By Chris Rotolo
LITTLE SILVER – The governing body took steps to acquire a Birch Avenue property during its March 14 meeting, but left the borough some wiggle room for the future of the parcel.
In a March 8 interview with The Two River Times, Mayor Robert Neff revealed a broad strokes plan to add a .69-acre parcel at 43 Birch Ave. to the borough’s affordable housing inventory.
On Monday, Neff led a public hearing on the proposed ordinance, which drew mixed reviews from nearby property owners. However, a thoughtful decision by the borough council to bond for the entire $500,000 expenditure, rather than pull a portion – $310,000 – from the municipality’s affordable housing trust fund as originally proposed, could serve as a security measure if future development plans are not in the community’s best interest.
“The reason we’re bonding for it now is so we can maintain flexibility with the property,” explained council member Michael E. Holzapfel, who said that any property purchased with money from the affordable housing trust fund must be earmarked for an affordable housing project.
“Once the funds are expended for this property, we want to know, as we get closer, whether or not it makes sense to keep it. If we’re bonding for it, we can always dispose of the property and sell it. As long as we’re bonding for it, we’ll have the ability to pay ourselves back,” Holzapfel added.
The parcel and its accompanying single-family home only recently became available to the borough after a pending sale failed to come out of attorney review. Neff said when the opportunity arose, the borough moved quickly to open discussions with the property owner.
“In terms of affordable housing, there really aren’t any other available properties in the borough that met our criteria of being in an overlay zone, that don’t exceed $460,000 in price, and are within walking distance to the train station,” Neff said.
In August 2018, Little Silver settled an affordable housing agreement with a realistic development potential in town of 21 units. The borough’s court-approved affordable housing plan has already resolved 11 of those credits.
The remaining 10 credits have been resolved by a pair of ordinances adopted the same year, which allows the owners of larger properties to construct ancillary apartments dedicated to lower-income residents, in addition to establishing overlay zones in specific locations around the municipality.
Neff said that the affordable housing agreement satisfied Little Silver’s third-round obligation, but noted that July 2025 begins the fourth round, in which borough land will once again be assessed, creating the potential for additional credits to be levied.
“This property would be another arrow in our quiver to deal with this obligation, which is why we’re not in a rush to create a plan for it,” Neff said. “We’re not talking about a high-rise with 80 units. But, it’s fair to say, we’d like to see something with two or three units go there, because that means more credits than a single-family home. A duplex can still resemble a single-family home. Whatever would go there would not be a blight on the neighborhood.”
The mayor added that local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations like Habitat for Humanity and HABcore have both contacted the borough about potential partnerships for the development of the property, as well as a private building company.
Holzapfel said he was torn regarding the future of the property and the part it may, or may not, play in round four. 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.
“Part of me doesn’t want to get pushed around by Trenton or a private developer,” Holzapfel said. “Part of me wants to rely on our plan that was approved. Let’s sit on it and let them come back to us in 2025. It’s a risk. But it’s an option I’ve thought about. If there’s a lawsuit, there’s a lawsuit, and we would deal with it. But I wouldn’t be doing my job to put the community at that sort of risk.”
The borough council introduced the $500,000 bond ordinance Monday, and will hold a public hearing during its March 28 meeting, when the measure will be put to a vote.
The article originally appeared in the March 17 – 23, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
