By Chris Rotolo
LITTLE SILVER – Four years after the borough’s affordable housing plan was approved by the courts, the governing body has identified a new Birch Avenue parcel for inclusion in its inventory.
During a Feb. 28 meeting, the borough council introduced its intention to appropriate $500,000 for the acquisition of a residential property at 43 Birch Ave., including $310,000 from the municipality’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund and an additional bond of $190,000.
“To potentially help us meet future affordable housing requirements, our plan is to acquire the property and look for a partner to help us build housing that would be targeted toward United States military veterans, or developmentally challenged individuals, or individuals with qualifying low and moderate incomes,” Mayor Robert Neff told The Two River Times.
Neff said the nearly half-acre property resides outside the purview of the borough’s affordable housing plan, an agreement that was settled in August 2018. The borough also adopted zoning ordinances that established overlay zones around specific Little Silver sites, including:
• Little Silver Tennis Club, 100 Birch Ave: 9 residential units per acre;
• NJ Transit Train Station Parking Lot, Oceanport Ave: 15 residential units per acre;
• Intersection of Oceanport and Eastview avenues: 11 residential units per acre;
• Intersection of Birch and Branch streets: 11 residential units per acre;
• Builders’ General, 15 Sycamore Ave: 13 residential units per acre;
• Prospect Avenue P2 Zone District, across from fire station: 9 residential units per acre;
• Wicker Rose Property, 1 Sycamore Ave: 11 residential units per acre.
“Our plan was blessed by the courts. The overlay zones were one aspect of our plan. Another aspect allowed larger properties in town to be zoned for residents to build accessory apartments that would be deed restricted to low- and moderate-income residents,” Neff said. “The plan did not include a piece like this.”
Located near the Branch Avenue and Sycamore Avenue business district, 43 Birch Ave. is situated in the R-3 residential zone across the street from a row of office buildings and commercial parking lots. It also sits between two neighboring residential properties.
In June 2021, a similar project was announced in nearby Middletown, where the township committee acquired a plot of land on Leonardville Road in the B-1 business district across from a Carvel ice cream parlor.
Middletown’s governing body plans to construct a three-story, 21,660-sqaure-foot, multifamily dwelling strictly dedicated to housing up to 12 veterans and their families.
Neff said the borough council is still too early in the process to have a complete plan in place, but noted the goal of an acquisition and development project like this is to ensure future compliance with Little Silver’s affordable housing requirements while remaining in control of how those requirements are fulfilled.
“I think it’s an interesting opportunity for our community, which doesn’t often present itself, because properties in Little Silver move so quickly. But it’s an opportunity for us to do a good thing, keep us in compliance, and presumably maintain our immunity from builder’s remedy,” Neff said.
As per the New Jersey Legislature’s Fair Housing Act of 1985, a builder’s remedy lawsuit describes an occurrence in which a developer files suit to have a specific piece of property – chosen by the builder – rezoned to allow for the opportunity to construct housing at higher densities than a municipality would otherwise allow.
Builder’s remedy lawsuits may only be filed if a municipality has not adopted a court-approved affordable housing plan, or if it is declared that a community is not in compliance with its approved plan.
The borough council will open the floor for public comment regarding the proposed acquisition during its March 14 meeting.
The article originally appeared in the March 10 – 16, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
