Affordable housing was a major topic of discussion at the March 31 public hearing on Morristown’s Speedwell Avenue redevelopment.
Here is the redeveloper’s explanation of why the agreement has been renegotiated down from a 20-percent requirement for affordable units to 5 percent. Richard Murphy represents Morristown Development LLC, an offshoot of Trammell Crow.
Richard speaks for just over three minutes in this clip. He maintains that the project is not economically feasible at the higher percentage.
As explained previously, the audio quality is sketchy.
You will find more videos from the hearing here.
Here is where to download the presentation from the town planners, Jonathan Rose Companies.
You can read more about the Speedwell Redevelopment project here.
Now that the 2010 census figures have been released, I would like to see where Morristown as a community stands in terms of the total number of residential units that now exist and the income levels of the occupants. How many rental units are there compared to owneroccuppied units. Since rental units require the same services as owner occuppied units and yet pay half the taxes, how doew this impact Morristown’s ability to build more of the so called affordable rental units. What percentage of all residential units are considerd affordable. What percentage of affordable units can be reseasonably supported by the taxpayers.
I would also want to know how many affordable units are proposed to be demolished to add how many of the newly constructed units. Older units if larger, conveniently located and with some green space are not neccesarily less desirable than smaller new units.