COAH...Again

Hillsborough’s proposed Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) plan was presented before the Planning Board on December 4, 2008, by the township’s affordable housing development consultant Jennifer Beahm of Birdsall Engineering.

The Hillsborough Beacon posted a comprehensive article about the plan, which was as clear as can be expected when explaining COAH.

The Planning Board approved Ms. Beahm's proposed COAH plan and referred it to the township committee for favorable action.

The last week of December, Ms. Beahm again presented her plan, this time to the committee which approved the plan, which had to be submitted by the December 31, 2008 NJ Department of Community Affairs Council on Affordable Housing deadline.

I fully expected residents of the areas surrounding the three proposed COAH projects to attend the Township Committee meeting at the end of December to ask/interrogate township officials about the hundreds of COAH units, retail buildings, and hotel being proposed contiguous to their homes.

Residents obviously had multiple chances to educate themselves on the COAH proposals and two chances to comment before their elected officials, but (as far as I could tell from watching the TC meeting on TV) not one person asked a question or commented when they were given the chance.

Sometimes it must be very discouraging to be a township official, to put so much effort into something like this and get no feedback. As much as you would like to believe that that is because the plan is so brilliant and clearly explained, you know that when the proposed COAH projects start going before the various boards and commissions, suddenly outraged citizens will come out of the woodwork to complain that they didn’t know anything about it.

##

So, one more time:

The Township’s affordable housing consultant Jennifer C. Beahm summarized her recommendations for the township’s required Housing Plan Element and Fair Share Plan, identifying projects and programs that would yield Hillsborough’s 650 required units.

According to her presentation, there are 168 affordable housing units in existing and approved projects. Additional units will be provided in three proposed new projects referred to as Amwell Road East, Amwell Road West, and Route 206.

The Amwell Road East project is located on 10-acres just east of Pineywoods Drive and would contain 108 affordable family rental units.

The Amwell Road West development, located on 29.3-acres west of Eves Drive, would include 85 market rate units, 24 special needs rental units and 20 affordable rental units.

The third project on Route 206 north of Partridge Road would have 352 market rate units, 138 affordable units, 20,000-square-feet of retail space and a 130-room hotel on 50-acres.

Additionally the Market to Affordable Program will provide 6 units, there is a rental bonus of 162 units, and there is a 19-unit Rehabilitation Requirement obligation.

For more details you can view this summary or Ms. Beahm’s power point presentation.

Having Your (COAH) Cake...

Consider these two COAH applications recently heard before two different township boards.

A Weston Road developer is requesting permission from the Planning Board to convert 14 already constructed COAH two-and-three bedroom rental units in his 185-unit age-restricted development to COAH for-sale units, testifying that there is no demand for COAH rentals.

Another developer has applied to the Board of Adjustment to construct an apartment house containing 84 COAH rental units off Route 206 on Campus Drive.

Both developers have presumably studied the COAH market, but somehow come out with vastly different results. The Weston Road builder testified that he has been unable rent out his 14 affordable units – no one wants them. The Route 206 developer apparently has demographic and marketing information showing that he can easily rent out 84 affordable units.

Now, if the Route 206 builder gets approval, builds the building, Hillsborough gets the COAH credits, and then the builder can’t rent out the units, what happens? Can the builder “take back” his affordable offer and change them to market-price rentals or for-sale condos? Does Hillsborough just lose its credits or is there some penalty involved?

So who is going to decide if the COAH rental market is there or not? The developers?

Uh-oh. I think we're in trouble.

We Have Met the Poor and They are Us

The Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), established by the Fair Housing Act of 1985, created an obligation for all New Jersey towns to provide for low- and moderate-income housing. These obligations are a hot button issue in many towns including Hillsborough.

After all, put in low-income or moderate-income housing and the next thing you know “they,” those unknown poor people, will be moving into your town, your neighborhood, and maybe even your block.

Simultaneously, residents are sadly shaking their heads because their children, new to the working world, maybe fresh out of college, can’t afford to buy homes in Hillsborough. Senior family members and neighbors have to give up their homes as the school taxes force them out.

Why is there a disconnect between these two thoughts? Maybe “they” are your grandparents, your parents, or your children who could be moving into the COAH units in your neighborhood.

Maybe the concept of “poor” in Hillsborough is relative in more than one way.