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Holmdel Public Pushes Back?
March 31, 2019 – Not surprisingly, due to a very light agenda, public comments on fire safety dominated the Township Committee meeting on Thursday, March 28th.
In addition to the comments on fire safety, Cindy Zipf, Executive Director for Clean Ocean Action, made public comments asking Holmdel to adopt a resolution against the Williams NESE gas pipeline project. Ms. Zipf, who had met Deputy Mayor Michael Nikolis at a recent Bayshore Conference of Mayors’ dinner, stated that the pipeline project will have a detrimental impact to the Raritan Bay with no benefit at all to New Jersey. (Please visit Williams NESE Pipeline for more information on this project.)
“Free” Fire House
The total loss of the house due to a fire at Blue Hills Drive coupled with the surprising findings in the fire study, turned fire safety into a “hot” topic, especially for southern Holmdel residents.
A new Holmdel citizens group called FAST – Fire Actions Safety Today - was invited to present the findings of the fire study to the public at the annual meeting of CILU on March 15th. Prior to that meeting, Mayor Eric Hinds announced a new “free” firehouse to be built at Bell Works. Somerset Development, the developer of Bell Works, will fund the cost of the construction of the new firehouse and, in exchange, will be allowed to build 195 new small 1-bedroom apartment units (approx. 600 - 700 sq. ft.) at Bell Works. These new apartment will not have any strings attached to them and will not count toward any affordable housing obligations, a subject of current litigation (see more below).
At Thursday night’s Township Committee meeting, most of the public comments echoed the sentiment of one resident that said: “There is no free lunch!”. Another voiced a concern that a firehouse located on private property, especially a large complex like Bell Works, is fraught with risks and could make Holmdel beholden to the developer. Yet another concern was that the 195 units are not in keeping with Holmdel’s character. Back when Bell Works was first being developed, there was a huge negotiation on how many housing units should be allowed and now, if the “free” firehouse option goes ahead, the number of units would go up significantly.
Prior to Thursday’s meeting, an article in the PATCH quoted Donna Vieiro, Holmdel’s Township Administrator, as saying that the township explored renovating the existing firehouse on Crawfords Corner Road but the “cost $1.5 to 2 million is prohibitively expensive”.
At the meeting, Administrator Vieiro said that she was misquoted, but that she didn’t think it was worth it to correct PATCH. It is not clear what was actually said when she was “misquoted”. Instead, she went on to say that there is no room to expand at that existing firehouse location. It is not clear there was any consideration was given to expanding vertically (i.e., on top of the existing structure), something similar to converting the attic of a house to living space, or renovating some of the nearby structures at the site.
As shown on the agenda for last year’s budget workshop on April 19, 2018, the planned capital expenditure for the Fire Department was $41,000 for 2018 and a total of $291,000 for the 6-year period from 2018 to 2023. Then-Deputy Mayor Greg Buontempo mentioned that he would be more comfortable if additional amounts were set aside for legal expenses and for emergency services, in particular for the Fire Department. Between the budget workshop and the Township Committee meeting on April 24, 2018 when the budget was introduced for approval, $500,000 was added to the Fire Department capital budget to include, specifically, a new fire truck. However, the Fire Chief stated that he was not made aware of this added amount to Fire Department budget and no new fire truck was ordered and this amount was never spent in 2018.
During the 2018 budget workshop meeting, then-Committeeman Eric Hinds made the point that while he supports “purse tightening”, if there is a “meaningful project”, the financial impact per $1 million of cost is approximately $9 per year per household. In addition, Hinds also noted that, while the Township cannot plan for it, there is anticipated revenue of as much as $7.5 million per year from PILOT (Payments In Lieu of Taxes) from Bell Works and the surrounding housing developments. Due to sinking fund requirements and other considerations, not all of this could be used to either reduce taxes or to spend currently. However, there is clearly ample room for the funding of future capital needs if so desired.
Anecdotally, some residents have confirmed that their homeowners insurance premium has gone up by as much as 25%. Let’s assume the 25% is the exception and is on the high side. Let’s also assume that a more reasonable increase might be in the 5-10%. The median house value in Holmdel is more than $600,000. The average homeowner insurance premium is likely to be in the range of $1,200 to $1,500 per year. A 5-10% increase in insurance premium would then in the range of $60 to $150 per year, a lot higher than the $18 per year calculated above (based on $2 million estimated cost). Obviously, this is an apple to orange comparison, since Holmdel’s community fire rating will also depend on proper staffing of firefighters and proper equipment including fire trucks. However, even if you were to double the cost from $2 million to $4 million to include the cost of another new fire truck and other equipment, it would appear that the cost to the average Holmdel is still less than the “hidden cost” of $60 – $150 per year increase in insurance premium borne by Holmdel residents.
The Township is currently in the middle of its annual budget planning process. The public comments made during last year’s budget workshop notwithstanding, it appears that the Township Committee is more interested in pursuing the “free” firehouse option. Based on public comments made at Thursday night’s meeting, the Township Committee might have been a little surprised by the “push back” from the public for this “free” firehouse option. Clearly, some residents feel that the cost of $1.5 -2 million (or $18 per year per household) for renovating the existing firehouse on Crawfords Corner Road, which Holmdel already owns and which also have easier ingress and egress for fire trucks, is an option that Holmdel should seriously consider instead of the “free” firehouse option.
Affordable Housing
Back on Jan. 26, 2019, I wrote about “Yet Another COAH Surprise”. Previously, we learned that the developer for Potter Farm on Red Hill Road had alleged that it was led down a path by Holmdel Township whereby Potter Farm was to be included as part of the affordable housing plan that was approved at the August 2017 Township Committee meeting and much to its “utter shock and amazement”, the plan approved at the August 2017 meeting did not include Potter Farms and the developer was never informed of the decision.
In January 2019, we learned that the developer for the “Route 35” property also alleged that it was led down the primrose path. It asserted that the settlement reached in 2017 was amicable and resulted in the developer – at Holmdel’s request – changing and abandoning its original plan for senior housing with no affordable housing claims to a plan that has a set aside for affordable housing. It further asserted that despite three years of negotiations that resulted in the 2017 agreement for the development of the “Route 35” property, the developer was never advised that Holmdel would not proceed with the rezoning (as required in the agreement) or that “Route 35” property would not be included in the latest settlement agreement.
We recently learned that the attorney for the Palmer Square Condominium Association had filed on Feb 2019, an objection to Holmdel’s latest affordable housing agreement. When the fairness hearing was originally scheduled to be on Feb. 26, 2019 Palmer Square had planned to present testimony of Brian McPeak on the environmental and related limitations on the development of the Palmer Avenue Site. Essentially, Palmer Square will argue that the presence of: 1. a conservation easement, 2. a NJDEP mapped wetland, and 3. municipal land use controls regarding environmentally sensitive areas and wetlands as well as flood plains control will all combined to make the Palmer Ave Site difficult to be “available” for the construction of affordable housing, especially when Holmdel’s Zoning Board had previously rejected a similar proposal at that site more than two years ago.
The fairness hearing before Judge Jamie Perri for Holmdel’s affordable housing is now scheduled for this Thursday, April 4th at 10:00 AM in Freehold. It should make for a very interesting hearing if any of these intervenors makes an appearance at the hearing.
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