Moorestown in a flap over housing

A wealthy Moorestown neighborhood is chafing at a municipal affordable-housing plan that could put up to 50 rental units in its midst.

Plans to build on the land grew out of a scramble to comply with revised state regulations that call for Moorestown to plan for 412 low- and moderate-income housing units in the next decade, more than triple the previous requirement.

Scouring for sites in the nearly built-out suburb, officials included in their plan the Maybury tract, 10 acres at Westfield Road and Sheffield Drive that the township bought in 1987 and set aside for affordable housing.

Opposition to the decision delayed Moorestown's submission of its plan to the state until mere hours before the Dec. 31 deadline - and residents who don't want the rental units built there are now pushing the township to take the tract out of the plan or see them file an objection with the state.

The dissent is not about class or income but about traffic, the environment, and an influx of renters who would not be as invested in the neighborhood, said opponent Natalie Fleming, who lives near the site.

"It's high-density housing, and it's rental housing, and that's usually not what you're looking for when you purchase in a [neighborhood] of single-family, detached, owner-occupied homes," she said.

Moorestown is among more than 250 towns that have joined the New Jersey State League of Municipalities in suing over the new rules, a clear indication that the state affordable-housing initiative remains mired in dispute.

Revised regulations, announced by the state Council on Affordable Housing in June, call for towns to provide one unit of affordable housing for every five homes built and every 16 jobs created.

New Jersey aims to add 115,000 units by 2018.

In addition, the Legislature took away from wealthier towns the option of paying poorer towns to assume their affordable-housing obligations. Moorestown had paid Beverly and Mount Holly a combined $5 million under such agreements.

Planning for a combined 180 rental units to be built on the Maybury parcel and 12 acres known as the Nagle tract, at Centerton and Hartford Roads, was "more attractive from a fiscal standpoint" because of federal tax credits offered through the state's Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA), said Brian Slaugh, Moorestown's affordable-housing consultant.

Under the program, investors offset their tax liability in exchange for helping to fund affordable-housing developments. With projects typically being 60 to 80 units, Moorestown officials say it makes sense to build on the Maybury and Nagle sites because they are among the few tracts in town that can accommodate such density.

"For the larger projects, quite frankly a lot of towns are taking advantage of it, and it probably provides one of the greatest resources available to build or develop or renovate rental housing throughout the state," HMFA executive director Marge DellaVecchia said.

The planned rental units also made Moorestown eligible for bonus credits that allow it to plan for 103 fewer affordable-housing units than it would otherwise be responsible for, as part of an incentive offered to towns by the state to provide family rental housing.

In addition, the township is paying $30,000 apiece to extend deed restrictions on 96 low- and moderate-income housing units owned by a local nonprofit, ensuring they will be affordable housing for 30 more years.

Yet residents of the nearby Wexford, Windermere and Westfield subdivisions - where there are more than 130 homes - say a new rental complex on the Maybury tract would increase already worsening traffic, reduce property values, and disrupt what they say is environmentally sensitive land. Dozens of upset residents have flooded public meetings and hired an attorney.

"This isn't a pocket being absorbed by a neighborhood. This is putting another neighborhood within a neighborhood," nearby resident Christine Blessing said.

Blessing and others said municipal officials had assured them when they moved to the area that the tract would not be developed, but Tom Ford, the director of community development, countered the tract had been on the zoning map for more than 20 years as an affordable-housing site. Since then, some of the houses that have sprung up nearby are assessed at close to $1 million.

"This is a quick and easy way to come up with 50 units," Fleming said, "but I think what they need to think about is the fact that when this site was purchased, these homes were not here, and things have changed."

Moorestown's plan acknowledges the site is affected by freshwater wetlands bordering Swede's Run to the north, and neighbors say they are gathering information showing that the development would harm nesting bald eagles and black-crowned night herons.

Opponents are looking at hiring traffic and environmental experts to make their case, and have been working out what to do in recent weeks through e-mails and meetings.

"They threw this in at the last minute on the last day at the last hour, and I think the town is under the assumption that [the rules] are going to be revamped anyhow, so it'll never go through, but obviously we're upset. . . . We have so few resources like that left, and that's what makes [the neighborhood] so special," said Melissa Young, a nearby resident who is against the plan.

Opponents want the township to find other vacant land or try to rehabilitate more market-rate units.

"It's so tempting to make this an issue about 'I don't want poor people living next to me,' " said Mayor Daniel Roccato, who agrees with the opposition. "That's not what this issue is about. . . . How do we integrate these families, these homes in a way that's inclusive rather than create these segregated islands, almost? I think they'd feel the same way if we were going to allow $1 million condominiums."

Moorestown, like other municipalities, contends the state's estimates for how many units it must account for in its plan are inaccurate. Earlier projections indicated the township would have to build just 220 affordable units over the next decade, Slaugh said.

After the state reviews a town's plan to ensure it is complete, the public can comment to local officials and the Council on Affordable Housing for 45 days. The council will then work with the town and interested parties to make necessary changes and finalize the plan, said Chris Donnelly, spokesman for the state Department of Community Affairs.

An earlier version of Moorestown's plan stated that the Maybury tract would be developed first, but opponents successfully lobbied the township just before the Dec. 31 deadline to remove language specifying the order. The original wording drew more opposition to building on Maybury than on the Nagle site, which is farther from residential development, Ford said.

Clustering affordable housing and interspersing it with market-rate housing are both good methods, said Kevin Walsh, associate director of the Fair Share Housing Center in Cherry Hill. Hiring a good architect and planner can help address people's concerns about the way the housing is built, he added.

"The ultimate goal is to produce affordable housing and to do it in a place like Moorestown . . . where folks who are lower-income can access jobs and good schools," Walsh said.