Now you are Red Bank. Yeah, you're right. The Red Bank Planning Board will come to order this 25th day of June 2023
5 2025. The time is 7:04. Adequate notice of this meeting has been posted at the burrow hall, filed with the burrow clerk, and mailed to the Asbury Park Press and the Two River Times. No new cases will be heard after 10 p.m. The board will adjourn for
recess at 8:30 p.m. The chairperson reserves the right to revise the order of the agenda as needed. We need a roll call. We need a roll call. Yes. Thank you. Mayor Portman absent. Greg Fitaro
absent. Christina Bonitakis present. And Muso absent. Lou Dementoto here. Barbara Boz here. Megan Massie here. Wilson BBE absent. And Hernandez absent. Fred Stone here. And Brian Farnigan absent.
administrative matters um meeting minutes from June 11th. We have We need a motion. We need a motion to approve them. So moved. Second.
All in favor? All in favor? I I make it as change. Yeah. And then we have the presentation. You want to do the resolution just get that over with? Yes. Yes. I didn't see it on the agenda. It's fine. He speed it up.
So yeah. So this is a resolution adopting the recommended redevelopment plan that the board voted in favor of at the last meeting. This is just the formal memorialization of that plan. And uh upon this it will be transmitted to the um to the mayor and council.
Motion. We need a motion to approve. Second approve. All right. Christina Bonitakis. Yes. Dementoto. Yes.
Bis. Yes. And Megan. She's a sor. She has to She has to abstain. Well, she she's recused. She's not eligible to vote because she wasn't here. And Fred Stone. Yes. Okay. Okay.
You have to read this. No, you just read that. There's going to be a presentation. Oh, there's going to be a presentation um of the uh housing housing elements and fair share plan and fair share plan, but I can't find out. I forgot. I didn't know I was doing this. I don't have my
reading books. It's necessary. Um, that's it. All right. And our presenter is Thank you. Doy from CM Associates. If I sit here,
it looks like that's I sit there because that's the only mic. All right. you. Like I said, I'm Chris DNY, a professional planner with CME Associates, and we've been contracted by the bureau to prepare a housing plan element and fair share plan to satisfy your fourth round obligations for uh
affordable housing, formerly known as TOA or or Mount Laurel Housing, if you are more familiar with those terms. So, I've got essentially um think about 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes to go through what affordable housing is, what the Fair Housing Act is, uh what Redbank's obligations are under the F fair housing
act, and what we're doing to to satisfy those obligations. And largely then I I anticipate most of this being more or less a question and answer session depending on what questions you might have on on the process or what what's going to happen going forward. I aditt minute I hope you
all have had a chance to read through the copy at least maybe not word for word roughly 200 pages the housing plan element and fair share plans like I said it's about 200 pages there's probably about 10 pages of actual meat and bones relevant information in here that isn't just boilerplate discussion on affordable housing or or you know I
think there's about 25 pages of discussion of the demographics and economic conditions of the bureau which if you all live here you're pretty well aware of what's what's going on but anyway so this is the housing plan element, which is technically an element of your master plan, which this board as
the planning board has the exclusive jurisdiction to adopt. And then what the the law generally encourages, not necessarily requires for housing plans, uh that they like to see the governing body, which would be the burough council, endorse them by resolution as well, saying that they are on board with
the with this plan because as as you're all aware, generally any master plan element, they're just a series of recommendations. They don't have the force of law. But the governing body, which is the only body in Redbank that has the uh authority to adopt laws as ordinances, the state likes to see that
the governing body is in in step with the planning board with with the housing plan so that any new laws that need to be enacted to um implement the housing plan to make sure that you're providing for your fair share of low and moderate income housing that the governing body is going to follow up with what this plan says. So this uh presumably tonight
you will adopt because the state has given us all a deadline of June 30th to have a housing plan adopted. So today is what the 26th. So we have uh essentially tonight's our only shot at this to get this the 25th. 25th still there. I am give us one more day. I'm eagerly
awaiting for June to be done so I can move on to work that isn't affordable housing. I'm I'm adding another day in my head I guess. But um 25th but uh yeah. So where was I here? All right. So that's what the housing plan is. Uh just a brief overview. I think I was here
when we adopted the third round plan. I don't recall how many of these board members were on the board back in 2018 when that plan was adopted. Uh so I'm just going to briefly go over what the Fair Housing Act is, the Mount Laurel doctrine essent essentially. Uh so going back to well before I was
