EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — Mayor Brad Cohen defended the township's handling of its affordable housing obligations and pushed back on criticism of the administration's transparency during a township council meeting, arguing the process behind a pending Brunswick Square Mall redevelopment plan has been open to the public for years.
Cohen said the township has held town halls on affordable housing for a decade, at schools, houses of worship and other community locations, and that planning, zoning and redevelopment agency meetings have all had open sessions with publicly available agendas.
"I don't think it's fair to say that we have not been upfront with the public, and that there's ample opportunities for people to have asked questions," Cohen said.
Cohen said most of the housing currently being built in the township stems from third-round affordable housing obligations approved under a previous Republican-controlled council, and criticized an unnamed candidate running for township council this year — a former judge and former council member — for now opposing redevelopment after previously ruling on similar issues from the bench.
"He, of all people, of all people in this room today, is the only person that could have changed anything because he was a superior court judge," Cohen said, adding that all New Jersey municipalities are acting under state Supreme Court mandates dating to the 1975 Mount Laurel decision.
Cohen said East Brunswick's current affordable housing obligation is 296 units, about half of what similarly sized towns such as South Brunswick and Old Bridge were assigned, which he attributed to the township's Community Housing Corporation, established decades ago. He also pushed back on the idea that affordable housing units are comparable to Section 8 housing, saying most require applicants to have a minimum income, generally starting around $70,000 for moderate units.
On the financial mechanics of the mall redevelopment, Cohen said PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) programs offer developers a tax discount only on the value of improvements to a property, not on the underlying land, and said school districts continue to receive their share of land-based taxes as well as any voter-approved levies regardless of a PILOT agreement.
He said the township is legally barred from directing PILOT revenue toward school districts' ongoing operating expenses, but can contribute to capital projects, citing recent township-funded work on a parking lot at Warnsdorfer Elementary School and new bathrooms at the high school football field.
Cohen also disputed characterizations that East Brunswick schools are overcrowded, saying district enrollment has hovered between 8,100 and 8,300 for the past 20 years, down from nearly 9,100 when his children graduated in the mid-2000s.
Council president Dana Zimbicki asked Cohen to clarify that the decision on which capital projects to fund with PILOT revenue was made in coordination with the school district, not unilaterally by the township.
The mall property, which the township council has previously discussed as part of a redevelopment plan tied to a Sept. 30 court-ordered deadline, would add up to 250 residential units, 20 percent of which would be set aside as affordable housing.
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