John Quattrocchi
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Question 1: Verona, like most other New Jersey towns, now faces the prospect of more development for affordable housing. What steps would you take to mitigate the potential impact of development in Verona?
This is a very timely question, since the issue is at the forefront of challenges we currently face in Verona.
The NJ Fair Housing mandates carry a two-fold effect for towns across the state. First, the laws and the courts can force development, even where school crowding, traffic congestion, and other quality-of-life characteristics would deteriorate. Second, once a Fair Housing mandate is part of a development, many of our local zoning rules may not apply. Less local control over our community is never a good thing.
The threats to our quality of life in Verona, therefore, are real. We are already a well-populated town, and we would all agree we have excessive street traffic already. However, we need more than just sensible development to comply with the court directives.
First, we are a small and intimate community. That is not a detriment. That is an asset for us. There is no reason we cannot engage the residents and property owners in town, together, to understand what may be evolving in their community. What considerations our town leadership may be working through. What might be the tax abatement model (ie: PILOT), timing of construction, traffic controls, effect on schools, aesthetics in a neighborhood, etc. How would such a development satisfy our mandates, or would it only move us closer to a target? All of these topics can – and should be – discussed in community forums. Meeting times and presentations should be openly publicized, with multiple sessions so we engage as many of our concerned citizens as possible. Their input is as important to getting to sensible solutions as anything else may be. This is an important topic and should not be confined to Council meetings alone.
Second, these sorts of developments would be high-density, meaning many apartment units. Therefore, we must consider the long-term and on-going needs of our town infrastructure. Utilities such as water/sewer, power, effect on school population, fire/police/safety, and of course, traffic and congestion must be evaluated and included in the plan for that development. We cannot think about the development and these other needs independently. They must be part of a strategy, together, and from the start. That cannot be compromised.
Finally, I believe everyone can talk about the need for a strategy – not only for fair housing but for our town, overall. My view is that a proper strategy is one developed with community-wide engagement and participation. It must be visible and we must hold ourselves accountable to deliver on that strategy. I’ve achieved that on the Board of Education – three 5-year plans, over 15 years, with a much larger budget and with many successes. Most important to me, however, is that every one of those Strategic Plans was developed by over 100 members of our community, working together for many months, until the plan was right. Everyone who wanted to participate was welcomed. There is no reason we cannot do that for the town government side, as well. With some 81 cents of every property tax dollar going to the Town and Board of Education budgets, I can promise you that the plan would include both sides of our local governments.
Fair housing development is indeed an issue for Verona. However, whether this or any other topic in town, my commitment is to engage, strategize, work together openly and do all I can to move Verona forward for all our residents.
Well said.