Locust Landing, a 40-unit affordable housing complex at the foot of Locust Avenue in Red Bank. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
As towns across New Jersey grapple with new state-imposed affordable housing quotas, the Borough of Red Bank is launching a plan to help owners rehabilitate and elevate a flood-prone 40-unit apartment complex on the banks of the Navesink River as a key part of the plan to meet its goal.
Locust Landing, a garden apartment complex comprised of three buildings at the foot of Locust Avenue, was built in 1965 and later rehabilitated and classified as affordable housing for families earning 50 percent or less of the median income for Monmouth County, according to documents included in the borough’s affordable housing plan approved by the planning board last week.
Past rehab projects at Locust Landing have been boosted in part by state low-income housing tax credits, and the Borough’s grant of 30-year tax exemption in 1999, according to documents.
But in a letter last February, a lawyer representing the company that owns the complex, Locust Landing Urban Renewal Associates, told Borough Manager Jim Gant the complex, which required extensive repairs after being flooded by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, needs to be elevated above flood levels and renovated.
In addition, owners said, the funding mechanisms that allowed the complex to remain affordable housing were expiring soon. The borough’s tax abatement is set to expire in 2029, according to the letter.
“If cooperative action is not taken in the immediate term, the ongoing viability of the development is uncertain,” the letter from Locust Landing attorney John Sarto reads.
Without a new round of state and local help, he added, the development would likely find it “financially prudent to terminate its affordable housing obligation” and terminate “affordability controls.”
For the Borough, the crisis appears to also present an opportunity.
In October, the state announced the borough must create 154 units of affordable housing over the next ten years. Unlike some towns that have sued to avoid or reduce their obligations, Red Bank officials have vowed to meet the goal.
Under terms of previous funding agreements, Middletown, not Red Bank, received a 37-unit credit towards its affordable housing obligations for Locust Landing under a provision of the law that allowed towns to transfer their obligations to other towns. Red Bank received credit for just six of the units.
The boroughs new plan, titled Red Bank 4th Round Housing Plan Element and Fair Share Plan, outlines a new agreement in which Red Bank will extend its Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement and apply for full credit (and possible bonus credits) for all 40 units.
The plan reads: “The Borough proposes to extend the expiring controls on all 40 of these affordable family rental units for an additional 40 years, and will claim credit for doing so. To provide financial assistance to the project, the Borough will extend the current PILOT on the property and reduce the level of payments from the property to help allow for the project to be elevated above the Flood Hazard Area and finance needed renovations to the project. The Borough is currently in discussions with the property owners on permitting the project and ensuring that these family rental units remain affordable for an additional generation.
In other words, as Chris Dochney, program manager with borough engineering firm CME Associates, told the Planning Board last week: “The existing affordable units can stay and the borough will get credit for them instead of Middletown.”
The Borough Council on June 12 passed a resolution in support of the plan, and identified a company, WCP Locust Landing MM, as the “contract purchaser” of the property who would carry it out. The council approved the overall fourth round affordable housing plan for submittal to the state at its meeting last Thursday.
In addition to the 40 units at Locust Landing, the Red Bank 4th Round Housing Plan Element and Fair Share Plan seeks to apply towards its obligation the 70-80 units of affordable housing that would be created under the proposed Train Station Redevelopment Plan.
A smattering of units proposed or under construction in developments throughout the town would get the borough closer to the goal of 154, Dochney said.
“Red Bank is on very good footing with this plan as opposed to a lot of towns in New Jersey,” he said. “It’s not just hopes and dreams that somebody is going to build something.”
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
