The Haddonfield Board of Commissioners approved two more affordable housing overlays (AHO) at its March 9 meeting as part of the borough’s fourth round of fair-housing obligation.
An AHO is an area in town – such as a property or collection of properties – where developers need to build housing that adheres to that obligation. In the borough’s case, that means properties built in the AHOs will need 20% of units to be affordable, if the development has five or more units. Two to four units means paying into the affordable-housing trust fund.
Affordable means that the maximum rent for a unit won’t be higher than what someone making 60% of the median income can afford, with further restrictions based on the size of the household, if a person’s income is lower than the median and if the person owns or rents the property.
The two AHOs approved increase the borough’s current 11; nine that existed after the third round of fair-housing obligation were finalized in 2019. The overlays encompass six areas in town, five blocks along North Haddon Avenue and one at 144 Kings Highway West.
The Haddon Avenue blocks are separated into nine lots that will include addresses numbered 807, 715, 701, 615, 605, 520, 516 and 515 North Haddon Ave., and a parking lot next to 520 North Haddon Ave. That area includes a 7-Eleven, a Sunoco gas station, a photography studio and an office complex.
Scott Bennett, who lives near Haddon Avenue, opposes passage of the overlay because he believes it will increase congestion.
“I don’t oppose the affordable housing,’ he acknowledged. “What I oppose is the added congestion on Haddon Avenue, and throughout (Haddonfield) entirely. It’s not every lot. But I’ve been here 20 plus years, and I constantly see one house being torn down, two placed in its place. Lots being shoved in, like behind borough hall.
“It’s becoming overly congested,” Bennett added of the town. “And overly built out. And I do understand some of the reasons for it, of course. But I just want to go on record saying I dislike it. I think the zoning laws should be much stricter across the board, and they’re not.”
Mayor Dave Siedell said the borough’s new master plan tries to address some of the issues Bennett raised. Administrator Sharon McCullough explained that one of the reasons an office building was included in the new overlay is that if the area did transition to residential, there would be space to accommodate its occupants.
“We felt that based on the changes that are occurring with office buildings and people going away from office buildings except for health-care industry, that if for some reason those started to become vacant, that one of the options would be for the owner to switch them to residential,” she said.
Maggie Rees, who also lives near Haddon Avenue, wondered if the owner of the Sunoco station on Wayne and North Haddon Avenue could accommodate a multi-story house. McCullough responded that existing regulations allow a developer there to build up to 35 feet, but that the only change with the AHO would be if a property is built there, it would need to adhere to affordable-housing restrictions.
Edna Mangold, who lives on Wayne Avenue and was with Rees on a Zoom call, asked if her taxes would increase. Siedell repeated that what the borough is doing only affects a property that gets built in the overlay zone, and that there would still be the normal zoning and planning processes.
McCullough pointed out that while there is currently no proposal to build in the two new zones, a developer has bought a property that used to be a Wells Fargo Bank and is located in one of the nine older AHOs that will include some kind of residential property. The borough won’t know what goes there until the building process begins.
“We really don’t know unless they tell us, because once it’s their property, they follow the rules, planning, any zoning changes they might need, affordable-housing overlays, all the things that are in place,” the mayor noted. “That’s why we do this now … so that they know what they’re getting into in the first place.”
