Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Housing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Mayor urges council to adopt 392-unit affordable-housing obligation after DCA adjustments; council approves resolution
Summary
The township adopted a resolution setting West Windsor's Round 4 affordable-housing obligation at 392 units after local planners and the assessor corrected DCA inputs that had produced a higher initial number.
The West Windsor Township Council on Jan. 27 adopted a resolution recording the township's present-and-prospective fair-share obligation for Round 4 of New Jersey affordable-housing law as 392 units, a figure the mayor and township planners said reflects corrections and local analysis of the Division of Community Affairs (DCA) calculation.
The mayor outlined the process by which the DCA initially assigned West Windsor a substantially higher number and described steps the township took to revise the inputs. "The DCA did analysis of these factors and came up with a prospective need number of 6 61 and present need number of 61 units for West Windsor," the mayor said during an extended presentation. He said township staff and the municipal assessor found errors in the DCA's equalized nonresidential valuation factor and, most significantly, in the land-capacity calculation, which had included the Atlantic Realty/Bridgepoint warehouse site as developable land. After removing that and other parcels from the DCA list of developable acreage, the township's planner calculated developable land area as about 177.5 acres rather than the 777.862 acres used by DCA. That revision, the mayor and planner said, reduced the town's obligation to 392 units.
Council members thanked the administration and planners for a detailed review and described the analysis as defensible and driven by data. Councilmember Dan and others noted the DCA performed statewide work on a tight schedule and invited municipalities to review and correct local inputs. Several council members said further steps remain: the township will conduct a vacant-land analysis (VLA) to determine realistic development potential and then prepare a fair-share housing plan and implementing ordinances; that VLA was expected to be completed in coming months with a target of June 30 for additional filings.
The mayor emphasized that adopting the resolution before Jan. 31 was necessary to preserve immunity from builder's-remedy litigation under the new A-4 process and to preserve the township's control over zoning choices. He also said the township retains the right to conduct the VLA and adjust the obligation later before submitting the final plan to the court. "Once the council adopts the resolution, our attorney will petition the court to give us immunity from builder's remedy lawsuits," he said.
Council members discussed possible credits and future adjustments that the law allows (for conversions, age-restricted housing and other credits) and acknowledged a possibility for additional reductions after the vacant-land analysis. County- and region-level allocation formulas, the mayor said, grouped Mercer County with Monmouth and Ocean counties; that grouping affected West Windsor's numbers because those counties have different valuation characteristics.
In public comment, residents and board representatives praised the township's thoroughness in checking DCA inputs and urged the council to adopt a defendable number. The council subsequently approved the resolution recorded as R049 on the agenda.
No final zoning or development decisions were made at the meeting; the resolution records the township's present-and-prospective obligation under A-4 and initiates the next formal steps required by state law.
