Land for COAH plan selected

BY AUBRIE GEORGE | The Moorestown Sun

Council has decided to include a portion of Wesley Bishop Park in Moorestown’s affordable housing plan.

After a special meeting held last week, Council gave township staff direction to construct a letter of response to the state Council On Affordable Housing. The response will amend Moorestown’s COAH plan by adding a portion of the park on North Church Street to the list of sites for construction of new affordable housing units.

The parcel, which officials described as the flag football field, consists of roughly six acres of the approximately 60-acre park and is already zoned to build residential property, township officials said.

Council members said they would include the portion of the land in the amended COAH plan, but hoped they wouldn’t have to build on it.

COAH rejected the township’s request to rehabilitate apartments on Beech Street for credits toward their affordable housing obligations, leaving Moorestown’s COAH plan, which was submitted last December, at least 18 units short.

In addition, engineering studies conducted by residents of the Wexfield neighborhood suggest a portion of land at the Maybury tract, which the township purchased for affordable housing in the late 1980s along with the Nagle tract, may not be developable.

Council originally hoped to build 180 units on the Maybury and Nagle tracts to count toward its 412-unit obligation under the state’s third round COAH rules. The state requires those obligations be met by 2018.

Council is waiting for a definitive answer from the Department of Environmental Protection as to how much of the Maybury tract can actually be built on.

Council has been racing against a Dec. 15 deadline to submit an amended plan to COAH. Council members have said they fully intend to meet that deadline and comply with COAH obligations to avoid consequences such as a builder’s remedy lawsuit.

“We are committed to meeting our deadline and protecting our township,” Mayor Dan Roccato said at last week’s meeting.

The township doesn’t anticipate having to actually build any new construction units for at least a year. The plan, however, must outline the full build-out in order to be certified, Director of Community Development Tom Ford said.

Township officials said the portion of Wesley Bishop Park is big enough to build 68 units, should the DEP deem that none of the Maybury tract is developable.

Council had reviewed at least 20 sites since January to find space for building affordable housing units, but at last week’s meeting, Council said using land the township already owned was optimal.

“The biggest advantage that this particular course of action is that, while so many things are up in air, this particular option doesn’t require us to spend any more money,” Deputy Mayor John Button said.

Moorestown is one of several municipalities that are part of a lawsuit that challenges the legality of the current COAH third round obligations.

Oral arguments for that case will be heard on Dec. 1, township officials said.

Council said the township would work to identify space for any displaced fields at Wesley Bishop Park that might occur.

In the plan, Council is required to include an implementation schedule, which outlines the order the tracts of land will be built on. Council said that order would be Nagle, then Maybury, followed by Wesley Bishop Park — if it is needed.

A few residents voiced concern that Maybury and Nagle are located too close together — both are on the eastern end of town, close to the township’s border with Mount Laurel. That proximity would produce a higher volume of people that could require school redistricting and could also cause traffic problems in the area, residents said.

Some residents thought the tracts of land included in the plan were located too far from retail facilities, medical facilities and public transportation. Others voiced opinions that’s affordable housing should be more spread throughout the town.

While Roccato said Council thought that spreading affordable housing units throughout the town would be ideal, it would be nearly impossible to spread out such a high volume of units.

Councilman Greg Gallo reminded residents who were concerned about COAH to voice their concerns at the state level.

“The fight is not here, in this room, among us,” Gallo said. “This fight is in Trenton and that is where we should direct out energies if we don’t like the rules.”

Council took no formal action at Monday’s meeting, but said they would formalize their decision made during the next regular action meeting, which is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the William Allen Middle School.