born in the 60s, uh there was a group in Mount Laurel of essentially resident farm hands uh that wanted to build low-income housing for themselves. They had gotten a grant to some sort of federal entity or maybe it was even a nonprofit. I don't recall. They they had gotten a grant to build themselves low-income apartments in Mount Laurel
and the town effectively changed their zoning before that application could go forward to say that all apartments and mobile homes, anything that would typically be lower income housing uh naturally occurring lower income housing is is effectively banned from the town. Uh so fast forward about 10 10 years
from that give or take. I think it was maybe 1975ish when the actual uh Supreme Court case went through with the the NAACP of southern Burlington County versus Mount Laurel. The NAACP is essentially arguing that it's unlawful or unconstitutional
for the town of Mount Laurel to effectively ban low-income housing and through their zoning code put a price floor on being able to live in the community. Supreme Court agreed with that and we got essentially the Mount Laurel one case that said towns have an obligation to essentially zone to allow
some forms of lower moderate income housing which would typically be things like apartments, town houses, mobile homes, things like that. Um, not much happened in the 5 to 10 years after that. And then in 1983 we get the much more substantial Mount Laurel 2 case. uh
the same exact town NAACP of southern Burlington County filed suit against Mount Laurel saying that they had effectively not done what they were supposed to do after the Mount Laurel 1 case. They hadn't really amended their zoning in any meaningful way to allow for affordable housing to be built in town. So that the same group of people trying to build the same apartment
complex still were not able to get get the approvals they needed. So they sued again and they won again at the Supreme Court level and we got the Mount Laurel 2 and as a result of that uh instead of simply a zoning ordinance that allows for forms of housing that are typically
occupied by lower moderate income households, we also got the Fair Housing Act adopted by the state and the courts taking over um affordable housing as well as through the Fair Housing Act, they had uh established the Council on Affordable Housing, COA and as a result of that
second case instead Instead of town, like I said, instead of towns just having to zone to allow lower moderate income housing types, every town was essentially assigned a number of of how many affordable units you had to proactively make sure there's room to create. uh where previously the law had just been you have to zone to allow
those forms of housing in some capacity. Now every town has a literal number that says you have 500 units or 200 or 300. You have to show you have to uh proactively demonstrate that you are accommodating that exact number of units and no less as as well as a host of
other administrative actions that need to be taken in order to demonstrate compliance with with the law. Um, see, so Mount Laurel 2, there have been subsequent cases. I don't need to get into the Mount Laurel 3, Mount Laurel 4,
and that stuff, but we have a new amended Fair Housing Act that was signed into law last March by the governor that set new procedures for how to calculate every town's numbers for the fourth round, which we're now in the fourth round of affordable housing. The first rounds were, believe 87 through 99 and
then 99 through 2025 was the third round. Um, so we're starting the fourth round next month, which is 2025 through 2035. And through the methodology outlined in a 2015 court case in Mercer County, as well as in the amended fair housing act,
there's a pretty complex calculation that needed to take place at the state level and and regional level. And then that sort of filters down through every municipality in the state of how you calculate what your your fair share obligation is of how many units of affordable housing are required in each
town. So, uh, in accordance with the Fair Housing Act, DCA, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, they they calculated that for every town in New Jersey. Uh, their their calculations were not binding though. They were estimates and put forward and towns could essentially accept them or reject
them and do their own calculations. Uh, Redbank accepted those calculations which DCA calculated I believe it was 151 uh, I'm sorry, 154 unit obligation for Redbank for the fourth round and the bureau accepted that. and in January of this year
adopted a resolution accepting those numbers saying that we we agree with the DCA's report on the numbers and and we're going to proactively we're going to plan to address this 154 unit obligation. Um I said so this is the fourth round just briefly I'll get into the the prior
rounds and rounds one and two which is 83 through 999 the bureau had a 427 unit obligation for affordable housing. Uh however, at that time, um the bureau qualified for what's known as a vacant land adjustment. The laws do
allow for towns that don't have sufficient vacant and open land to address whatever their affordable housing obligation numbers are. You can adjust that to a more realistic development potential. And then you you have to plan for whatever that the the RDP, the realistic development potential. we have to plan to accommodate that and then do some
additional planning, some additional zoning for what they call the unmet need. At the time, uh KA, which was still in place at the time, had agreed uh that Redbank had a realistic development potential of zero. So from 87 through 99 the courts and COA
