Existing small-scale infill development option:
Mountainside Crossing – Mountainside, NJ (18 units, two floors, two buildings – 22,500 square feet total)
By George Kimmerle
The “builders’ remedy” method, as an approach to solving New Jersey’s affordable housing crisis, is having a devastating impact across the Garden State.
Many other options exist, options that should be squarely on the table. A shining example of these options is the construction of special needs and workforce housing, to name just some.
The biggest issue with the builders’ remedy approach is the devastating density it requires towns to accept, and literally “live with” — for the sake of a handful of dedicated affordable units.
A ratio of 15 percent affordable units versus 85 percent market-rate units translates that, for every 1.5 affordable units built, the town requires a build-out of 8.5 additional market-rate units. Along with this equation comes shouldering the burden of the costs for schools, sewers, roads and commercial development that come hand in hand with this choice and these allowances.
Also, let’s not forget to recognize the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on litigation in the courts, passed on to the town’s residents (taxpayers), all for no good reason, and with little outcome.
However, there is another way to prevail, through a sounder and more rational approach.
If a town has a court-required quota of 150 units to address, then it must commit and build over 1,000 units to achieve those 150 affordable units, under the builders’ remedy approach.
The average designated affordable site is 2.5 to 3 acres across our state, with an average density of just 10 to 12 units per acre. In that case, the numbers say that three acres will yield 30 to 36 units, and over 36 equivalent sites would have to be built in order to meet the 150-unit affordable quota.
On the other hand, should the town simply opt to build the targeted 150 units, then the total build-out translates to just three to four sites of 25 to 30 units each.
Those affordable units, if built as a two to three-story structure, will occupy a footprint of just 12,500 to 17,500 square feet (a 1,250-gross-square-foot average per unit).
This translates to the size of a modest office building, or two to three sizable suburban homes (clustered as three buildings, with eight units per building).
Many states, like Connecticut, simply take this approach as a matter of course and understand that scale and impact rather than just the affordable housing burden within their communities matter. This avoids over-scaling, and diminished returns for everyone involved, to include developers, buyers and neighbors alike.
In those cases, the average cost of a unit runs between $250,000 and $275,000, or $2 million to $2.2 million for an eight-unit residential structure — less if the land is trusted to a local not-for-profit to build and operate as a part of their community outreach program.
Funding can come from several state sources that include the New Jersey Affordable Housing Trust Fund or Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) in designated communities, as well as private and public endowments and bonds. Funding from the New Jersey Housing Mortgage and Finance Agency (NJHMFA), through its discounted loan programs for affordable and special needs housing, is available as well.
When workforce housing units become available, they become a means for local police officers, firefighters and paramedics, as well as teachers and other municipal employees to live in the neighborhoods where they work and serve the local citizenry — an important giveback to these public employees who give so much to their communities.
They are our sports coaches, scout leaders and local volunteers and all should be afforded an opportunity to live and raise their young families in their town. This goes for retirees and veterans as well — many of which have spent decades serving the same local needs.
To be clear, a choice needs to be made.
Do we overburden our communities with bad choices from an archaic and disproven development mechanism? Or do we take this issue head on and solve this problem once and for all?
George J. Kimmerle, PhD, AIA, PP, NCARB
Kimmerle Group
NJ AIA Architectural Firm of the Year
NJBIZ and NJRE Career Icon in the Real Estate and Design/Urban Planning Community
