GARDEN STATE ENVIRONEWS 990906
Phil Reynolds
GARDEN STATE ENVIRONEWS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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<*> TRADING PLACES: THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING GAME - COAH
<*> FRIENDS OF THE ROCKAWAY RIVER EVENT - SEP 29
<*> ANJEC 1999 NJ ENVIRONMENTAL CONGRESS - OCT 22
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TRADING PLACES: THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING GAME - COAH
Date: 990906
From: http://www.nj.com/
By Kate Coscarelli and Kelly Heyboer, Staff Writers, 09/05/99
When Warren Township received its long-awaited "number" from the
state a few years ago, not many in the Somerset County community were
happy.
State officials said the quiet town in the Watchung Hills should
provide 585 low- and moderate-income units as its "fair share" of
housing for the state's poor.
But in the end, only 154 new low-income units were built in the town,
where the average house is assessed at $340,000.
For the rest of its obligation, Warren officials fixed up existing
houses, bargained reductions with the state and brokered deals to pay
Perth Amboy and New Brunswick a total of $6.1 million to take
responsibility for nearly half the units.
The lengths to which Warren Township went to satisfy its obligation
to provide low- and moderate-income housing were all completely legal,
if not in the spirit of the historic Mt. Laurel housing decisions of
the 1970s and '80s.
The contortions also were emblematic of the bizarre legacy of Mt.
Laurel, New Jersey's effort to ensure a place for people of all
economic levels in all of its towns.
Over the last decade, 91 towns have horse-traded affordable housing
obligations under the state's Regional Contribution Agreement scheme.
Through the controversial program, suburban towns get out of building
housing for the poor by paying less affluent municipalities to take
away up to half of their obligation.
The 11-year-old RCA program, managed by a small staff out of two
filing cabinets in Trenton, has grown into a $126 million industry
that shows no sign of slowing down. Last month the state approved four
new agreements totaling $2.1 million.
The Star-Ledger revisited all 86 RCA agreements approved over the
last decade to take a look at what the program has actually produced.
Among the findings:
Since the program began, more than 6,400 affordable housing units
have been swapped between towns. But more than 40 percent of the
housing has yet to be completed. Many of the projects are still on the
drawing board as the funds trickle in over six-year payment plans or
get held up in lengthy legal battles.
In towns that have completed projects, nearly 70 percent of the RCA
funds are being used to rehabilitate old houses instead of building
new ones. Though the practice is legal under the program's rules,
critics say too much of the money is being used to refinish basements,
repair plumbing and fix up houses already owned by residents when the
state is in dire need of new rental housing for the poor.
Municipalities that buy their way out of providing affordable housing
through the RCA deals are getting a bargain. Most towns pay $20,000
per unit, the state-determined minimum, even though municipal
officials say it takes at least $90,000 to build a new home in most
areas. The towns on the receiving end say they are forced to scrape
together numerous other federal grants before they have enough money
to build the full amount of housing agreed to in the deal.
Since towns have the option of using up to 20 percent of their funds
for administrative costs, more than $3 million that could have gone
toward building affordable housing is being used to pay local
officials who run RCA programs. Cities such as Newark and Trenton that
already had housing staff use all their RCA funds to build or
rehabilitate housing. But many towns with smaller programs have been
using the full 20 percent allotted to pay employees and outfit
offices.
With $126 million being swapped between towns in RCA deals, there is
also concern over who is watching to see that all of the money is
spent properly. In July, one of the state's most active RCA programs,
in Phillipsburg in Warren County, was shut down for several weeks amid
allegations of mismanagement. A town audit found municipal officials
overseeing the $5.2 million program were paying contractors before
construction was finished and disbursing money to rehabilitate houses
without itemized lists of expenses.
Critics say the complex RCA program has taken the heart out of the
state Supreme Court's landmark Mt. Laurel housing decisions, which
promised the opportunity for low-income housing in every town in the
state.
