Franklin Lakes July 18, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 3 Borough to purchase Temple Emanuel property by Frank J. McMahon The Borough of Franklin Lakes has signed a contract with Temple Emanuel of North Jersey, currently located on High Mountain Road, to purchase templeowned property located at the corner of Colonial and McCoy roads. The contract includes a purchase price of $2,000,000 for all of the property except about 49,000 square feet, which the temple will retain as a single family residential lot. Susan Yudin, the president of the temple’s congregation, advised that the temple intends to hold that lot for use as a future parsonage. The temple congregation purchased the property about 15 years ago and planned to build a temple on the 15.7-acre site. That plan was denied by the zoning board of adjustment after a public hearing that lasted for 31 meetings. That denial was reversed in Superior Court, and a revised plan was ultimately approved by the zoning board. However, the temple was never built. The borough’s motivation to purchase the site stems from the state’s intention to seize any money that has been in the municipality’s affordable housing trust fund for a period of four years or more unless that money has been committed for the purposes of constructing affordable housing. The borough plans to have affordable housing, or housing for people with special needs built on the site using the $1,678,677 that is subject to seizure by the state if that money is not committed by the July 17 deadline. According to Franklin Lakes Borough Administrator Gregory Hart, the municipality has a total of $2,622,820 in its affordable housing trust fund and $2 million will be used to purchase the temple property while $622,820 will be used to reduce the borough’s debt to the City of Garfield. Franklin Lakes entered into a regional contribution agreement with Garfield in 2003. That agreement allows Franklin Lakes to pay Garfield to have some of the borough’s affordable housing obligation assumed by that city. Hart advised that a revised spending plan has been submitted to the state’s Department of Community Affairs and Council on Affordable Housing to permit the expenditure of the money from the affordable housing trust fund to acquire the temple property and to pay off the existing debt the borough has with the City of Garfield. The contract indicates the property is being sold without a broker in “as is” condition and that the temple will obtain planning board approval to subdivide the 49,000 square feet of the property that will remain under the temple’s ownership. The contract is contingent upon the borough’s receipt of authorization from the state’s Council on Affordable Housing and any other appropriate state agencies for the money to be used for the purchase of this property. It constitutes a settlement with the temple of its objection to the borough’s 2008 housing plan which did not include this property for affordable housing. The contract also waives all application fees due to the borough for the subdivision of the residential lot from the rest of the property. In addition, the contract gives the borough the right to proceed with closing title on the property within one year of the date of the contract if the state approvals have not been received. If the temple decides to sell the subdivided lot in the future, it agrees to give the borough a “right of first offer” to purchase the subdivided lot. The monies in the borough’s trust fund come from fees paid by developers since the New Jersey Supreme Court’s 1990 decision that determined that mandatory development fees are authorized by the state’s Fair Housing Act of 1985. Fees must be paid by developers based on the assessed value of residential and nonresidential projects with an additional fee collected if a change in use or increase in density is granted to a developer. Under that court decision, the money must be used within a four-year period of it being collected for low- and moderate-income housing, or for the purchase of land for low- and moderate-income housing sites, affordable housing rehabilitation, payment of regional contribution agreements, providing assistance designed to make units more affordable to low- and moderate-income people, and/or administrative costs necessary to implement the borough’s affordable housing obligation.