By ROBERT LINNEHAN | The Voorhees Sun
The Voorhees Township Committee took its first steps toward its third round Council on Affordable Housing obligations. Voorhees was only one of two municipalities in the county to be COAH compliant through the first two rounds.
The committee authorized the township planning board to review and evaluate the township’s third round COAH obligations, Mayor Michael Mignogna said. At the end of the second COAH round the township was required to have 476 COAH credits, which it was able to reach.
Audubon was the only other municipality in Camden County to be COAH compliant after the second round.
The number of units for the third round of COAH has yet to be set, Mignogna said prior to the committee meeting.
Committee Member Harry Platt said the township has always been COAH compliant and actually has a surplus of 63 excess COAH units that it can roll over to its third round.
“We’ve always been consistent and we’ve always been compliant,” he said.
Voorhees Township is in an advantageous position because it has never used Regional Contribution Agreements to reach its COAH obligations, Township Solicitor Howard Long said in a previous interview.
RCAs enabled townships to buy COAH credits from other municipalities to reach their COAH obligations.
Gov. Corzine signed legislation in 2008 to reform affordable housing laws in New Jersey and increase housing opportunities for low- and middle-income families. The bill effectively ended the RCA, which many municipalities used as a means to reach their affordable housing requirements under the Fair Housing Act.
In other township news:
The committee approved the sale of a new plenary retail distribution liquor license to a partnership between Scott D. McKay and John W. Neale for $560,000.
The township held an auction for the new liquor license on Dec. 21 and three qualified bidders were approved to participate, Township Administrator Larry Spellman said.
The township initially set the minimum sales price of the license at $400,000, Spellman said.
“It was an open bid process and we set the minimum bid at $400,000. As you can see the bid got up to $560,000,” he said. “We’re very pleased with that fact that we received $160,000 over our minimum bid amount.”
The partners delivered 10 percent of the winning bid to Voorhees by certified check at the end of the auction.
The businessmen will have 10 days after the notice of satisfactory completion of the licensing investigation performed by the Voorhees Township Police Department to deliver the remaining 90 percent to the township.
