Jamestowne Village Apartments, Toms River, N.J., March 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Toms River Township council members this week described their position as being between a rock and a hard place, presented with a decision to allow the expansion of a troubled apartment complex or face the prospect of being forced to allow a developer to push through an ever larger expansion plan if a so-called “builder’s remedy” lawsuit were to be filed.
The mayor and split township council largely set aside their deep political rift at a meeting Wednesday night, voting 6-1 to adopt two zoning measures that will allow for 52 units of income-restricted housing in different areas of town. The ordinances were introduced and adopted as part of the township’s compliance with a settlement that resulted from state-mandated affordable housing requirements under the Mt. Laurel doctrine. While two of the ordinances allowed just a few units, the major vote of the night centered around a settlement of a challenge to the affordable housing plan filed by the owner of the Jamestowne Village Apartments on James Street. In 2022, the township’s zoning board turned down a plan to add 100 apartments to its complex, which for years has been the subject of crime concerns.
The owner, JD Jamestowne LLC, this year challenged the township’s affordable housing plan in an effort to force the construction of the units, arguing the township had not met its affordable housing obligation. The ordinance adopted Wednesday night will allow the expansion of the complex by 42 additional units in order to set aside the challenge. Had the council not approved the measure, Jamestowne could theoretically have filed a “builder’s remedy” lawsuit to force the allowance of the units on an 80-20 percent market-to-affordable basis, which could have led to the construction of more than the 100 units they had applied to build in 2022.
Jamestowne Village Apartments, Toms River, N.J., March 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Both council members and Mayor Daniel Rodrick signaled frustration with the plan, but called it the lesser of two evils. One resident of neighboring Walnut Street opposed the ordinance, opining that the area was already overdeveloped and had a large number of affordable units.
“I think Walnut Street has provided a lot of affordable housing, and I think we should be given the recognition of our contribution to affordable housing in the township,” said Brian Lower, listing a total of 676 apartment units in the adjacent area, including the 338 that already exist in Jamestowne.
“With the pressure the town is under, this is the lesser of two evils,” said Councilman Thomas Nivison.
Council President David Ciccozzi said he would “reluctantly” for vote in favor of adopting the ordinance.
“Is this the best solution? No, but the problem is, going forward, what does the township do when we’re directed by the Trenton to build these affordable housing units?” he said. “Where do we go? It’s a bargaining item for these builders.”
“If we didn’t line up the number of units, they would have gotten to do them anyway, except they would have gotten to do five times as many,” said Rodrick, striking an equally frustrated chord.
The sole vote in dissent came from Councilman Robert Bianchini.
“There were a lot of concerns about this area being overdeveloped already,” he said, vowing to vote ‘no.’
The Jamestowne Village ordinance was one of three adopted Wednesday night in response to a larger challenge of the township’s plan promulgated by the Fair Share Housing Center, an activist group that sued nearly every municipality in the entire state in an attempt to force the construction of more affordable housing. Initially, the state had calculated Toms River needed to build 1,175 new income-restricted units between its present need and future needs over the next ten years.
The other two ordinances, which were adopted by the council, will allow four units to be built as an addition on a building at 2008 Route 37; and six additional units at the apartment complex being built in the redevelopment area near Hooper and Caudina avenues by slightly increasing the density of that complex.
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