the state essentially recognized the Red Bank as a fully built out community with no no large tracks of vacant land unlike places like say Mount Laurel or a little bit more in the country or in more suburban locations where there is lots of large tracks of vacant land uh that
the law originally targeted like as Mount Laurel originally started from farm hands who wanted to build apartments on the farms they were working in. Um Redbank doesn't have that. Red Bank's been built out for a long time. There's not really any vacant property here that's more than a quarter acre, if that. I I think even less than
that. So, the court said you had a realistic development potential at the time of zero. But you did have to plan for some affordable housing to address some some of what's called the unmet need, which is that 427 unit obligation, but you didn't weren't required to satisfy all of it. Nonetheless, there were a handful of projects um in place
at the time. I think some of them might might have even been built before that. some of them built during that time that addressed 163 affordable units towards that unmet need. And then the third round which was 1999 through 2025. Um
since that the uh the laws on calculating the methodology for what everyone's numbers were were essentially in court for 15 to 20 years. um the state didn't essentially settle on what everyone's third round obligation numbers were until uh yeah 16 years into the third
round. So like I said 99 to 2025 but most towns didn't have their obligation numbers established until around 2015 2016 uh because the methodology that COA had adopted was rejected by the courts a little bit later and then COA stopped functioning. So no one came up with the methodology and then it all just went to
lawsuits and so there was literally a decade of lawsuits over affordable housing. not necessarily the Red Bank was involved individually in those lawsuits, but they were lawsuits at at the state level. And so it was around 2017, we had petitioned the court and got a settlement agreement with Fair Share
Housing Center, which is an affordable housing advocacy group that sort of intervened on behalf of low and moderate income households all across the state. And so the third round was essentially a negotiation with Fair Share Housing Center to determine what your numbers were and how you're going to uh address those numbers and then that would be approved by the court. So we went
through that process from 2016 through 2018. I maybe finally got it approved by the court in 2019 at a 313 unit obligation at that time. Uh and even though largely the burrow was still built out. There was not vacant land at the time. the court master and the
courts and and fair share housing center um didn't necessarily accept a realistic development potential of zero like it was in the prior round but would had a negotiated settlement of 92 unit realistic development potential and that was fully satisfied through a handful of
projects including the 176 Riverside redevelopment project, Riverwalk Commons, Fortune Square, the Yellow project, Aelia Gardens, Cedar Crossing, a group home and then some bonus credits which are eligible to Yeah. So of that realistic development
potential of 92 that was satisfied through 99 credits which were then applied to that uh obligation as well as the unmet need. And then a big part of that settlement was what you have in place at the time right now is the sliding scale
ordinance of anytime anybody comes before this board or or the zoning board if they're going to the zoning board for a use variance. uh if anybody has more than five units of housing in a multif family project, they have to provide uh an affordable housing set aside. And then so we have that sliding scale of depending on how big the project is, the
the larger the affordable housing obligation is that they have and this board and some the zoning board as well has been doing that. So as a result of that largely we have already essentially satisfied our fourth round obligation.
Like I said, our fourth round obligation, 154 units is the obligation as calculated by DCA and accepted by the bureau. What we have calculated, we've gone through the exercise of doing a vacant land adjustment again to obviously not a lot of vacant land or virtually
virtually no vacant land in Redbank. Through our calculations, we think your realistic development potential since what I found is you really only have one property in town that is vacant and available and is not encumbered by wetlands or some sort of other environmental issue or is not, you know, publicly owned and used for burrow
purposes. The law requires we go through every piece of vacant land as well as every piece of publicly owned property. So things like Burough Hall here has to be reviewed to see if there's development capacity on this property. We calculate your realistic development potential to be one unit of affordable housing that you would need to satisfy
between 2025 and 2035. However, through projects that have already been approved or already in the pipeline, we would essentially fully satisfy that 154 unit obligation anyway. So regardless um because this has not been something that we've had discussions with fair share housing center or the courts, this
hasn't been approved of that one unit RDP. The assumption is the courts, whoever reviews this, whether there's any kind of challenger, Fairshair Housing Center, the New Jersey Builders Association, any developer who's looking to build something somewhere in the bureau, uh they have the ability to challenge the plan and they can
