$2M Bond Requested For Chatham Township Affordable Housing Project

CHATHAM, NJ — Chatham Township Committee members recently announced plans to introduce a $2 million bond ordinance to fund the construction of affordable housing units on the site of the former Charlie Brown's Restaurant.

Ziad Shehady, the administrator of Chatham Township, explained that the $2 million bond is needed for the Walters Group Apartments to start construction in March at the public workshop session held this week.

The new residential development, which is planned for 522 Southern Boulevard in Chatham Township, will have 63 affordable housing units spread across three buildings, with a two-story building facing Southern Boulevard and two three-story buildings behind it.

According to Shehady, as part of the townships' contract with the Walters Group, a $2 million loan is a requirement. "We are preparing for the need to finance that pretty soon. They are likely going to be having shovel in the ground around March."

The bond ordinance is anticipated to be presented at the township committee meeting on Nov. 29 and adopted by the committee with four votes on Dec. 13's meeting.

"We have to amend our spending plan, because this $2 million was not envisioned in the spending plan and the idea that the developers trust fund is going to be able to sustain this is questionable. The revenues have not been matching the targets that were in the original spending plan and they are likely going to decrease" Shehady said.

Mark Lois, a committee member, put forth the request that the finance committee review the budget to determine whether any unused funds could be used in place of the bond, which Shehady addressed.

"I'm not sure what it is you want to look at. We have a $2 million loan that we need to make and we don't have the money and the affordable housing trust fund is going to be the primary source of it to the extent that it can be. Other than that, we have to provide $2 million by March," Shehady said.

Debra King, chief financial officer for the township, assured Lois that the bond would be a short-term loan that would be paid off in the next two to five years.

Lois then proposed that the loan be paid for with unused funds from capital ordinances and previous capital surplus, as well as a previous bond premium in the amount of $346,000, rather than a new bond.

In response, King argued that all those funds would be used in next year's capital budget. "To exhaust them all on something where we have another avenue to take would be financially not responsible because then we're going to exhaust our means of financing what we currently have out there on the table."

The bond ordinance is expected to be discussed further at the next township committee meeting, which is scheduled for Nov. 29.