Article: Affordable Housing Advocates Speak About Cranbury and other towns...
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Jersey Dad



Joined: Tue, May 20 2008, 11:02 pm EDT
Posts: 179
Location: Cranbury Estates
PostPosted: Mon, Dec 22 2008, 1:26 pm EST    Post subject: Re: Article: Affordable Housing Advocates Speak About Cranbury and other towns.. Reply with quote
Guest wrote:
To me, the follow up question is on whose recommendation or what process did the town follow when we hired the COAH consultant? Was it lowest bid? Is our agreement with her simply to review the numbers put forth and help us adjust? If so, then that was a poor use of money and she's done her job. If she was to help us look at numbers and whether they made sense, I have not seen that arguement. Cranford's number was based on backyards and land that was restricted right of way for the parkway. Cranbury has the turnpike. Did COAH use turnpike land in their calculations to determine Cranbury's number? No one says they even looked at that.


I don't know if our consultants were charged with the task of combating COAH's calculations. If not, someone should be given that job. However, my understanding is that they are responsible for identifying opportunities to satisfy the obligation. Until recently, our consultants missed the opportunity to count 11 units from NJ SERV housing toward our obligation. To quantify this potential ommission, 11 units x $161,000 = $1,771,000.

According to what was said publicly, this opportunity was brought to the attention of our consultants by a member of the public after several residents suggested a review of alternative and creative approaches to satisfying our obligation. Members of the public were encouraged to bring forth any knowledge of other similar facilities.
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Jay T.
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PostPosted: Mon, Dec 22 2008, 1:54 pm EST    Post subject: Re: Article: Affordable Housing Advocates Speak About Cranbury and other towns.. Reply with quote
JD,

That is an excellent point. I would hope that our town would have written into the contracts some sort of indemnification or responsability clause where such errors and omissons result in a reduction in fees. That is a costly mistake for a paid consultant to make.

In terms of responsability for challenging the COAH number, I would think that would be of equal importance given the record of COAH in devising their calculations. Any means to reducing the number should be explored before we start building and creating an obligation for the tax payers.
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