UPDATE: Middle Zoners Continue Affordable Housing Hearing to June 11

COURT HOUSE — A developer that wants to build a 90-unit affordable housing apartment complex in this community will have to reappear next month before the township zoning board after its May 7 hearing was postponed at 10:45 p.m.
Conifer Realty, a Mount Laurel development company represented by local attorney Fred Schmidt, presented its case to the zoning board after its meeting last month was cancelled due to the huge public turnout that exceeded the 120-person occupancy at township hall. The huge interest in this application forced the board to move the hearing to the Middle Township High School cafeteria.
The company is before the board asking for variances to allow a high-density development on 9.6 acres in the suburban residential zone and buildings higher than 35-feet in height.
Conifer is one half of a pair of affordable housing projects that have generated much public debate in recent months. The other is proposed in Rio Grande by Topsail Development Inc., a Missouri-based development company, that wants to construct an eight-building, 168-unit apartment complex off Route 9 and Old Rio Grande Boulevard, on the site of an old farm.
Conifer’s experts May 7 gave presentations that showed how the proposed site on Railroad Avenue near the township Public Works facility at the end of Mechanic Street is particularly well suited for this type of development.
The architecture of the buildings would be made to blend in with the existing character of the residential neighborhood, the experts said. The development would be in close proximity to local shopping, schools, township and county offices and recreation facilities. Schmidt, in fact, spent nearly a half hour giving detailed walking and driving directions from the proposed site to many of the possible destinations.
“We know,” shouted some in the audience of over 150 concerned residents. “We live there. We know where everything is.”
A traffic expert told the board that the development would not cause congestion in the surrounding roads. He said at peak hours the 90-unit complex would generate approximately 48 vehicle trips in the morning and 67 afternoon trips based on standard trip-generation models.
Conifer’s experts also noted that the proposed project is included in Middle Township’s plan on how to address its obligation to the state Council On Affordable Housing (COAH). They said the board should take into consideration the state’s opinion that affordable housing is an inherently beneficial use.
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.
When Conifer’s testimony concluded, however, Zoning Board Chairman James McLaughlin limited discussion on the PILOT agreement.
“This board hearing is not the place to discuss PILOTs,” he said. “That’s up to township committee to decide.”
Howard Schlegel, director of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge, was the first member of the public to speak since the Refuge owns land directly adjacent to the proposed site.
He said the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, which administers the Refuge System, is neither for or against the project, but has many concerns that the development could have negative impacts on the fragile environment of the Refuge property.
He said there are threatened and endangered species of animals and plants that inhabit that area.
Jessica Knox, a conservation coordinator for the American Littoral Society, said her group “absolutely opposes any development on this site.”
She said it was far too sensitive for building of any kind, let alone the high-density development that Conifer has planned.
Local attorney Tom Rossi called the proposal “absolutely despicable.” He said downtown Court House is a tranquil village and no place for this “slam-bam, smack-you-in-the-face ghetto waiting to happen.”
He added that if the board allows this developer to build a 90-unit “human warehouse” on a nine-acre plot of land, it opens the door for other property owners to ask for similarly dense projects on surrounding tracts.
“It’s to much,” Rossi said. “This is an application to put ten pounds of excrement in a five pound bag.”
As the 11 p.m. hour approached, McLaughlin halted public comment while another local attorney Carole Mattessich spoke.
McLaughlin said the hearing would continue at 7 p.m. on June 11 again at the high school’s cafeteria. Topsail’s application had been scheduled to be heard on that date.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com