"This whole thing that has been set up is sort of a sham," said
affordable housing developer Peter O'Connor. RCA agreements, like the
one between Warren and Perth Amboy, "keep the poor and the minorities
in the cities -- write them a check and leave them there."
Proponents of RCAs insist the program is helping people. The
agreements are generating millions of dollars, something rare in the
affordable housing world.
Many of the state's most successful affordable housing developments
-- including Newark's Society Hill, Providence Square in New Brunswick
and Hamilton Square in Paterson -- are a direct result of RCA funds.
"The RCAs are one of our most successful programs, successful because
actual housing is being put in place. (RCAs have) the potential to
create housing depending on what the needs are in the community," said
Sidna Mitchell, deputy director of the Council on Affordable Housing,
the agency set up to oversee the state's housing programs.
Even Shirley Bishop, COAH's executive director, concedes those who
say wealthy towns are using the RCA program to keep out the poor have
a point.
"Yes, the appearance is and the reality is the towns are buying out,"
Bishop admitted. "The RCA was a political compromise."
The RCA program has been controversial since the day it was
introduced. It is the byproduct of widespread scorn for the Mt. Laurel
housing decisions that made headlines in the 1970s and 1980s.
The state Supreme Court decisions -- which stemmed from a case in the
Camden suburb of Mt. Laurel -- said it was unconstitutional for towns
to use their zoning laws to require large lots and single-family
homes. The court added the concept that every town in New Jersey also
had a responsibility to provide space if a developer wanted to build
low- and moderate-income housing.
The idea that the court could tell towns what to do riled elected
officials around the state. While putting together the Fair Housing
Act in 1985, the state Legislature adopted the RCA idea, which
appeased many of the Mt. Laurel critics.
Under the program, towns could cut their Mt. Laurel housing
obligations in half by paying other municipalities to take on the
responsibility for building the housing. The money would come either
from local taxpayer funds or fees paid by developers.
Former Gov. Thomas Kean, then in office, said he and several urban
mayors developed the RCA concept because they disagreed with the idea
that the court could force housing for the poor to be built in wealthy
suburbs.
"The problem was the Mt. Laurel decision had been passed and the
rhetoric was that it was going to help poor people and it didn't,"
Kean said. The poor "didn't need new housing. What they needed was
rehabilitated housing not out in the woods, but in the places where
they lived and could get work."
The RCA program helped get money to cities that needed it, he said.
Anita Robinson was one of the first residents to move into a Mt.
Laurel unit in Society Hill, the sprawling development built with RCA
funds near the county courthouse in Newark.
A decade later, Robinson still lives in the same three-bedroom
townhouse on 13th Avenue and has no plans to move. Without the
subsidized housing, she doubts she could have afforded her own home.
"I met the criteria, so I took the house," said Robinson. "Back
(then), nobody would give a mortgage to a single mother."
In the towns that accept RCA money, any philosophical problems with
the idea of wealthy suburbs getting out of building housing for the
poor is overridden by the potential of million-dollar payoffs.
Perth Amboy made the state's first RCA deal with Tewksbury in 1988
and has since accepted more than $7.5 million from towns like
Bernardsville, Warren and Peapack-Gladstone to provide 334 units.
"It's not an ideal world," shrugs Michael Keller, director of Perth
Amboy's Office of Economic and Community Development. "We'd be fools
not to take (the money)."
The competition among struggling towns to land multimillion-dollar
RCA deals can be tough. Phillipsburg, Orange, Ogdensburg and Perth
Amboy are among the towns that admit to sending mass mailings to
municipalities in their region to solicit RCAs because they need the
money to repair their own housing stock.
New Brunswick gets tips from developers on which towns may be ripe
for an agreement, said Glenn Patterson, the city's director of the
department of policy, planning and economic development.
