Published in the Asbury Park Press
BY JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
DOVER TOWNSHIP — Federal funding for an affordable housing development off Oak Avenue could be jeopardized because builder, Presbyterian Homes, has been unable to obtain a letter from United Water Toms River guaranteeing water service at the site.
Township Councilman Maurice B. "Mo" Hill Jr. said he became concerned after reading a recent letter from Senior Project Manager Heather Hill to United General Manager Nadine Leslie, in which Hill says millions of dollars in federal funding could be lost if Presbyterian Homes does not receive a "will-serve letter" from United.
"What's holding their project up right now is they need a will-serve letter from United Water," Hill said. "Time is of the essence. If they don't dot the I's and cross the T's on this, the funding could be pulled."
The water company issues will-serve letters to potential developers, indicating that water service will be available at their construction sites. United has been unable to issue will-serve letters since last September, when the state Department of Environmental Protection banned almost all new connections to the company's system.
The DEP took action because United had exceeded its state water allocation permit in three of the past five years. The company has applied for a new, expanded permit, and DEP officials have indicated a decision on that permit will likely be made sometime this summer.
United General Manager Leslie said the company has sent Presbyterian Homes' request for the will-serve letter to the DEP, and expects the state agency to make a decision within the next couple of weeks.
"It is under review," Leslie said Thursday. She said the DEP is looking closely at the project because "they don't want to make an exception unless there is a valid reason."
An administrative consent order between United Water and the DEP, signed in October, allowed the water company to connect 300 homes and businesses that had already received will-serve letters before the hook-up ban went into effect.
Presbyterian Homes has received more than $12 million in federal and private funding to build an 85-unit complex on seven acres off Oak Avenue. The units would be reserved for low-income senior citizens, and would help Dover meet its state-mandated requirement to provide affordable housing here.
The Presbyterian Homes site is included in Dover's affordable housing plan.
In her letter to Leslie, Hill of Presbyterian Homes noted that the federal funding, which comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, can be reserved for only a limited period of time.
"If water service is not made available to this project in the very near future, the fund reservation would be in serious jeopardy," Hill wrote. "In addition, every month that we are not able to reach initial closing with HUD increases the probability that construction costs will escalate and there will not be enough funding for the project."
Published in the Asbury Park Press on 05/26/06
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