Mount Laurel housing plan filed

By JEREMY ROSEN • Courier-Post Staff • April 1,
2010

While in a legal battle against state affordable
housing mandates, Mount Laurel continues to
spend taxpayer dollars to follow the rules.

The township met its Wednesday deadline by filing
an amended fair share housing plan with state
Superior Court, according to the office of Judge
Michael J. Hogan.

But officials don't know when those plans for 1,143
low- and moderate-income units will move forward.
The plan includes a private developer's 102-unit
affordable housing and commercial proposal for 44
acres off Fellowship Road.

Mount Laurel was required to plan for 1,421
affordable units by 2018 when the state Council on
Affordable Housing drastically increased mandates
in June 2008. In 2006, Judge John A. Sweeney ruled
the township needed to provide just 226 units
through 2014.

Mount Laurel has committed to 839 other units and
is more than 90 percent developed.

Mayor Jim Keenan, who publicly criticized COAH
with Gov. Chris Christie, said the township cannot
afford the affordable housing burden that has
become "big business" for a number of different
parties.

Since 2008, the township has spent more than
$250,000 on affordable housing litigation and
planning costs.

"Lawyers make money fighting or implementing the
rules, planners get to redraw plans for
municipalities when regulations change, architects
and engineers design more units per acre and
developers make more money building more units,
which means they get to develop more market-rate
units in inclusionary plans," Keenan said.

The township council adopted Mount Laurel
Development LLC's Fellowship Road redevelopment
plan on Monday night. That plan proposes building
102 affordable units in 3 1/2-story structures on
6.4 acres of the tract between Church Road and
Beaver Avenue. The rest of the proposal includes
fewer than 120,000 square feet of retail buildings
and a fitness center.

That development company from Bellmawr
assembled the plan over the past five years and is
seeking parking, height and setback variances from
the township and tax abatements. The affordable
units of the proposal are scheduled to be open for
residents by June 2012, but Keenan said a true time
frame is uncertain.

Under COAH, 25 single-family affordable homes
were approved for an area across from Harrington
Middle School as part of Mount Laurel's 1988 plan,
said Keenan, a planning board member. A fair share
housing representative came before the planning
board in February to authorize the construction of
24 of those homes designed with roofs to include
solar panels, he said.

"It's 22 years later," he said. "Now the town wants
townhouses and single-family apartments there to
increase the number of units. If we need the units,
let's build them."