"We will take anyone's money," Patterson said. With almost $15
million promised to New Brunswick's coffers in RCA deals, the city has
received more money than any other town in the state. New Brunswick
has used the money to rehabilitate individual homes, and build senior
citizen complexes, two-family homes and a new homeless shelter.
Patterson sounds like an appliance salesman when he talks about
haggling with towns over per-unit prices.
"We will beat or match offers from any other towns," Patterson said.
"RCA funds are the best source of affordable housing financing New
Jersey has ever come up with. The funds are flexible. You can use them
for a lot of things. I wish the paperwork was less, but it does
provide a significant source of dollars."
Many municipalities say it is easier and less controversial to avoid
building altogether and use the RCA funds strictly to fix up old homes
owned by longtime residents.
Bradley Beach, Highlands Borough, Keansburg, Neptune, Ogdensburg and
Pemberton are among the towns spending all or most of their funds on
rehabilitation.
In Carteret, housing officials want to distribute some RCA money as
grants to seniors who need to repair their houses.
"This is really designed to help the individual homeowners. To spread
the money around so that everybody in town gets a chance to
rehabilitate their house, especially the ones that have been in the
community for years," said John Riggio, director of community
development in Carteret.
Housing advocates say rehabilitation of urban housing is needed, but
RCA money shouldn't be used strictly for rehabilitation when people
are waiting for new affordable housing.
New Jersey is the second-most-expensive state, behind Hawaii, in
which to rent an apartment. Nearly 40 percent of the state's residents
can't afford the average rent of $829 for a two-bedroom apartment,
according to the state's non-profit housing groups. In most of
northern New Jersey, a person earning $38,000 or less qualifies as low
or moderate income.
"Somebody should be looking at the whole picture," said Diane
Sterner, executive director of Affordable Housing Network, an
association of non-profit housing groups. "There's too few resources."
When towns do decide to build new affordable housing with their RCA
money, it isn't easy. Under COAH guidelines, towns pay around $20,000
for each affordable housing unit they transfer.
Basil Franklin, Newark's chief of housing production, rolls his eyes
at the figure. "You can't build a unit of housing in the city of
Newark for less than $90,000," he said.
State officials admit the $20,000 figure has no real relationship to
what it actually costs to build a unit of housing. After several years
of allowing towns to negotiate RCA prices among themselves, the
$20,000 minimum was established in 1994 because it was the going rate
at the time.
Like most municipalities, Newark engages in some "creative financing"
to get units built. Sometimes five or six federal and state grant
programs are meshed with the RCA money to get enough financing for
construction.
Newark is able to build more housing than most towns because it is
not taking advantage of a clause that allows municipalities to take up
to 20 percent of their RCA money to pay administrative costs.
Newark is folding the money back into housing programs because it
already has an established staff, paid by the city, to deal with
affordable housing programs. Smaller municipalities like Perth Amboy,
New Brunswick and Phillipsburg are taking up to 20 percent to pay
administrators to run their RCA programs.
The state doesn't track which towns take administrative costs out of
their RCA funds, but both the state Department of Community Affairs
and the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency say there is no
evidence the towns taking the 20 percent for administrative costs are
abusing the privilege.
COAH officials say they had no indication of serious mismanagement of
any RCA funds in the program's decade-long history until July, when a
municipal audit in Phillipsburg turned up evidence of irregularities
in a local RCA program.
An annual audit commissioned by Phillipsburg officials concluded town
officials were turning over RCA money to contractors before work was
completed and some money was paid without proper itemization of
construction expenses. The program was voluntarily shut down for an
investigation.
"Something is broken. This is a major problem," Phillipsburg Council
President Jay Yarnell said after the audit questioned the management
of the program.
COAH officials allowed Phillipsburg to resume funding most housing
rehabilitation projects July 26 after reviewing the books, though some
projects remain on hold while state officials review plans and
financing.
Phillipsburg has promised to review its procedures and stop paying
for work that is not completed. However, officials are set to vote
Tuesday on whether to conduct an additional audit.
