Residents fear fallout of Ford Ave. changes
Age restrictions may be removed from some proposed housing
BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer
Milltown residents on Tuesday urged borough officials not to approve an amended plan for the redevelopment of Ford Avenue.

Many who spoke at the Borough Council meeting said the new plan is being rushed, and that if brought to fruition, it will mar the character of the town.

"It definitely is going to have a larger impact than any other project in our lifetimes," resident Bob Belloff said. "If we do this wrong, we're going to alter the fabric of this borough to the point that there's no going back."

Due to litigation filed against Milltown almost a year ago by Lawrence Berger, the owner of the 22.5-acre Ford Avenue site, borough officials were asked by a state Superior Court judge to submit an amended plan that would fulfill its requirements to the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). Judge James Hurley set a Nov. 30 deadline for the plan to be submitted.

Berger's lawsuit claims that Milltown is not fulfilling its affordable housing obligation, among other allegations made against the borough's redevelopment agency and Planning Board.

The council on Tuesday voted to introduce an ordinance to amend the redevelopment plan. Councilmen John Collins and Randy Farkas, the only Republicans on the council, voted against the amendment.

Mayor Gloria Bradford, also a Republican, pointed out that the ordinance was only being introduced, and that residents would have a chance to ask questions to the borough's professionals at the council's next meeting, before a decision is made.

"Grill the heck out of these guys," council President Eric Steeber told the residents. "I want to hear your questions, [and] I want to hear the answers."

The new redevelopment plan would maintain the 276 housing units, but would change them from being all age-restricted to instead include 114 senior townhouses, and 112 "age-targeted" condominiums. The age-targeted units would be marketed to and geared toward seniors because of their layout and number of bedrooms, but would be open to buyers of any age, according to John Hoffman, special counsel to the borough. Of the non-age-restricted, or age-targeted units, 40 would be one bedrooms, and the remaining 72 would be two bedrooms, Milltown Redevelopment Agency Chairman Anthony Zarillo said.

As originally slated, the remaining 50 units would be rentals, but now instead of being completely age restricted, 36 of them would be open to all populations. These units would be for low- to moderate-income tenants.

Berger's plan, as described in his lawsuit, would be to build 550 housing units, none of which would be age restricted. A larger portion of Berger's units would be dedicated to meeting the borough's affordable housing obligation. If he is successful in court, Berger would still need to obtain approval from the borough to go forth with the non-age-restricted housing.

The residents who spoke out at Tuesday's meeting said they did not like either of the plans. According to an informal survey conducted by resident Chris Grotkopf during Saturday's Pride in Milltown Day, neither do most others in town.

According to Grotkopf, 94 percent of residents are against going with Berger's plan, or the one that would be carried out by the borough's chosen developer, Omar Boraie, if the borough moves forward with that plan.

"No plan is better than a bad plan," Grotkopf quoted from one of the surveys.

Resident Eddie Holton suggested that a nonbinding referendum be held in order to gauge public sentiment officially on the subject, and asked the mayor and council if that would be something they would consider. He said their lack of response could be construed as a refusal.

Bradford later told the Sentinel that it is too late to put a referendum on the ballot for December, so it is a moot point.

Borough Attorney Patrick Diegnan pointed out that if the amended plan is not approved, Berger's plan would be the only alternative.

Charlie Jegou, a longtime vocal opponent of the Ford Avenue project, asked officials why they decided not to get COAH certified, saying residents were warned them of the consequences.

"We knew about the COAH obligation for years, and we did nothing about it," Jegou said.

Diegnan said it was not so much a decision on the part of borough officials, but that they simply did not adopt an effective plan to become certified.

"It wasn't as a result of an action, it was a result of inaction," Diegnan said.

Some residents urged the council to ask for a time extension for presenting the plan, saying it was being hurried unnecessarily.

"I think it would be a monumental mistake to rush to a decision on anything because of the speed of litigation," Lawrence Citro said, pointing out that he is an attorney. "What is coming before you guys in the next two weeks ... it could theoretically sound the death knoll for this town as we know it. You've got to do this based on what's right for this town."

Farkas brought up the fact that the town has a pending application for senior housing on property nearby on Washington Avenue. Though the application is incomplete, it is possible that it could serve to fulfill part of the town's COAH obligation, Farkas said.

"As far as I'm concerned, we owe it to every resident and every taxpayer to leave no stone unturned," Farkas said.

Bradford later said that is a real possibility for officials to explore, and that she thinks attorneys for the town are working to get an extension on the deadline to submit the amended plan.

A major source of residents' concerns about the redevelopment of Ford Avenue deals with the additional burdens it could place on taxpayers by adding children to the school system, and due to the added need for municipal services like police and rescue workers. An influx of traffic is another thing worrying the project's opponents.

Jegou presented future costs for taxpayers that he projected to come from the project, and his wife Carol noted that impact studies done on the project did not take the new plan into account. She suggested that the studies be conducted again, and their results made available to the public.

Board of Education member Alexis Harley said it also has not been considered that seniors who own multibedroom homes in town may sell them to move into age-restricted units created in the project, which would allow for more families with schoolchildren to move into the seniors' former houses.

Citro presented a plan of his own, which involved selling off Milltown's COAH obligation to another town, something Bradford later said is no longer allowed by COAH. She said many residents are put off by the idea of having low- to moderate-income housing in their town, and pointed out that low income is considered below $35,000 per year, and moderate is anything under $65,000 to $70,000 per year.

"We're not talking about Section 8, we're not talking about homeless," Bradford said.

The meeting spanned close to four hours, with residents expressing the importance of the council's upcoming decision. The ordinance will be up for adoption at the council's Oct. 22 meeting.

"If people don't come out of their homes for this, God help them," resident Alex Weiner said.