challenge the real development potential um calculation. In the event that that somebody says no, that number needs to be higher, we are satisfying the obligation regardless. Uh and that that 154 unit obligation that is that is set by the courts already. That's been accepted. So, no one can challenge that
number at this point. And the way we are satisfying the fourth round obligations are through the Locust Landing project on on the west side of the burough. That's an existing affordable development that was funded initially by um uh Middletown across the
river had provided money to Redbank to build affordable housing here. And as such, Middletown got almost all the credits in their prior round plan for this project. Well, the affordability controls at Locust Landing were initially put in place for 30 years and those controls are going to be expiring relatively soon. uh and Locus Landing
has approached the bureau, they need to do some upgrades to that facility and if we contribute financially to their the upgrades to that facility, we can claim uh credits for ex and in exchange for them extending the controls, they would sign a further deed restriction on that property. So it would be affordable for another 40 years. So essentially the
existing affordable affordable apartments over there can stay and the burrow would get credit for it now instead of uh Middletown. Uh we'd also potentially be eligible for bonus credits there. Although since we can't get bonus credits right now if the RDP is one, but in the event that that RDP gets bumped up, then we could claim
bonus credits uh for extending controls. The Globe Court project was six credits. The Vista project is five credits. The 121 Monmouth Street project was seven credits. The Thrive Redbank uh special needs project includes five affordable units. And then the uh I think the
redevelopment plan you were just discussing, I think you just adopted a resolution. um the I think it's called the rail north and south right at the train station. Uh I have that in the plan right now is 80 credits although my understanding is when we had originally drafted this plan that was supposed to be 400 units that's come down to 350
something. So the number of credits we get from that would ultimately be determined by how many units are there 20% of that. So this number might go down from 80 to 70 but we're that's still enough credits to satisfy the obligation. So we have in the plan at least right now 143 full credits which
satisfies that one unit RDP by quite a lot as well as what the law requires is if you do adjust your obligation down from the 154 and we said down to one you also have to plan to accommodate at least 25% of the remaining unmet need and we're we're more than satisfying that through these projects here and
that doesn't even include the potential for claiming bonus credits which we would be eligible to claim up to 38 bonus credits if the RDP goes away. So just through projects that have already been approved by this board or the zoning board and other projects in the pipeline which now the redevelopment plan I understand has been essentially
endorsed by this body and I I assume at some point soon it'll go to the burough council where they will have the ability to adopt that as actual law. You're already fully satisfying your fourth round affordable housing obligation. Uh and then one other component the obligation that's that's all prospective
need. That's really the important part. There's a second component of the need known as the present need or rehabilitation obligation which means there's an estimate based on census data which can vary widely. It's hard to say how accurate that data is, but burrow
has a present need obligation of what is it here? 54 units and that's the the rehabilitation obligation. That means it's an estimate of homes in Redbank that are currently code deficient in some manner, meaning that they might need a new roof. They might need new HVAC system. Hopefully, there's no one
out there right now who doesn't have air conditioning with the the way the weather has been this week. but an estimate of homes that are currently code deficient in one way or another and are also likely occupied by a lower moderate income household. Meaning that somebody who makes or not somebody a family a household however many people
there are there that are currently earning uh 80% or less of the area median income and that means for um Monmouth Mercer and Ocean County is is this region region four. Uh so you take the average household income across the
region. Any household making 80% or less than that is considered lower moderate income housing and that or household those are the people who qualify for affordable housing throughout the state. Uh so your obligation there is 54. Uh and to satisfy that essentially we we would continue you already have a uh
burrow operated rehabilitation program. I don't recall off the top of my head how many homes have been rehabilitated in the last 5 years through that program. I want to say it's about 10 to 15 maybe. But we're going to continue that program. That program is funded by the affordable housing trust fund as well as Monmouth County has uh a
rehabilitation program that that burough residents are eligible to participate in. Through through those two programs, we we're proposing we will satisfy the uh the rehabilitation obligation. Although the the level of scrutiny placed on hitting those exact targets is a bit less than the prospective need.
