Evesham affected by state commercial development COAH fee
At the July 1 meeting of the Evesham Township council, part of the meeting was dedicated to legislation actually out of the township’s control — the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing.
Specifically, the topic of discussion was the state-mandated 2.5 percent fee imposed on those who develop commercial properties, a fee which is then put into a trust fund for the future development of affordable housing.
Township Manager William Cromie gave an overview of the law and fee, as he said there was recently some discussion of it by council.
“The COAH law the state has put into effect puts into law a responsibility of commercial developers to pay into a fund based on the assessment of the property in order to be used by the township in future use in COAH development,” Cromie said.
Mayor Randy Brown said he wanted to bring the issue to the attention of council as he knows its members are the ones most often directly approached by developers and other interested parties looking to build commercially in the township, as opposed to state lawmakers.
“Council, one of the reasons I wanted to bring it to your attention is once again this is a reflection again of a law that is out there right now which is not too business friendly for those of us on the bottom rung down here trying to bring commercial revenue and ratables to the town,” Brown said.
Township Solicitor John Gillespie said there was legislation that imposed a moratorium on the development fees, but it expired in July 2013.
He then said the state senate and legislature recently passed bills that would extend the moratorium, but Gov. Christie has vetoed such extensions in the past and the township would be forced to continue collecting the fee until a law is adopted.
“In the past, the governor has vetoed these moratoriums, so there’s no guarantee that he’s going to adopt it, “ Gillespie said. “This senate bill did pass by I think a pretty huge margin. Unless it’s adopted, there is no discretion on the municipality’s part in terms of collecting the development fees for which the statute requires that collection.”
Brown said the fees were substantial and detrimental to attracting developers.
“II you were going to develop commercially now, and your application came into planning or zoning board post July 1, 2013, you would now have to pay this developers fee, and it could be substantial in the 10s of thousands of dollars, even into the 100s of thousands of dollars depending how big your project is,” Brown said.
Gillespie said the legislation now before the governor also allows any fees collected since July 2013 to be returned to the developers.
“There are some provisions in this statue that govern how you get your money back if the legislature adopts this,” Gillespie said. “Evesham Township, along with 565 other municipalities, is simply awaiting the outcome of this legislation.”
Brown said he believes the governor will approve the new moratorium.
“Being on the executive board of the league (New Jersey League of Municipalities), I feel more confident than Mr. Gillespie does that the governor is going to sign this,” Brown said. “All indications are to the league that he is going to sign it, so let’s hope they keep their word.”
If signed, Brown said even the temporary moratorium extension would be good for bringing commercial developers to town.
“We get a year-and-a-half of breathing room for anybody that wants to continue to create commercial,” Brown said.
In other news:
• An overview of the recent performance of the Indian Spring Country Club as under township management operations will be presented at the July 15 council meeting.
