EMERSON—The Borough of Emerson struck a deal with the Fair Share Housing Center that determines the municipality is obligated to allow for “a realistic opportunity” to create 235 affordable housing units.
A majority of the governing body agreed to terms that call for developers to erect 29 affordable housing units on a disputed redevelopment zone on Kinderkamack Road between Lincoln Boulevard and Linwood Avenue, the “Block 419” redevelopment area.
The Nov. 21 settlement, which Mayor Lou Lamatina announced via email on Nov. 30, also mandates zoning provisions to allow for an additional 180 units through overlay zoning in the Emerson Plaza East and the Chestnut and Bland streets industrial areas.
Amendments to create those overlay zones—which do not replace existing zoning but rather supplement them to allow for multi-family residential development—were introduced at the Nov. 21 mayor and council meeting and are expected to come up for second reading Dec. 5.
The settlement culminates the borough’s effort, launched July 8, 2015, to seek a declaration of compliance with the state’s landmark Mount Laurel doctrine and Fair Housing Act of 1985.
Lamatina said the settlement, pending court approval, is a “substantial reduction” from the number of residential units the Fair Share Housing Center initially sought.
Critics, including some area property owners and Councilmember Danielle DiPaola, suggest the settlement builds on the back of unfair eminent domain. The borough’s ability to utilize eminent domain—or seize private property for public purpose under the state’s redevelopment law—is in dispute, relating to the Block 419 redevelopment area.
Should the settlement pass court muster, the borough will have up to 120 days to adopt a Housing Element and Fair Share Plan and spending plan.
The settlement agreement is posted on the borough’s website. It will be more fully detailed in the borough’s Housing Element and Fair Share Plan.
That said, the borough is credited for providing a realistic opportunity for affordable housing through its new Veterans housing project, Advancing Opportunities Group Home, Center for Hope and Safety Group Home, and Emerson Grand.
Additionally, the settlement, which Lamatina touted as a win for the borough, directs Emerson to rehabilitate up to 20 existing low-income homes belonging to seniors and the disabled.
“How do you argue against using builders’ money to rehabilitate seniors’ homes, low-income veterans’ homes?” Lamatina asked rhetorically in a follow-up phone interview on Thursday.
Lamatina said entering into this settlement, which staves off until 2025 the prospect of a builder’s remedy lawsuit that could have forced additional units, was in the best interest of the borough.
He said the agreement “could not have been reached without the support of Council President Chris Knoller, and Councilmen Downing, Lazar, and Falotico.”
One councilmember not credited in Lamatina’s announcement was Danielle DiPaola, who has argued against the settlement.
Asked her view of the development, she told Pascack Press on Nov. 30 that the terms of the settlement rely “too heavily on the element of eminent domain with respect to block 419, and I’m skeptical that the five or so acres adjoining the already deed-restricted golf course will not be built on as—to my recollection—they were not purchased with Open Space funds, which leaves the door open for development.”
In spring, the owners of the former-Ranchero Cantina and current Cinar Turkish Restaurant sued the borough and its land use board over its move to designate the property as blighted, saying it did so to help redeveloper JMF Properties.
Prospective affordable housing in the Block 419 redevelopment zone “makes good use of the location,” Lamatina said.
He explained the settlement limits multi-family development to the downtown and to a commercial district, “protects our existing single-family neighborhoods,” gives recent college graduates an affordable place to move back to their hometown upon graduation, and, “importantly, for our seniors, provide an affordable location in their community as they begin to downsize after selling their family homes.”
It also “keeps development away from the Emerson and Hackensack golf courses […] and will lead to a substantial reduction in legal and expert fees that the borough has been incurring,” Lamatina noted.
The north and south multi-family residential affordable housing overlay zones, which may be created in the ordinance up for adoption on Dec. 5, would allow for a maximum gross density of 64 dwelling units per acre in the north zone (the Bland and Chestnut streets area) and a maximum gross density of 43 dwelling units per acre in the south zone (the Emerson Plaza East area).
Future multifamily developments must also account for affordable housing, as per borough code.
Lamatina said that, although he is “relieved that this ordeal and expense to our taxpayers is nearing an end, and the borough will be protected from the threat of over-development, I remain perplexed at the State Legislature’s inability to reach a reasonable solution to the issue of affordable housing.”
He further dinged “the Council on Affordable Housing’s [COAH] failures, and the Legislature’s inability to fashion a solution” is “cost[ing] municipalities thousands and thousands of dollars on attorneys and experts; monies that could have, and should have, been used to construct actual affordable units.”