Large Numbers Cancel Another Affordable Housing Hearing

COURT HOUSE – They unlocked the doors a little before 6:30 p.m. In ten minutes, there were nearly 50 people in the meeting room at Middle Township Hall. By 6:50 p.m., the 120-person room was packed to capacity and township employees were keeping dozens of people lined in the hallway and about 60 more pooled on the sidewalk of South Boyd Street for the 7 p.m. zoning board meeting.
In the end, officials Thursday, April 2 were forced to cancel their second meeting in four days due to an overwhelming turnout by anxious neighbors of proposed affordable housing developments.
Why were so many residents jammed into and out of a zoning board meeting?
Conifer Realty, a development company represented by local attorney Fred Schmidt, wants to build a 90-unit apartment complex on Railroad Avenue, near the township Public Works facility in Court House.
On Monday, March 30, Conifer decided to go ahead with Thursday’s scheduled meeting even after the forced cancellation. Schmidt suggested that the crowd might be as large since another other large affordable housing application, proposed for Rio Grande, would not be on the agenda. Apparently, he was wrong.
Topsail Companies, the Rio Grande developer, proposed a 168-unit complex off Route 9 and Old Rio Grande Avenue. They opened their application on March 12, but when the March 30 meeting was cancelled, Topsail decided to skip the April 2 meeting. Their application is now set to be heard June 11.
Both applications were being fast tracked through zoning and township approvals to meet a federal tax credit funding deadline of April 8.
Those who favor the projects do so because the apartments would be available to working individuals and families with low and moderate incomes and would help the township meet its state mandated affordable housing quotas. The township has an obligation to provide over 900 units over the next decade.
Neighbors opposed to the applications cite the potential impacts to township services such as police, fire, public works as well as schools. Taxpayers are also opposed to the PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes, agreements that the developers have sought from the township in order to receive funding.
Before Zoning Board Chairman James McLaughlin was able to make the cancellation announcement, some concerned inhabitants were anxious that the meeting was going to proceed.
“How can you deny them access?” someone called out when they stopped admitting citizens into the meeting room. “There are more seats in here,” another one said.
“Mind your manners sir or I’ll have you tossed out,” McLaughlin said to another when he tired of the audience’s comments.
The zoning board appeared ready to postpone the Conifer application until its July meeting, but arguments from Schmidt got them to reconsider.
Schmidt said the board was responsible to make arrangements for the overflow crowds and cited the state’s opinion that affordable housing projects were considered inherently beneficial.
“We’ve been to two meetings and not heard,” Schmidt complained. He estimated that it cost over $10,000 per night just for the projects professionals to appear.
Victoria Steffan, the board’s attorney, told Schmidt that the board has tried very hard to accommodate both applications including holding a special meeting on March 30. She said the board could hold another special meeting or vote to deny the application without prejudice.
Schmidt countered that if the board denied Conifer’s application without hearing any testimony, the company would have grounds for an appeal. “It would be an illegal act,” he said.
After hearing Schmidt’s arguments, the board agreed to hold another special meeting on May 6 or 7.
The meeting is likely to be held in a different, larger location, possibly the Rio Grande Fire Hall. Because the meeting will not be held in Township Hall, the board will need to retain stenographers to record the proceedings, Board Secretary David May explained. May said he would have to advertise the meeting in the Herald and notify neighbors who live within 200 feet of the proposed site.
After the meeting was cut short, some residents gathered outside and around the corner at the Bellevue Tavern on Main Street to discuss the project.
Dave Mills, who lives about 250 feet from the site, told the Herald he was both glad and disappointed that the meeting was cancelled. “It’s great because enough people showed up to cancel the meeting, but it seems like the company is just trying to wear people down over time to make the next round of funding,” Mills said.
“They call this ‘workforce housing’ but there aren’t any jobs in Court House, and not really any in Rio Grande where the other project is planned,” Mills continued.“I don’t think I, or anybody else, should have to help pay for someone else’s home. Nobody helped me when I was making $12,000 a year. When I did, I got a better job, kept working and got another better job. And then better job. That’s all I have to say about that.”
Sam Kelly, of Swainton, told the Herald something similar just after the meeting let out.
“I’m a little disappointed,” he said. “I would have liked to hear a little more about this project.” As a long time union leader, Kelly agreed with Mills that the companies might be trying to outlast the residents. “It’s easy work to start a strike, but it’s hard work to maintain it,” he said.
Middle Township Committee candidate Dan Lockwood, of Court House, told the Herald that he was glad to see residents turn out in numbers to slow this project down. He called it the “Cape May Court House Tea Party” likening it to the revolutionary act in Boston in which citizens revolted against British taxes by throwing tea into the harbor.
“I agree that affordable housing is an important issue, but it is one that the township needs to spend significant time on before approving such large projects,” he said. “We should put these projects on hold until the state approves our Master Plan.”
Ray Batz, a former township and school district employee, was concerned about the potential impact to the school system and consequentially the taxpayers.
“I’ve heard that these projects could put another 500 kids in our schools,” he said. “We need low cost housing, but we’re all ready paying too much in taxes as it is.”
Click here to read the story of the March 30 meeting.
Click here to read the story from the March 12 meeting.
Click here to read the story from a Feb. 17 meeting.