October 1, 2014 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 7 Franklin Lakes McCoy Road special needs housing proposal due soon by Frank J. McMahon The Franklin Lakes Council expects the developer it chose to build, maintain, and manage a special needs affordable housing project on the vacant borough owned property at the corner of Colonial and McCoy roads to submit an application to the planning board later this fall. The latest conceptual plan shows an entrance and exit driveway from Colonial Road leading to a court- yard surrounded by parking spaces with a diagonal pathway through the courtyard. The plan does not show any access to or from the site from McCoy Road. There are five sets of buildings surrounding the courtyard which will provide 40 housing units, 39 of which will be used for individuals whose income is 50 percent or less than the median income. One unit will be for a superintendent. The borough signed a contract with Temple Emanuel of North Jersey in July 2012 to purchase the 14.4 acre property, minus about 49,000 square feet, which the temple later subdivided into a separate lot in order to retain it as a single family residential lot. The borough then sought bids from developers and chose one before closing on the purchase of the prop- erty in August 2013. The borough purchased the prop- erty with affordable housing trust fund money, which requires the borough to use those funds for the con- struction of affordable housing. The borough decided to build housing for people with special needs on that site. The borough’s purchase of the property was moti- vated by the state’s effort to seize any money that had been in the municipality’s affordable housing trust fund for a period of four years or more, or since 2008, unless that money had been committed for the purposes of constructing affordable housing. In September 2013, the council chose The Alpert Group, LLC and the Housing Development Corporation of Bergen County to develop the project, which will be located on the eastern side of the property near Colonial Road. The Alpert Group is a family owned and operated full-service real estate management and development company based in Bergen County that been in business for over 40 years. In May 2014, the council approved an ordinance des- ignating the property as an area in need of development. The borough planning board previously passed a resolu- tion approving that designation following a presentation by Borough Planner Elizabeth McManus. McManus explained that state law requires the property to be des- ignated as an area in need of redevelopment in order for the developer of the special needs housing to obtain the funding needed for that development. She described the condition of the buildings currently on the wooded site, which include a single family house that is considered substandard, unsafe, and unsanitary; a pump house that has been heavily vandalized and is dilapidated; a small storage shed that is overrun by weeds and is also sub- standard and unsafe; a detached garage, which is in poor condition with a collapsed asphalt roof, broken doors and windows, and water damage; and a small storage shed near the rear of the property that has also been van- dalized and is in unsafe and unsanitary condition with water damage. Prior to its sale of the property to the borough, Temple Emmanuel spent several years seeking approval from the borough’s zoning board of adjustment to build a new temple on the site. That application was denied by the zoning board after almost three years of public meet- ings, but that denial was reversed in Superior Court and a revised plan was ultimately approved by the zoning board. The temple never broke ground for the project. In June 2008, the temple congregation purchased the Union Reformed Church property on High Mountain Road, leaving the property at Colonial and McCoy roads undeveloped.