Despite the lingering controversy, RCAs show no sign of slowing down.
At least two dozen new agreements -- totaling more than $5.9 million
-- are in the works. Wanaque, Montvale, Avon-by-the-Sea, Spring Lake
and Upper Saddle River are among the towns considering deals to buy
out of building part of their share of affordable housing, COAH
officials said.
Every six years, COAH reassesses the number of low- and
moderate-income units each municipality in the state is responsible
for. So far, about a third of the state's 566 towns are voluntarily in
the process of meeting their obligation. Another 40 are being forced
to comply by the state courts.
The next round of adjusted numbers will be sent out next year,
meaning every town in New Jersey will again have to consider how they
want to meet their obligation to provide low-income housing.
Bishop, the head of COAH, says don't expect to see hundreds of towns
building housing and looking for ways to open the suburbs to the poor.
Instead, expect to see millions more in RCA deals.
"Towns are looking to alternative ways to address the housing
obligation rather than putting zoning in place," Bishop said. "RCA is
a viable option."
* * *
Staff writers Cathy Bugman, Sue Epstein, Jonathan Jaffe, Margaret
McHugh and Elizabeth Moore contributed to this report.
(C) 1999 The Star-Ledger
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FRIENDS OF THE ROCKAWAY RIVER EVENT - SEP 29
Date: 990906
From: 973-586-8691
The Friends of the Rockaway River
cordially invite you to an
AWARDS RECEPTION AND FUND RAISING EVENT
Wednesday, September 29, 1999 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
The River Terrace
at the Banzai Steak House
248 Highway 46 West, Denville, New Jersey
Join US in celebrating The President's Award of Excellence given by
the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASIA) for our Visions
and Strategies for the Rockaway River plan. ASIA Is a 12,000 member
professional organization based in Washington D.C. The President's
Award of Excellence is the highest honor given by ASIA and will be
formally presented at their 100th Anniversary Annual Meeting in
Boston.
Hors d'oeuvres compliments of Banzai Steak House
Cash Bar
Proceeds will be used to fund a second printing of
VISIONS AND STRATEGIES FOR THE ROCKAWAY RIVER.
* * *
RSVP by September 22, 1999 - 973-586-8691
____ I will attend the Friends of the Rockaway River Reception on
September 29.
_______# at $20.00 per person = ___________
total enclosed
____ Sorry, I can't attend but I have enclosed a tax-deductible
contribution of $___________ payable to Friends of the Rockaway River
Name _________________________________________________________________
Address ______________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip _______________________________________________________
Tel/Fax/Email ________________________________________________________
# # #
Friends of the Rockaway River
POB 49
Parsippany NJ 07054-0049
Tel: 973-586-8691
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ANJEC 1999 NJ ENVIRONMENTAL CONGRESS - OCT 22
Date: 990906
From: an...@aol.com
ANJEC 1999 New Jersey Environmental Congress
"TROUBLED WATERS"
Friday, October 22, 1999, 12:30pm
Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
* * *
SCHEDULE
12:30pm - Registration
1:00pm - Welcome, Sally Dudley, ANJEC Executive Director
1:15pm - Plenary Session
"The H2O Region: Reclaiming Half Our Heritage"
Tony Hiss, Taub Research Center, NYU. Author of _The
Experience of Place_, co-author of _The Third Regional
Plan
2:15pm - ANJEC Environmental Achievement Awards
Gary Szelc, ANJEC President
2:45pm - Workshops Session I
4:00pm - Break
4:15pm - Workshops Session II
5:30pm - ANJEC Annual Meeting
5:45pm - Reception to Honor New Jersey's Riverkeepers
Bill Sheehan - Hackensack Riverkeeper
Maya Van Rossum - Delaware Riverkeeper
Andy Willner - NY/NJ Baykeeper
John Cronin - Hudson Riverkeeper
* * *
WORKSHOPS
SESSION I
WETLANDS PROTECTION
Despite a strong state law, NJ continues to lose wetlands at an
alarming rate. What can we do at the state and local level to protect
wetlands more effectively? Learn how and when to comment on LOLs.
