The following is a message from Hopewell Township:
A Fairness Hearing will be held before Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobsen to determine whether to approve the proposed Affordable Housing settlement for Hopewell Township. This hearing is scheduled for Monday, August 28th, 2017 at 10 AM.
Hopewell Township has reached a settlement with three separate landowners who are interested parties in its Affordable Housing litigation, including two intervenors (see footnote below) and Fair Share Housing Center (FSHC). These agreements follow settlements in other Mercer County towns, including Ewing, Hamilton, Robbinsville, East Windsor and Lawrence, and are intended to help end the litigation that the town has been in, at a trial in Mercer County Superior Court. These settlement agreements are part of a broader Affordable Housing plan that seeks to address Hopewell Township’s present and prospective need in COAH’s third round, which covers the 26 years from 1999 to 2025.
As part of the agreement, the Parties agreed that the Township has a prior round obligation of 520 units (which it has fully met) for the 12-years ending in 1999, and a 26-year third round prospective need and expanded present need obligation of 1,141 units, which is a 35% reduction vs. the uncapped Kinsey number of 1756 units. After credits from prior rounds and anticipated bonus credits, the Township anticipates being responsible for 653 affordable housing units, of which up to 164 may be age-restricted. This includes a new Continuing Care and Rehabilitation Center (CCRC), which will be constructed adjacent to Capital Health and enhance the services offered to Township residents and others in the region.
The Township will have a number of years to fulfill its obligations, and will continue to provide a realistic opportunity for building affordable housing in Hopewell Township by keeping in-place any site-specific zoning adopted or relied upfront in connection with the compliance mechanisms approved as part of this settlement agreement through 2025 and beyond (as needed).
By reaching settlements with all intervenors in sewer-service areas, the Township will have greater control of the development process moving forward and will be immune from Builders Remedy lawsuits which otherwise could be allowed. This is important as Builders Remedy lawsuits would result in unchecked development across the Township.
These settlements have been filed with Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobsen. She will review the proposed settlements, and determine at the fairness hearing whether they meet the court’s requirements. This hearing will be open to the public, intervenors and other interested parties.
Commenting on the proposed settlements, Township Attorney Linda Galella said, “Hopewell Township has worked hard to preserve its rural character and we wanted to ensure that we maintain control of the development process moving forward. This settlement achieves that, and also helps avoid the unchecked development associated with Builders Remedy lawsuits.”
Another consideration with these settlements was the mounting trial costs. The Hopewell Township Committee has been vigorously defending the Township’s interests in this trial and significantly increased its 2017 budget allocation for Affordable Housing. However, each day of the trial has cost the five participating Mercer County municipalities approximately $15,000, split five ways. With Lawrence and East Windsor agreeing to settle in recent months and bowing out of the trial, these costs would now be split amongst the remaining municipalities. An extended appeals process would also be expensive.
Galella added, “Importantly, standard settlement agreements typically provide a provision for reducing a municipality’s obligations and/or giving credit towards future COAH rounds, if either the court or legislature ultimately takes action to reduce the required number of affordable housing units. Hopewell Township will benefit from these decisions, without incurring substantial additional litigation expense.”
Hopewell Township currently has a mix of affordable housing arrangements, including developments with a mix of affordable and market rate units, groups homes, and 100 percent affordable complexes like Project Freedom towards which the township financially contributes.
Footnote: Intervenors are landowners who meet the statutory criteria for properties that could serve as affordable housing sites, and have been granted the right to participate in the judicial process that will determine Hopewell Township’s affordable housing obligation.
Goodbye Hopewell Township as we know it. We had a few hundred years of being a peaceful, rural town, all brought to it’s knees by government regulations. It was a good run while it lasted. Although this decision is somewhat better than what might have happened, with the addition of all those affordable units will come the need for more schools, more services like police, fire, rescue, emergency care, more municipal costs like snow removal, road maintenance, and all the other things we currently pay for. And this will all add up to higher taxes for the people who already live here, not the people who will live in the affordable units. And if you read what the Hopewell papers have published (including the articles published on this website and in the Hopewell Valley News) about the requirements for what the household income can be per year for a family in order to comply with the affordable housing rules, those household incomes are higher than what a lot of people who already live in Hopewell earn! In one article, it said a family of 4 people in Mercer County, at the “median level” could have a household income of $100,000 a year and still be considered for affordable housing and not have to pay their fair share of their property taxes and other expenses! I don’t know about all of you, but my family does not bring in that amount, but we still have to pay full price for everything. And now we will have even less in our pockets as we will soon be required to pay the bills for people who make more money than we do. Nice. If current Hopewell Township residents can prove that they do not have a “median level” household income as high as the guidelines stipulate for the affordable housing, can we then cut our property taxes and other expenses down to the same level and percentages as the people who will be living in the new affordable housing units? Who do we contact about this? If my families household income is less than the family who lives in the affordable unit next to me, please tell me who to call so I can get the same consideration as they have and lower my bills to the same levels they pay. Thanks.