Pennington Council has authorized Borough Planner James Kyle to develop a housing element and fair share plan satisfying the borough’s fourth-round affordable housing obligations.
Council members approved the use of $19,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund on April 7 to cover the cost of work provided by Kyle, who is a founder of planning services firm Kyle + McManus Associates in Hopewell Borough.
Municipalities have until June 30 to adopt a housing element and fair share plan for their fourth-round affordable housing obligations.
The borough’s present fair share housing obligation or current need is four affordable units, and the future need is 58 units over the next 10 years from the period of July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2035.
Pennington would be able to receive credit for fourth-round units with the extension of affordability controls for a certain time period for units in places such as Pennington Point with current affordability control periods expiring.
Pennington and municipalities across the state had to pass a binding resolution that formally accepts the fourth-round affordable housing obligations under a Jan. 31 deadline.
“We were instructed to move ahead and file what is called a declaratory judgement action, which we did by the deadline (Jan. 31),” said Edwin Schmierer, Pennington’s special counsel on affordable housing. “The first step has been successful.
“We got a court order back on March 25 indicating that our Mount Laurel judge Robert Lougy accepted the complaint that we filed, confirmed that there were no objectors to the plan, and has further confirmed the numbers that you will work with going forward for the next 10 years.”
The process has moved forward to developing the housing element and fair share plan.
“We never completed the third-round plan but part of what we have to address in the fourth-round plan is what was the third-round obligation and how are we dealing with it,” Kyle said during a work session with Council members on March 31. “So, essentially, we are going [to] fold the third-round considerations into the fourth-round plan.
“The next step would be for our office to prepare the housing element and fair share plan. We have to have that adopted and submitted to the program by June 30. We basically have three months to complete that.”
Pennington’s Planning Board will review the plan that is developed and approve the plan before the council would end up receiving the plan for consideration and approval.
“The Planning Board will adopt the housing element and fair share plan,” Kyle said. The mayor and council will need to endorse it by resolution.”
