BRICK TOWNSHIP — The township’s fourth round Affordable Housing and Fair Share Plan was presented to the Brick Township Planning Board and adopted unanimously at its June 11 meeting.
The plan is now set to go before the township council.
The plan was presented by Brick Township’s planner, Tara Paxton, who went over the realistic development potential (RDP) for the town’s fourth-round obligation.
Paxton said, “We don’t have to build new affordable housing to be compliant with the regulations. We just have to maintain or create the opportunity to keep affordable housing that we already have over 2,000 of.”
The current proposed plan offers 35.03 credits for affordable housing, while the RDP for the fourth round in Brick is 29 credits or units.
The first site Paxton discussed was a scattered-site family unit at block 511, lot 1 (533 Central Ave., according to the township’s tax map), which would provide two affordable housing units with one bonus credit.
According to the township’s affordable housing plan, the township entered into an agreement with Northern Ocean Habitat for Humanity to build two new single-family scattered site for-sale units.
The township will be subdividing block 511, lot 1 into two building lots and conveying the property to Northern Ocean Habitat for Humanity to build these units and sell them to two income-qualified families.
The next properties discussed were 10 single family for-sale homes, throughout the township, that had expiring control, which would provide 10 total credits. According to Paxton, the homes were deed restricted and have been for the past 25 years and were set to expire over the next 10-year phase.
“Our affordable housing administrator, Homes Now, works with those homeowners to extend their deed restriction,” said Paxton.
A site known as “Joanne Marie” at 305 to 307 Drum Point Road had a site plan approval in 2023 that includes 18 new apartments with four family rentals set aside for affordable housing. As part of the plan, the township will be looking to extend controls for two units with one bonus credit at Victorian Gardens.
Paxton said, “So like we are doing for the extension of expiring controls for the single-family homes, we are doing that for apartment rentals as well.”
According to Paxton, the township is going to work with its code enforcement department to identify landlords who would be willing to let the township use the Affordable Housing Trust Fund money for the affordable family rental program.
“We would use the trust fund money, purchase a deed restriction and then retain that rental unit as an affordable unit,” said Paxton.
In the current plan, the township is expecting one unit from this plan.
The third mechanism that the township is using is age-restricted rentals at Brightview Assisted Living, which was approved for an assisted living facility in 2023 on Burrsville Road and Route 88, which will provide nine Medicaid beds.
According to the plan, the Brightview Assisted Living location would provide six units and .3 bonus units towards the affordable housing plan.
“One of the ways we are hoping to backfill what we didn’t meet…from the prior rounds is we have the potential for obtaining over just 48 credits from the existing group homes in the township of Brick that we didn’t claim credit for before,” said Paxton.
According to Paxton, the township has been speaking with AMIB and other providers who would be willing to work with them for supportive special-needs units.
The township is currently projecting eight credits with four units and four bonus credits for group homes.
According to Paxton, the township is required to provide for affordable housing zoning and that, for any municipality that reduced its number, it is a state statute and a federal mandate.
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