Questions on COAH

This year’s election for the open seat on the Cranbury Township Committee is more important than ever to our town due to issues such as COAH / Affordable Housing.

As I have spoken with residents of our town about my candidacy for Cranbury’s Township Committee, I have been asked many questions regarding COAH and Affordable Housing and how it will impact our community, I have also been asked about my views and how I would handle these issues if I were elected to the Township Committee. Below are my replies to a few of the questions I have heard regarding Cranbury’s COAH / Affordable Housing Obligation…

Question: What should be done now for Affordable Housing in Cranbury?

Win’s Answer: The original round 3 regulations provided a means for municipalities to create housing and provided affordable housing for many families. Under the prior rules Cranbury and CHA devised a great plan to build additional housing that incorporated the use of regional contribution agreements.

The revised plans drastically increase our obligation, remove the RCA’s and retroactively change some of our prior commitments. Our goal should be to get COAH to agree to accept our original Round 3 Plan as submitted.

Question: What should be done to support the needs for Affordable Housing for Cranbury in the future?

Win’s Answer: While Cranbury cannot directly make changes to COAH regulations, we can be influential. An equitable tradeoff of development fees for commercial and non-commercial should pay for new affordable housing, as long as the fees do not hinder smart development in New Jersey. Cranbury can work with our elected state officials to help bring some rationality to COAH. Bill Baroni has been a champion for Cranbury on COAH and we should continue to work with him. It remains to be seen if Linda Greenstein will be of any help to Cranbury due to her lack of tangible support to date for our town. Wayne DeAngelo has shown he will not be of any assistance. Cranbury also needs to keep fighting the current legislation by taking a strong position against the new COAH rules, participating in appropriate legal action and not accepting what has been done to Cranbury and towns like ours. I pledge to fight for Cranbury so that we have a fair Affordable Housing obligation which will not destroy our town as we know it.