Hardyston officials race to develop plan to meet COAH obligations

HARDYSTON-The mayor and council met to continue their discussion with planning board members about the best way for the township to meet its obligation to provide affordable housing for families with low or moderate incomes. With a state-mandated deadline approaching in December, the council and planning board took the unprecedented step of holding joint meetings to share their expertise. A new subcommittee composed of councilmen and planning board members is meeting to study the alternatives. In addition, Hardyston officials have been spurred to settle their COAH-obligation plans by the news that Nouvelle Associates, a Sparta development company, has gone to court to seek a "builder's remedy" to add 65 affordable apartments to a wide-sweeping development plan in Lafayette. The builder is charging Lafayette with failure to meet its obligation to provide affordable housing. The township has not built a single COAH unit since the program went into effect 18 years ago. Hardyston Planning Board attorney Tom Collins said, "We have to find a way to comply with COAH regulations by Dec. 6, so that we are never in the position of being sued." "It's very difficult to accept the COAH mandate, but please be aware that the housing generated in this way isn't federally subsidized; it isn't like the failed housing project experiments of the 1960s. "Families eligible for COAH housing not only have to be eligible, they also have to have the capability to buy the house and pay the fees and taxes," said Collins. Collins added that COAH units should not have a detrimental effect upon the market value of nearby housing units, explaining that the housing must be built to standards just as high as, if not higher than, the market-rate houses in the same development. "Don't go in with a total fear about the effect of COAH on Hardyston. It's hard and it's frustrating, but there is no way out except for compliance," Collins added. The township's current obligation stands at 243 units, and is based on a study of housing already being developed, as well as development patterns in the township as projected over the next 10 years. For every eight housing units built, an obligation of one COAH unit is generated. Commercial properties also generate COAH obligations that are linking to their use and square footage. The law allows the township to divide the obligatory housing units as follows: 50 percent may be farmed out to other receiving municipalities as Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs); 25 percent may be rental units; 50 percent may be age restricted; and 50 percent must be affordable to low-income families. Among the options Hardyston is exploring is shifting 50 percent of the obligation to other municipalities via RCAs at a cost of $35,000 per unit. The funds, which would be generated by a builder's payment of a percentage of the market value of each housing unit constructed, must be placed in Housing Trust Fund. But, according to Collins, the township must demonstrate that it has in hand or soon will have sufficient funds money to pay the full amount for each unit being transferred. Without the funds, the township would have to issue a bond. "That scares me," said Collins. "I definitely think you should use some RCAs, but it would cost real dollars up front." Other options include instituting a rent-subsidy, buy-down program; forming partnerships with nonprofit organizations that would build and maintain low to moderate cost housing; constructing age-restricted housing for sale or rent by moderate or low-persons; and creating tax incentives or high-density development bonuses.