Change Made In Affordable Housing Plans For Nagle Tract

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Moorestown will no longer seek to put 100 percent low and moderate income housing for the Nagle Tract on Hartford Road, Moorestown Mayor Stacey Jordan announced during Monday night’s council meeting at town hall. Instead, the township will seek to put a mix of low, moderate and average income homes on the property that has long been earmarked for affordable housing.

“One of our litigators approached us and has offered us an alternative site that will allow us to not need to build 100 percent affordable housing on the Nagle Tract,” Jordan said at the beginning of the meeting.

Officials were unable to identify the additional site, and litigation in the case is ongoing. The announcement came following a closed session in which council discussed affordable housing issues. Later in the meeting, Moorestown Council unanimously approved a resolution rejecting 12 bids it received related to a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) it previously put out for a proposed low and moderate income housing project on that site.

Since the RFQ was issued in September, members of the public who live in the area have spoken out against putting affordable housing units on that property, saying there were other properties in town that were more suitable. They have also become frustrated with the lack of information being shared with the public. Officials have said they can’t share more information because of the litigation.

However, at least one resident wasn’t happy with Monday night’s announcement.

“I think the Nagle Tract should stay for what it was 30 years ago,” resident Kathy Sutherland said.

Sutherland said that the Nagle Tract was earmarked for affordable housing 30 years ago, at a time when the area surrounding it was mostly farmland. However, she said Moorestown has evolved since then. There are now homes where empty land once stood, and the dynamic of the entire area has changed.

“There are people opposing this now who never even heard of Moorestown 30 years ago,” Sutherland said.

She also claimed that there are no low and moderate income homes east of Westfield Road, but there are about 1,000 on the other side of the township. She would like to see affordable housing spread more widely through the township.

“I think one of the things the town has done extremely well is mix affordable housing,” Deputy Mayor Manny Delgado said, adding that every affordable housing plan Moorestown has considered has done that. “One thing we didn’t want to do was stigmatize this site.”

When the Council On Affordable Housing (COAH) was disbanded earlier this decade, the number of required Affordable Housing units in municipalities statewide came into dispute. Moorestown's requirement remains unknown. It has filed a declaratory judgment action with the superior court of Burlington County to settle the dispute. Fair Share Housing Center has since entered that dispute as an intervenor.

Moorestown Council will hold another closed session meeting at town hall on Monday night, Jan. 29, 5:30 p.m. to discuss affordable housing. Formal action will not be taken, according to the advertisement for the meeting. A public meeting to discuss the issue will be held at a later date, possibly in February, officials said at Monday night’s meeting.

Patch file photo