Residents Organize To Offer Ideas on Affordable Housing

By Allison Perrine | aperrine@tworivertimes.com

The Rumson Open Space and Affordable Housing (ROSAH) nonprofit organization, established in response to Rumson’s affordable housing plan, had its first public meeting March 11.

Members highlighted the group’s accomplishments over the past month and roadmapped what’s to come in the fight to find alternative solutions for affordable housing in Rumson. Down the road, the group hopes to help other towns in New Jersey fight the same fight while protecting the environment, open spaces and historic structures.

About 70 people attended the meeting hosted at the Knights of Columbus building in Fair Haven. Organizers expected more would have attended if it were not for COVID-19 concerns. (Gov. Phil Murphy’s ban on gatherings of more than 50 people to prevent community spread went into effect Monday, March 16.)

Several key points were stressed, especially that ROSAH is for affordable housing, not against it.

“It’s about what they’re doing to our neighborhood…and how they kind of hid overdevelopment of our town under the guise of caring for middle-to low-income families,” said Michael Timpone, a Rumson resident who lives near the proposed housing development site on Rumson Road.

Timpone, an attorney, said he grew up in a family of modest means in Ridgewood. “I get the value of a good education. I don’t think that I’d be here had I not grown up in that town where I saw all these people who were successful, who achieved, who went to college,” he said. “I realized that I can do this if they can do it. And I think that’s what affordable housing is about. It’s about giving people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to excel to get into these kinds of schools that our children are fortunate enough to get into.”

However, while ROSAH supports affordable housing, it claims to be against “high-density luxury developments and bypassing zoning rules with no input from the public.”

“We have to realize that no matter where you are geographically located in Rumson, we are all affected by this. And that’s the school system, it’s traffic, it’s safety, it’s town services, property values, the integrity of our town and its infrastructure,” said resident Stavros Memtsoudis, M.D., who gave the presentation that evening.

“Even if you’re not immediately impacted… this can happen to you tomorrow or 2025, and you should know that at that time, ROSAH is going to be there for you and fight the same fight,” said Memtsoudis.

ROSAH was founded in February after the borough council approved two settlement agreements and plans to meet its state-imposed affordable housing mandates. One settlement was with the Cherry Hill-based Fair Share Housing Center and the other was with Red Bank-based Yellow Brook Property Co., owned by local developer Roger Mumford.

Currently, the borough’s total affordable housing obligation is 603 units. It’s realistic development potential (RDP), however, is 51 units. The remaining obligation, an unmet need of 552, will be addressed with inclusionary overlay zoning and additional ordinances. The inclusionary overlay zoning will allow property owners to keep a property as is or, if they choose, to one day develop multifamily housing with affordable set-asides.

As part of Yellow Brook’s agreement, housing will be constructed on Rumson Road, Bingham Avenue and Carton Street. Mumford will build luxury market-rate units on rezoned areas of Bingham Avenue and Rumson Road. He will also contribute $1.35 million toward the town’s construction of affordable housing at 62 Carton St. Additionally, he will convey his land on Carton Street to the borough.

Since its inception, ROSAH has established a board of trustees, adopted bylaws and committees and applied to the IRS for 501(c)(3) status. It has also defined its strategic goals, interviewed and obtained legal counsel, launched its website and social media platforms and fundraised. Now it is seeking additional supporters, volunteers and donors to help reach an affordable housing plan “better than” the current agreements.

“No one that I have spoken to is against affordable housing. People are frustrated with the process that we’ve gotten no public input, no ability to have communication, even to date,” said resident Donald Devine.

The organization has taken legal actions to pursue its goals, including filing a lawsuit Feb. 28 in state Superior Court. It alleges that the adoption of the resolutions “was arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and contrary to public policy,” because the adoption was done under “substantial duress” by Rumson.

Additionally, on March 5, ROSAH filed its objection to the Rumson Housing Settlements. Working with engineers and planning reports, they found that the borough’s settlement agreements “conflict with the intent of the Mount Laurel doctrine, are inconsistent with the Borough’s master plan documents, and incompatible with sound planning principles,” according to the ROSAH website.

“Based on the findings of its experts, ROSAH argued that the settlement agreements should not receive court approval because they are not fair to the interests of low and moderate-income households and fail to provide a realistic likelihood of construction that is affordable to such households.”

Now members await the Fairness Hearing at the Monmouth County Courthouse in Freehold, currently scheduled for March 26. They are encouraging people in the meantime to write letters to Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Linda Grasso Jones objecting to the borough’s settlement agreements as well as state legislators and department of environmental protection members, and to contact the borough council.

This article originally appeared in the March 19, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.