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Haddonfield commissioners table PILOT for The Place at Haddonfield after residents demand access to agreement
Summary
The board postponed final adoption of Ordinance 2024-09, a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) for The Place at Haddonfield, after residents said the agreement was not available for public review; the board moved the item to the Oct. 7 work session for further review.
The Borough of Haddonfield Board of Commissioners on Sept. 23 tabled Ordinance 2024-09, a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) proposed for The Place at Haddonfield, after residents pressed for access to the underlying agreement and asked for comparisons between a PILOT and conventional tax structures.
The board opened the public hearing on the PILOT and took questions from multiple residents. Resident Dave Heuhnergarth asked, “Is it acceptable to move forward on adopting a document without the exhibit that is referenced within said document and why wasn’t it in the document?” The Borough Solicitor replied that a document need only be generally available to the public and that it does not have to include every exhibit at the moment of a vote so long as the commissioners have had an opportunity to review it.
Borough Administrator [title as given in minutes] said the original agreement with Community Investment Strategies, Inc. (CIS) had been signed by a previous board and that, once units are complete, an appraisal will determine value. The administrator also stated that “a PILOT is a State requirement for 100% affordable projects,” language offered as an explanation for the use of a PILOT in this project. Residents questioned how much tax revenue would be forgone under the PILOT; the administrator did not provide a precise foregone-tax figure at the hearing.
Residents continued to press for transparency. Dave Siedell said the agreement being not available for public review meant residents were being asked to approve something they could not examine. Anne Hearing asked who named the project “The Place”; the administrator said the developer did. After public statements and questions, Mayor Bianco Bezich moved to table adoption of Ordinance 2024-09 to the borough’s Oct. 7, 2024, work session; Commissioner Troy seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
What happens next: the ordinance remains on the table until the Oct. 7 work session, when commissioners said they will revisit the item. Residents at the Sept. 23 meeting asked for more complete public access to the agreement before a final vote.
