The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Township Estimate Is 91 Units Smaller Than The State’s Non-Binding Recommendation
The Township should accommodate 623 new affordable housing units in the next 10 years, according to a resolution approved by the Township Council at its January 28 meeting.
The Township also agreed that it has an obligation to rehabilitate 268 current affordable units, according to the resolution.
Towns across the state have until January 31 to submit to the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) their resolutions on current and future affordable housing needs, thereby opting in to the state’s new Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program.
Opting into the program protects towns from so-called “builder’s remedy” suits, through which developers can force a residential development on a piece of land that is of higher density than a town’s zoning ordinance would normally allow.
The dispute resolution program was created under a bill enacted last year that updates the methodology used in determining towns’ fair share obligation as mandated by the Mount Laurel decisions from the 1970s and 1980s.
Even though the state generated estimated current and future obligations, towns were allowed to deviate from them, provided they used the same methodology as the state.
In passing the resolution, the Council endorsed an analysis of the state’s recommendation provided by Mark Healey, the Township’s principal planner.
In his report, Healey agreed with the DCA’s estimate that 268 current affordable units needed to be rehabilitated. The evidence used by the state, he wrote, could not be readily disputed.
Healey wrote that the DCA based its calculations on Census data and municipal-reported tax assessment data, both of which, he wrote, “are difficult to challenge.”
The DCA’s non-binding estimate that the Township needed to provide for 714 new affordable units, however, is a different story, he wrote. That number is the highest in Somerset County, and in the top 15 statewide.
Prospective need was partially calculated using “land capacity factor,” which is basically the number of developable acres in Franklin as a percentage of the region’s – Somerset, Middlesex, and Hunterdon counties – developable acres.
“DCA’s calculation of the Township’s Land Capacity Factor contains numerous errors that should be corrected to identify a more accurate determination of the Township’s fair share of regional need,” Healey wrote.
DCA calculated a total of nearly 473 developable acres on 201 parcels of land, Healey wrote.
“I have reviewed each of the 201 ‘developable’ areas identified by the DCA and have evaluated
whether each should be included towards the Township’s “land capacity factor” consistent with
the methodology outlined in the bill and consistent with the analysis employed by the DCA.” he wrote. “This evaluation was based on my knowledge of the Township as the Township’s planner for nearly 20
years and was based on several factors including but not necessarily limited to an evaluation of:
ownership and use; Township tax maps and tax data; up-to-date satellite imagery; development approval status.”
Healey said he broke the parcels into three categories: those which should be included in the Township’s land capacity factor, those which should not, and those which partially should be included.
Healey wrote that reasons for exclusion included:
- Open space or farmland preserved by the Township, County or State;
- A number of sites that have received recent development approval or have been recently
developed; - Detention basin sites;
- Within developed sites that do not significantly exceed required lot area;
- Preserved open space;
- Open space areas of cluster subdivisions;
- Utility easements
Several areas were considered to be partially developable, Healey wrote, because “one area encompassed two tax lots – one which was the subject of a recent development approval while the potion of the area in the other was included in the “developable’ acreage; and a recent Township-acquired site (where the portion funded by Township open space funds was excluded from the “developable” acreage, while the remainder was included).”
“The evaluation described above indicates that the total “developable” acreage that should be
counted towards the Township’s “land capacity factor” is 226.09 acres,” Healey wrote. “These changes result in an adjusted municipal Prospective Need of 623 units for Franklin.”
Under the law, objectors have until February 28 to lodge their challenges to the Township’s plan. Any challenges have to be resolved by March 31.
The Township then has until June 30 to develop a Fair Share housing plan that will cover 2025 to 2035. The deadline for filing challenges to the Fair Share housing plans is August 31.
Franklin has had one of the more robust affordable housing plans in the state.
“Our efforts as far as affordable housing go back to 1986,” Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said. “Franklin Township has been answering the call for affordable housing since then.”
“We were doing it before most towns even were talking about it,” Mayor Phil Kramer said.
“Some towns try to block it because they don’t want ‘certain people’ coming into that town,” Kramer said. “But we have all those certain people already, we welcome them, and we’re proud to have them and proud to build this affordable housing. The drawback is that sometimes you have to build a lot of marketplace houses to get the affordable housing in and that means more development.”
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