion by 2025,
Bishop said.
After Hammonton’s prospective
needs number was set at 384
affordable housing units—which it
did not have enough developable
land to accommodate—Robert
Vettese, of town engineering firm
Adams, Rehmann and Heggan
(ARH) Associates conducted a
vacant land analysis that reduced
the town’s true prospective needs
number to 276 units.
However,
because
the
development of water and sewer
infrastructure in Hammonton is
limited by New Jersey Pinelands
Commission regulations, Bishop
said the town was able to
realistically provide just 116 of its
276 required units—also known as
its
“realistic
development
potential” (RDP).
Bishop said the town has met its
116-unit RDP by utilizing a
multitude of techniques, such as
using 31 of its surplus rental credits
at the Plymouth Place apartment
complex.
The town also made a deal with
developer John Bee in which he
agreed to pay Hammonton enough
money to write-down the cost of
seven of its current market-rate
rental units so they can qualify as
affordable-to-moderate-income
housing (annual household income
of $58,383 or less). Hammonotn
also received money from Bee to
fund eight group home bedrooms,
which will be created by
converting local homes into group
homes.
Bishop said the town was
credited another 37 units by
including the Silver Terrace senior
rental development in its plan, and
will be credited an additional three
units once architect Jack Trocki
receives final approval for a
pending housing development in
town.
The remainder of the RDP will
be satisfied by two units inside an
existing group home that is run by
the CIBC Foundation; four units
from a new group home that will
be provided by the Arc of Atlantic
County in 2020 (at a cost of
$40,000 per bedroom), another
five family rental market-value
units that will written-down to
affordable-to-moderate-income
status and additional rental bonus
credits, according to Bishop.
However, Bishop said the town
is still required to satisfy its unmet
need of 160 affordable housing
units that were removed—or
“durationally adjusted” from its
original prospective needs number
of 276 units.
“You have your RDP but you
still have that original number from
Fair Share Housing Center, and
you do not have adequate sewer to
handle the balance of that number.
So, there’s a term called
“durational adjustment,” that if you
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