Howell Planners OK Long-Controversial Affordable Housing Project

HOWELL, NJ — It was only fitting that the final hearing on the Howell Family Apartments dragged on past midnight Thursday night before the Howell Township Planning Board finally voted.

"This has been a long 2-1/2 years," said former mayor William Gotto, who introduced the motion to approve the site plan for the 72-unit affordable housing apartment complex on West Farms Road. The project was approved 6-0, with four board members absent.

Even the motion to approve was dragged out. A request from Vice Chairman Brian Tannenhaus, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of Chairman Robert Nash, led to silence as board members looked to each other to see who would be the one to offer it.

Tannenhaus, Gotto, Mayor Theresa Berger, Deputy Mayor Robert Nicastro, Nicholas Huszar and Thomas Boyle voted to approve. In addition to Nash, Police Chief Andrew J. Kudrick Jr., Thomas Russo and Paul Schneider all had excused absences, Board Secretary Eileen Rubano said.

The vote came over the objections of attorney Ronald S. Gasiorowski and several residents, after Gasiorowski raised questions about a letter from Robert H. Lewis, chief of the township's Fire Safety Bureau about the width of the traffic lanes in the apartment complex.

Gasiorowski, who represents resident John Bonevich in ongoing litigation over the project, insisted that language in Lewis's letter presented serious safety concerns about the ability to fight a fire if one occurs in the complex, which would consist of nine two-story apartment buildings, a community center and a maintenance building. The $21 million complex planned by the Walters Group would be 100 percent affordable housing, which Howell residents have balked at in spite of state court rulings that say every town must provide a percentage of housing for low- and moderate-income residents.

John Giunco, the attorney representing Walters Group at the hearing, said he interpreted Lewis's comments on the width of the travel lanes — 24 feet wide, which complies with New Jersey's Residential Site Improvement Standards requirements — as a pushback against the RSIS standards and not as a rejection of the proposal.

"Our project is safe and it was designed safely," Giunco said.

Gasoriowski pushed for the board to delay action and subpoena Lewis to testify on the letter, but prior to the vote, Nicastro said it was unnecessary.

"That (Lewis's criticism of the RSIS width) is a standard statement," Nicastro said."It comes up in every application."

"If he was truly concerned that this was a safety issue, he would be here," said Gotto, who is the assistant chief of the Ramtown Fire Company.

Gasiorowski and several residents also questioned whether the community room and maintenance building were permitted in a residential zone or should be considered commercial uses, but engineer Laura Neumann said the additional buildings were considered customary uses in apartment projects.

The project has been the lightning rod of the affordable housing debate in Howell, and one resident cited the hearing last April, where township officials laid out a number of possible plans to meet what Andrew Bayer, Howell's affordable housing attorney, told the Asbury Park Press could be as much as 1,000 units. One unit is equal to one credit unless the unit is in a development that's all affordable housing, in which case it's two credits, and Bayer has estimated Howell will need between 322 and 550 credits to add to roughly 450 already in existence.

"What is the rush to approve this when we don't have the COAH numbers," the man said, urging the board to hold off until the state courts finalize the number of units Howell is required to provide under the Fair Housing Act. The numbers have been tied up as a result of the Council on Fair Housing providing no guidance to towns for years, resulting in a court battle across the state. A number of towns and counties have reached settlements on the issue, but many in Monmouth County, including Howell, have not.

Planning Board attorney Ronald Cucchiaro, who cautioned the board on several occasions about discussions regarding perceptions of fire safety issues and the use qusestion, said the complex was a needed piece of the township's affordable housing plan.

"The board's job is to see if the proposed plans satisfy the ordinances," Cucchiaro said. "This property is required for our Mount Laurel obligation. There is an ordinance on the books (designating) that site as 100 percent affordable housing." Afterward residents said the ordinance exists because the township "did it backwards."

"They did the zoning (ordinance) for the project," one woman said.

"I have looked for every possible reason to deny this," Gotto said. "There is no justifiable reason for us to turn it down."

Photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff