With Problems Meeting State Mandate, Borough Tables Affordable Housing Code

Matthew Hersh

Forseeing obstacles to meeting stringent state codes mandating new levels of affordable housing, Princeton Borough Council decided to table, for now, an ordinance that aims to bring the municipality up to code with those requirements.

The ordinance, which had been recommended to the Council by the Borough's Affordable Housing Board two weeks ago, is the latest step in attempting to satisfy a demanding code.

The state's Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) has set forth its "third round" policies that require municipalities throughout the state to meet affordable housing needs by way of job growth, and square-footage in new development. For market-rate residential units, one affordable unit must be provided for every eight units built. In the non-residential component of the COAH mandates, for every 25 jobs created in new development, one affordable unit must be built. COAH provides a formula based on square-footage that determines how many jobs are created.

Also coming into play is the estimated growth share of potential residential and nonresidential construction. COAH has also calculated a municipality's rehabilitation obligation for older affordable units like those found in Franklin and Maple Terrace on Franklin Avenue near Witherspoon Street.

When issues of the town's "unmet need" are raised, the problem is that the Borough's land is mostly built upon. In 1990, at the onset of COAH's first round on affordable housing, Mount Laurel I, COAH had handed down an estimate declaring the Borough's precredited housing need, based on the Borough's share of the region's population and employment, at 527 affordable units.

Borough officials went to court.

"We said 'that's impossible'," said Marvin Reed, who was Borough Council president at the time. Princeton Township and West Windsor Township, he said, which have similar populations to, and more land than, the Borough, received lower requirements from the state. At the time, the COAH formula was based on 50 percent population, and 50 percent employment. The state received their numbers from the Department of labor, which, as was later revealed, applied all of the numbers in the 08540 zip code: an area that stretched far beyond municipal lines.

Some of the Borough's assigned responsibility, Mr. Reed said, should be reassigned to Princeton Township, West Windsor Township, and Plainsboro Township. But when COAH balked at that suggestion, the Borough decided that it would initially forego COAH certification and would fight the determination through litigation.

A Superior Court judge later deemed the Borough as "extremely limited" in areas of vacant land for Mount Laurel-type housing that sets aside 20 percent of its space for affordable units for moderate income people. The Borough received an adjusted share of 123 units, "notwithstanding the pre-credited need of 527 units."

At the time, the Borough received credit for 88 units completed in 1983 at Elm Court, and the court approved the plan for housing either built or underway on Hamilton Avenue, John Street, Clay Street, Maclean Street, and Shirley Court.

When all was said and done, the adjusted obligation for the Borough's affordable housing requirement was 34 units. "I consider 34 to have been the unmet need that we agreed to in 1990, and I believe we fulfilled that," Mr. Reed said.

The Borough had to revisit the issue in 1996 when COAH handed down its Mount Laurel II requirements. This time, the state council used a different formula, but it came up with a precredited need of 348 cumulative units for the Borough, covering a 12-year period, retroactive from 1987 to 1999. "It was a little bit less, but it was still out of the question," said Mr. Reed, who, at that point, was mayor.

The Borough, again, went to court, and, again received a vacant land adjustment to 37 units, down from 348.

As it has over the years, the Borough is again grappling with the specter of an "unmet need" based on a formula that does not necessarily apply.

COAH has again specified that the Borough build the aforementioned 348 units from the 1996 requirements, on top of an anticipated 96 units (25 percent must be rental), as calculated by the Borough, to meet the third round requirements over the next 10 years.

Despite what the court had previously said, COAH wants to hold the Borough accountable for what it had determined was the town's fair share of affordable housing in 1990 and 1996. Currently, the Borough has its own overlay zoning ordinance that requires one out of five multifamily housing units to be affordable, prompting the state council to count any affordable housing units created under that part of the ordinance to be included toward that unmet need.

The Borough has a rehabilitation requirement of 27 units, according to Shirley Bishop, an affordable housing consultant. 13 rehabilitated units have been completed so far, with two units anticipated for full rehab by the end of the year, leaving the town with 12 units to be refurbished by 2014.

COAH, according to Ms. Bishop, is staying the course. "If you had a vacant land adjustment, and you had an unmet need requirement, you must maintain the unmet need requirement as part of your certification to keep everything valid."

Ms. Bishop added that COAH "understands" that because of land limitations, the Borough will "probably" never meet the original requirements given to the town. However, COAH will require that the Borough's affordable housing overlay zone be maintained.

At the moment a fair share plan, an implementation of the growth share obligation, "is a work in progress," Ms. Bishop said. "I think for now we'll leave it at that," adding that "hopefully," there will be a fair share plan available for Borough Council in the coming months.

An affordable housing plan is due to the state in December.