Colts Neck Presents 4th Round Affordable Housing Plan

COLTS NECK, NJ — Colts Neck Township presented its 4th Round Housing Element & Fair Share Plan at a Township Committee meeting Wednesday night amidst resident concerns about where housing may be built throughout town.

The plan was presented by Colts Neck’s Affordable Housing Planner, Beth McManus of Kyle + McManus Associates, at the committee’s 7 p.m. meeting at the Conover Road Primary School.

The presentation followed a previous Planning Board meeting where the plan was presented, and a January meeting where residents were invited to weigh in on how Colts Neck should address the town's housing requirements.

Requirements for affordable housing in Colts Neck (and other NJ municipalities) are generated from calculations by the Department of Community Affairs, which determines how many units municipalities must provide over the next decade.

In Colts Neck, the fourth round present housing need (existing housing units deemed substandard/deficient and in need of repair) is 0, and the prospective housing need (the number of new units that need to be built based on population trends) is 101 units, according to calculations from the DCA.

To address their obligation of 101 new units, McManus said the town plans to rely on a durational adjustment, which is a strategy for municipalities that don’t have enough sewer or water infrastructure to properly build housing.

According to the town's 4th round plan, the adjustment regulations and lack of sewer infrastructure in Colts Neck make it so "the township is not required to adopt zoning or take other actions at this time to satisfy the obligation."

Notwithstanding, the town will incorporate "potentially appropriate affordable housing strategies" that come to fruition in an amended housing plan and "reduce the extent of the durational adjustment accordingly."

“It’s [a durational adjustment] meant for municipalities like Colts Neck,” McManus said. “It gives us an option to comply and maintain protection from builder's remedy litigation, without having to install or build infrastructure.”

By using a durational adjustment, the town is aiming to avoid builders’ remedy litigation [which could give developers control over building projects in Colts Neck], though in exchange for using it, McManus said municipalities must work with developers that may gain control of the property.

“When they [the developers] make an application to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection for extending sewer, or creating sewer, or a package plan, the municipality must support their application,” McManus said. “...In general, as long as the developer has chosen a developable property, municipalities are obligated to work with them.”

Though municipalities must work with developers, McManus emphasized that they are not required to fund these applications or fund any of the construction.

The town may also amend the housing plan to incorporate strategies that can reduce the scope of the durational adjustment and give better control over the town's land use, such as extension of affordability controls or converting market-rate homes to affordable homes.

To support these options, Mayor Tara Torchia Buss said the town can use money from their Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which consists of collected fees and funds, not taxpayer money. According to McManus, there’s about $1.3 million in the fund as of March 31.

“I just want to make it clear that the reason why we are choosing and would like to go with a 100% durational adjustment instead of putting other things in our spending plan right now is because we’ve been working very hard and diligently as a governing body, as our professionals, as our employees, to take advantage of some of these strategies,” Buss said. “Meeting with nonprofits, meeting with some of these groups that do 100% affordable housing...the reason it’s not in our spending plan is because the township will be on the hook for that."

To elaborate on Buss’ point, McManus added that what’s put in Colts Neck’s housing plan has to be right and has to be developable, otherwise the town could be in trouble for not having the ability to fulfill the program.

“We need to be certain that anything that we place in that housing plan can indeed be fulfilled,” McManus said. “It’s much easier to add something new that comes to fruition a couple of months from now, than try to beg for forgiveness when something doesn’t happen.”

Following the presentation, some residents took to the floor to express concerns about the plan and where affordable housing units could be located in town.

One resident, Kevin O’Brien, questioned what role Naval Weapons Station Earle may have when it comes to building affordable housing in Colts Neck and questioned township officials’ previous responses to his concerns.

According to O’Brien, Buss previously said Earle was not in play for affordable housing “at this time” and claimed that Deputy Mayor Michael Viola contradicted that by later saying that township attorneys are involved with Earle.

O’Brien also raised concerns about the potential for affordable housing units being built near a blast zone at the base, and how building a road to access those units could lead to a hole in Earle’s protective fence.

“Since our taxes are being paid for the attorneys to evaluate this, it appears this governing body does have Earle in their plans,” O’Brien said. “Plan B, perhaps.”

In response to O’Brien’s concerns, Buss said the Township Committee isn’t trying to hide anything, but rather “trying to figure out all the ins and outs” of the housing requirements, which may have led to unintentional contradictions.

“We assess a lot of different opportunities, and I think you [O'Brien] bring up very good points with different avenues with the Navy,” Buss said. “All of these things would come into consideration whether or not we’re looking at a piece of land and putting affordable housing somewhere, whether or not we’re working with the Navy.”

McManus added that Earle is not in the town’s housing plan right now and said that if any affordable housing comes to fruition on that property, it will have to meet the necessary requirements.

"We're in the middle of evaluating what additional strategies we might be able to use to reduce the scope of the durational adjustment," McManus said. "If there's something that can come to fruition there, and there's a client that works well for the township, we'll be able to incorporate it into the plan when all of that's been determined and confirmed."

During the meeting, another resident brought up the Local Leaders for Responsible Planning’s (LLRP) recent decision in Superior Court, which reversed an original requirement that municipalities must have their housing plans reviewed by the Fair Share Housing Center as a condition of filing the plan by June 30.

Though the ruling was considered a win for the LLRP, McManus said it’s a “limited win,” adding that the ruling is less helpful now than it would have been a few months ago.

Following public comment on the plan, the Township Committee unanimously approved a resolution to endorse the 4th Round Housing Element & Fair Share Plan and authorized submission of the plan to the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program.

To see the full 4th Round Housing Element & Fair Share Plan, you can click here.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated with additional information on the durational adjustment.

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