The Courier - June 12, 2008

END OF THE LINE FOR RCAs?
M'town: Shirking RCA obligations?

By MELISSA L. GAFFNEY
Staff Writer

    As Bill A500 approaches the New Jersey State Senate for a vote, the Middletown Township Committee voiced concerns during its recent public session on June 16.
    According to the bill's sponsor, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., D-Camden, A500 would abolish municipalities' use of Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs).
    Matthew Morehead, chairman of the Monmouth County Bayshore Young Democrats, said Middletown has been the state's leading abuser of RCAs.
    Morehead said Middletown has not fulfilled its obligations within the confines of the township because its elected officials "do not want economic diversity, only elitism."
    He said affordable housing is for the town's children. "This is [for] our grandparents, our seniors," Morehead said. "Yet [the governing body] is building an exclusionary society where Middletown has traditionally been a broad-based economy."
    In an article published in the April/May 2008 issue of Middletown Matters, Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger said the township's current obligation from the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) stands in the neighborhood of 2,160 units.
    During the township's June 16 public session, Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante said Middletown has a COAH obligation of anywhere from 1,500 to 2,100 units, "depending upon how the number is calculated."
    In the newsletter, the mayor also wrote that, since. 2000, the township has built or approved 1,187 multi-family housing units, 440 of which are affordable housing units.
    In the article, Scharfenberger also noted how one of the ways Middletown has been able to fulfill its COAH obligation is through RCAs.
    During the committee's June 16 session, the mayor characterized eliminating the option of RCAs as a "huge problem" for Middletown.
    "Just do the math of how many units would have to be constructed in town here to provide these affordable housing units," Scharfenberger said. "The overwhelming number of people that would be in the schools and on the roads ... It's just a crippling effect."
    Deputy Mayor Pamela Brightbill agreed A500 would hurt the township. "Aside from eliminating the option of RCAs, [the bill] relieves the commercial developing community from its financial obligation," she said. "[This] does not reduce the obligation of us to provide affordable housing units resulting from commercial development."
    Brightbill said more of the burden would be on Middletown, were RCAs to be eliminated, and that developers would seemingly have the "higher seat."
    During a press conference held before the Assembly session on Monday, June 16, Paul Bellan-Boyer, the chair of the New Jersey Regional Coalition Housing Task Force, said Middletown would be a stronger town if it were to build its affordable housing in town.
"If you look at what Middletown has done with RCAs, [the township] shifts its housing obligation to Asbury Park, Red Bank and towns that are more dense, have less jobs and more challenged school systems," Bellan-Boyer said.
    The chair said what the regional coalition sees statewide is that RCAs have a demonstrable effect when used. "Communities stay less diverse and more segregated, both in terms of race and economics," Bellan-Boyer said. "They deny opportunities to good schools and good jobs to the people who need them and are the backbone of any community."
    Scharfenberger said this legislation is not a joke and is irreversible, if passed. The mayor added he was "cautiously optimistic" Bill A500 would not pass in the state Senate.