The prospective need is you have to specifically plan for that and show demonstrate that you have realistic opportunity for construction of those units. Whereas the reh obligation is you just have to have programs in place and show that you're making a good faith effort to uh provide funding as necessary to make sure that those
programs are available. But if in five or 10 years we have not gotten all 54 units rehabilitated, we're at say 52, you're not necessarily in jeopardy of uh losing any immunity to builder's remedy lawsuits there. But we do have to have a plan in place to to make sure we're
we're addressing that as well. And that's that's mentioned in this plan. So um the next steps like I said uh uh to some degree my my hope is that this process will be a little smoother than the third round which I I said took 10 years of going through the courts and
even just with with Redbank once the numbers were finally set it was still several years of going through the courts end of this month by June 30th every town has to submit their plan to what's known as the program uh which is essentially just an arm of the courts that will be reviewing these plans as
well as I I assume DCA will be involved in some capacity because the the amended fair housing acts as DCA is supposed to take over the role that COA used to function as there is then a two-month window where any interested party is allowed to challenge the plan. So, like I said, whether that's Fairshare Housing Center as an affordable housing advocate, uh
the New Jersey Builders Association, which challenged a lot of towns when they adopted their numbers, or or any developer or any other housing advocacy group or individual, they can challenge this plan and and they can say, "We don't think that this plan is providing a realistic opportunity for affordable housing. We have a better plan, and
we're going to, you know, we're going to tell the court that we think different properties are better suited for affordable housing production rather than this plan." There's a two-month window where anybody can file a challenge and then u whether there's a challenge or not the plan goes through
the program where where a judge will review it along with a used to be called special master now it's a I think they call them courtapp appointed adjudicator something like that but some expert in affordable housing will assist the judge when they review this plan and they'll make a determination as to whether or not they agree with me that it is fair
to the uh regional needs of the low and moderate income housing uh population or if think some some changes need to be made, but I do I do have to stress I I think Red Bank is on very good footing with this plan. As opposed to many other towns in New Jersey, we're not we're not
talking about randomly picking out properties and saying we're going to zone them for affordable housing. Everything in here is a project that is already constructed or already approved or in the pipeline where there's already a a developer says, "I want to build x amount of affordable units there." so that we we can justifiably say that
there is everything that we're proposing will be affordable housing is already in the pipeline and it's not just hopes and dreams that somebody's going to come build something. Uh so even in the event that somebody challenges I I I think this plan could withstand a challenge. Now everything in affordable housing in New Jersey for the past 40 years has
been constant litigation. So I can't say for sure exactly what's going to happen. It's always been a very legally driven process rather than a planning process. But that don't really have any control over that. But I I do in my opinion this this is fair to the the needs of the low and
moderate income housing low and moderate income household population for the entire region and satisfies your obligations under the Fair Housing Act. And I do have to stress this essentially does not even require that the bureau do anything other than what it's already been doing for the past 5 years. Um
and that that that essentially concludes my presentation here. I like I said, I wanted to do a brief overview of what affordable housing is and how we're satisfying our obligations. There's a lot of stuff in here. Like I said, there's about 10 pages or so of going over the obligations that are what is actually what the court is going to be reviewing. So, that being said, I'm
happy to answer any questions. Now, anyone on board have anything any questions? I open it up for the You certainly may. Anyone in the public have any questions? Well, that's a strange. Okay. Thank you.
Um, very interesting. And uh Oh, God. I'm sorry. It's okay. Don't But you didn't turn it on. Thank you. Um, thank you. Is there anything you need from us or anything? We need a vote. We need a vote. Adopt the plan and
as well as adopt a resolution tonight. Yes. And and there's been a resolution already prepared and given to the board. So, you can make it if you want to make one motion to adopt both the plan and the memorializing resolution. I'm fine with that. A motion.
We need a motion. I I move it. Yeah. Both. Is that for both? Both. Thank you. And a second. And a second. Second. Thank you. Roll call.
Christina Bonitakis. Yes. Demen. Yes. Barbara, yes. Megan Massie, yes. Ben Fredstone. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Motion to
Yeah. May I have a motion to adjourn? This feels rather anticlimactic for something that is very very very interested enough. And thank you. Yeah. And it has to go to court now. So we'll see what happens in the fall.
Right. But there's protection at this point. So yeah, we are in like you said such good standing. Yeah. I actually have have a question to ask if I may. Two minutes. Two minutes. Okay. Um you
were talking about the there was you keep hitting the wrong one. We're having a fight over the buttons. Um you were talking about the rehabilitation. All right. My question is how is that
advertised to the people who may need them? Okay. So um prior the previous administrative agent um I think affordable housing corporation um they advertised it through their website and also um through the church um pilgrim
baptist also they sent it out. So there is posting um at the library um we post it here in Burough Hall. Um so and and just spread of word of mouth. So it is there um it has been advertised. Yeah. What I can say a lot of towns have done
because it is it's tough to know about these things espec I mean the county program is out there but unless you search Monmouth County rehabilitation program you might not know about it. But typically what I've seen towns do is uh when there's like an annual mailer of like your your property tax bill, things
like that, you just stick a flyer in there that says uh low-income households, you're eligible for this program. Yeah, thank you. Motion to motion. No. Motion to adjurnn. I'm sorry. Motion to adjurnn. Second.
All in favor? Hi. Hi.