Developer proposes affordable housing
HAMILTON >> Nearly seven acres of trees will be removed and a special needs housing complex will be built off Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Way if the Hamilton Township Planning Board approves a developer’s pending application.
Project Freedom Inc. is scheduled to present its affordable housing plan at Thursday’s planning board meeting.
The proposed Freedom Village at Hamilton, if approved, would feature 72 affordable housing units spread across four apartment buildings. A parking lot, standalone clubhouse and gazebo structure would also be developed across from the Hamilton Free Public Library, according to the site plan.
The plan is intended to help Hamilton Township fulfill its court-mandated affordable housing obligations. Hamilton Township owns the land in question — a parcel known as the Morton Tract — and has agreed to donate some of it to Project Freedom at no cost.
The 121-acre Morton Tract is located in the area of Alito Way and Whitehorse-Mercerville Road. The land sits in a Government Service Center District now designated as a Special Housing Zone III.
If and when Project Freedom Inc. develops the affordable housing complex for people with disabilities, Hamilton Township may collect an estimated $1.7 million of new revenue from the township’s affordable housing fund, according to Dave Kenny, Hamilton’s business administrator.
At least 13 percent of the residential units developed in a Special Housing Zone III must be affordable to “verylow-income households” and at least 37 percent of the units “shall be affordable to low-income households,” according to township ordinance, which says up to 50 percent of the units “may be affordable to moderate-income households.”
Every municipality in New Jersey must promote affordable housing for low-income and moderate-income communities, according to the New Jersey Supreme Court’s landmark opinions and the state Fair Housing Act of 1985. Hamilton Township is using the Project Freedom development agreement to help satisfy its affordable housing obligations.
Project Freedom operates several affordable housing sites throughout the Garden State, including a pre-existing site in Hamilton Township near Kuser Farm Park. Project Freedom is a nonprofit organization that “develops affordable housing designed for people with disabilities and their families to empower them to live independently in their communities,” according to its website.
Tract history
Acquired by Hamilton Township in the 1980s, The Morton Tract was once considered a prime location to build a new Hamilton Township municipal building. Now the site, buoyed with Hamilton Council’s bipartisan support, is considered a great location for promoting affordable housing.
Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede, a Republican, previously envisioned the Morton Tract as a go-kart entertainment district before embracing Project Freedom’s affordable housing plan.
Democratic Hamilton Councilmen Anthony Carabelli Jr. and Jeff Martin, the party’s 2019 mayoral candidate, both supported Project Freedom’s development agreement along with Republican Councilman Ralph Mastrangelo last year.
The Freedom Village at Hamilton application calls for one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments to be developed for the special needs community. Each of the four apartment buildings would exceed 20,000 square feet, and the freestanding clubhouse would encompass more than 5,000 square feet, according to site application documents obtained by The Trentonian.
The complex would feature about 150 parking spaces, and new vegetation would be planted around the landscaping, according to a memo issued by Michael Guhanick, Hamilton’s land use coordinator.
“The applicant has indicated that 6.87 acres of trees are to be removed,” according to Guhanick’s memo, which says Project Freedom under local ordinance would be responsible for planting 687 new trees in addition to the site’s landscaping plan, or the applicant must pay a monetary contribution of more than $220,000 to Hamilton Township for the purchase of trees for street, park and open space beautification.
The township’s fire service “doesn’t have any issues with the Project Freedom project,” Hamilton Fire Official Scott McCormick said Aug. 1 in an email to Guhanick.
The land use coordinator, however, is recommending a number of revisions to the site plan as Project Freedom seeks to win planning board approval.
Project Freedom is requesting preliminary and final site plan approval and variance relief from side yard setback for the purpose of constructing four apartment buildings containing 72 affordable housing units and a freestanding clubhouse. The new application will be presented at the planning board meeting that begins 7 p.m. Thursday at the Hamilton Township Senior Center off Cypress Lane.