Development Watch

High Bridge housing plan will proceed after ruling

After two stinging setbacks in major lawsuits, High Bridge officials have decided not to appeal an affordable housing ruling that cleared the way for a long-proposed 170-unit development.

In separate rulings last month, an appellate court upheld the state Council on Affordable Housing's handling of the case, and rejected a borough effort to send it back to the zoning board.

Plainfield senior condos planned

Bingo on the first floor, a two- bedroom on the second.

Plans for a new Plainfield Senior Citizens Center call for 63 condominium units to be built above it, which would also be marketed to seniors. The project would free the city from spending anything on construction costs and would generate about $400,000 a year in taxes.
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Green said he was pleased that the condominiums would bring in about $400,000 in taxes each year and would not require the city to give the developer tax breaks. The condominiums, Green added, will not be low-income housing but something seniors "can look for ward to purchasing." Because of federal and state budgetary constraints, Plainfield can no longer look for federal or state dollars, he added.

Benefits for luxury townhome buyers to include swim pools

Under a redeveloper agreement it's signing with the BLRA, Trammel Crow has agreed to pay the BLRA $18.4 million for the rights to build 530 "luxury rental" apartments on the two westernmost blocks of the Bayonne Bay tract comprising 7.42 acres. Trammel Crow is providing a deposit of $11.3 million now and will pay the rest by June 1, 2007.

Trammel Crow's would-be partner for developing Bayonne Bay - D.R. Horton - backed out at the 11th hour and the BLRA hopes to find a replacement, by Aug. 1, to build the balance of the approximately 1,700 apartments projected in the Bayonne Bay master plan. BLRA officials predict the 32 acres of developable property within Bayonne Bay will, ultimately, be sold for more than $100 million.

Mannington Twp. officials warn of housing boom

The possibility of more than 5,000 new homes coming to this rural farming township is not out of the question if current zoning rules aren't amended, officials here have been told.

If current zoning standards remain in place, that number could even increase to more than 6,000 new homes and more than 10,000 new residents, according to township planners Philip Caton and Linda Weber.