Penny Hinkle - Harding Township Environmental Commission
Robert Lin - PMK Group
Moderator: Joy Grafton - ANJEC Trustee
. . .
UPDATE ON NJ OPEN SPACE PRESERVATION
Last fall, voters authorized $98 million per year for open space
acquisition. Find out how to make the most of these new funds.
Highlights of county and local initiatives to protect farmland and
open space.
Susan Craft - Burlington County Office of Land Use Planning
Gary Rice - Green Trust Management/NJDEP
Laura Szwak - Morris Land Conservancy
Moderator: Michael Catania, The Nature Conservancy, NJ Chapter
. . .
PLANNING FOR BMPS:
A NEW APPROACH TO STORMWATER MANAGEMENT IN YOUR TOWN
An overview of stormwater management techniques that mimic natural
systems, and a discussion of the local zoning and planning techniques
needed to enable their use.
Julia Somers - Great Swamp Watershed Association
Karen Parrish - Great Swamp Watershed Association
John Thonet - Thonet Associates
. . .
WATERSHED MANAGEMENT IN NEW JERSEY: EVERYONE HAS A ROLE
Many organizations and individuals are taking part in NJDEP's
Watershed Management and Planning Initiative. Learn what should be
happening, and who should be doing what at both the state and local
levels, to make this effort work.
Cliff Lundin - Mayor, Lake Hopatcong
Bill Wolfe - Sierra Club, New Jersey Chapter
Moderator: Abbie Fair, ANJEC
. . .
SESSION II
STREAM MONITORING
More and more groups are establishing volunteer monitoring programs
as a way to assess water quality and measure the impacts of
development and corrective actions. Learn how to finance a program,
train volunteers, decide what to test for, and use your data.
Martha Shaw- Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association
Tom Kellers - Monmouth County Environmental Council
Moderator: Bill Rawlyk - Chair, Kingwood Township Environmental
Commission
. . .
THE STATE PLAN & CAFRA: BLENDING THE TWO
The proposed CAFRA II regulations would rely on the regional planning
concepts of the State Plan, including redirecting growth to centers.
CAFRA and State Plan experts discuss the benefits of managing coastal
development in this integrated way.
Dery Bennett - American Littoral Society
Carl Block - Mayor, Stafford Township
Michele Byers - NJ Conservation Foundation
Moderator: Candace Ashmun, Pinelands Commission
. . .
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE??? AND IS IT SAFE TO DRINK?
Information and tools for assessing water quality and supply. Learn
about Sourcewater Assessments, Water Quality Standards, and how to
interpret the new Consumer Confidence Reports from water purveyors.
Amy Goldsmith - New Jersey Environmental Federation
Dave Peifer - Upper Raritan Watershed Association
Moderator: Don Kirchhoffer, NJ Conservation Foundation
. . .
GIS AND WATERSHED PLANNING:
Learn what NJDEP's new land use/landcover data layer can do in
watershed planning. See how it is being used in buildout analysis in
the Great Swamp Watershed, and preview DEP's interactive Internet
mapping tools.
Karen Patterson - Great Swamp Watershed Association
Hank Garie - NJDEP
Moderator: Chris Allyn, ANJEC Trustee
* * *
The NEW JERSEY ENVIRONMENTAL CONGRESS is an annual statewide gathering
of environmental organizations, agencies, citizen groups and
environmental commissions.
For further information, directions and registration, please contact:
Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC)
POB 157
300 Mendham Rd.
Mendham NJ 07945
Tel: 973-539-7547, 609-737-7263
Fax: 973-539-7713
Email: an...@aol.com
Web: http://www.anjec.org
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Back issues of the Garden State EnviroNews are available at
http://www.gsenet.org/library/11gsn/11gsn.htm
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