Clark Township planning board approves formal amendment to fourth-round housing and fair share plan

At a reopened Clark Township Planning Board meeting Feb. 2, members voted unanimously to approve a formal amendment to the township's fourth-round housing and fair share plan after an overview from the township planner.

"This is actually a formal amendment of your housing plan," the township planner said, adding that the board must vote on the amendment in full and acknowledge that vote through its resolution. The planner said the amendment is a product of the township's mediation agreement with the Fair Share Housing Center and that the town's plan was "largely validated" through that process.

The changes the planner described were largely reallocations of the township's previous round-3 requirements. The planner said one prior site (the JAC site where a CVS was built) had to be removed from the obligated sites list, and a temple site near Valley Road School remained listed in the mediation agreement even though the affordable-housing plan did not recognize it, requiring adjustments to the plan's appendices and allocations.

The planner said the reallocation produced a one-unit shortfall tied to the round-3 obligation; the township agreed to work with a provider to add an extra bedroom in a group home to meet that shortfall. For the round-4 submission, the planner said there were no substantive changes to site allocations tied to the amendment itself.

A central technical change was a vacant-land adjustment: the planner said the township presented additional information showing realistic development potential of certain vacant parcels was 0 units, which led to a reduction in the township's counted obligation in places where that adjustment applied. The planner noted that the township's round-4 obligation had been 166 units prior to that adjustment.

The planner also described updates to the township spending plan that governs use of development-fee revenue collected into a local trust fund. On the advice of the township's affordable-housing attorney, the amendment proposes lowering the affordability-assistance allocation from 30% to 20% of monies collected before the township may expend those funds on first-month rent assistance and other affordability programs.

The planner asked permission to make minor textual edits for clarity and consistency, including standardizing references to the Clarkton Shopping Center and the Polish Cultural Center in the summary table; the presiding member granted that permission.

The board opened the floor for public comment; seeing no speakers, members closed public comment and moved immediately to a vote on the plan and associated resolution. A roll-call vote recorded the following "yes" votes: Mayor Albanese; Mr. Ulrich; Mr. Koch; Mr. Altman; Mr. Thornburg; Mr. Gregg; Mr. Grumpyowski; and Mr. Groszner. The presiding member declared the plan approved.

After the vote the presiding member moved to adjourn; the motion was seconded and the meeting was adjourned.

What happens next: The planner said staff would update the plan text to reflect the agreed edits and finalize the materials connected to the mediation agreement and the vacant-land adjustment. The amendment and its documentation will stand as the board's formal action on the fourth-round plan.