Veteran Affordable Housing Complex In Gloucester Twp. Approved

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ - Gloucester Township Council gave the final stamp of approval to a proposed senior affordable housing complex for veterans in the Lakeland Redevelopment Zone Monday night.

Township Council unanimously approved a proposed ordinance that would permit the township to sell a portion of the complex at 401 Turnersville Road to the Gloucester Township Housing Authority at its meeting Monday night.

The land would be designated as veteran senior housing and/or family affordable housing, and counted toward satisfying the township's obligation to build add 1,014 affordable housing units by 2025.

The Fair Share Housing Council agrees with the township’s proposal, so the township wanted to put their experts at the housing authority in charge of marketing and help developing the project, Township Solicitor David Carlamere said.

The fund is made up of money collected from other developments in the township. In every residential development, 1.5 percent is collected from each individual home by ordinance. In commercial developments, 2.5 percent is collected from each commercial unit.

The sale price is $892,000, and the township would use money from its affordable housing trust fund. Proceeds from the sale will go into the township’s general fund, Carlamere said.

The property is exempt from taxes, and will remain so after the sale, Carlamere said.

The township is required to add 1,014 affordable housing units by 2025 under its third round obligations, according to information previously provided by Business Administrator Tom Cardis. It has already met its prior round obligation of 359 units, and is in the process of rehabilitating 135 units by 2025, Cardis said.

To meet its third round obligation, the township is implementing zoning changes that will allow it to build affordable housing in the township, Cardis said.

The obligation is set forth by the Superior Court. Affordable housing was formerly overseen by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) after the state Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for any town to zone in a way that made it impossible to build affordable housing in that town in 1975.

COAH set quotas for each town under the Fair Housing Act in the 1980s, and towns fulfilled their obligations over multiple rounds. However, COAH stopped acting on its oversight obligations in the late 1990s.

The number of required affordable housing units in municipalities statewide has been in dispute, and often in litigation, since 1999. In 2015, authority concerning setting affordable housing requirements for municipalities throughout the state fell on the courts. Municipalities often reach agreements for the number of affordable units they need to build before a decision is handed down by the courts.