Affordable Housing Advisory Committee
Council Members
Mayor Al Smith (Chairman)
Deputy Mayor Josh Losardo
Township Officials/Advisors
Tom Strowe, Project Coordinator for Redevelopment (Secretary)
Bob LaCosta, Construction Official
Paulette Coronato, Class IV Planning Board Member
Environmental
Bill Picard
Recreation
Deanna Dell-Bene
Board of Education
Cindy Clancy
Tonya Williams, Alternate
2019 Meeting Schedule
The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC) will meet on the second Wednesday of every month at 6:00 p.m. at the Council Chambers at Town Hall (430 Park Avenue), unless otherwise noted. See the calendar below:
| Date | Location | Time |
| Wed., January 9 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., February 13 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., March 13 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| * Wed., April 10 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., May 8 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., June 12 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., July 10 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., August 14 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., September 11 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., October 23 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., November 13 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
| Wed., December 11 | Town Hall | 6:00 p.m. |
* Meeting has been postponed
Agendas
Minutes
Northside Resident Members
Luisa Bianco
Ann DeCamp
Laura Szpond
Sylvia Hicks
Marc Shanker
Reverend Kenneth Truslow
Michelle Wyrwa
Amy Beth Jones
Southside Resident Members
Rich Fortunato
Jonathan Pecarsky
Matthew Mendelsohn
Scott Shulman
Frank Conley
Holly Simon
Suman Dahiya-Shah
Alisa DeLeo
Resolution No. 2018-203
Affordable Housing Advisory Committee Endorses Reform Legislation
MAY 21, 2019 -- The Scotch Plains Affordable Housing Advisory Committee endorsed four state legislative bills intended to reform the affordable housing process at their monthly May meeting.
The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee supports providing affordable housing in New Jersey for low income families, seniors, millennials, veterans, those with special needs as well as other groups. However, the current manner in which affordable housing is determined fails to consider how local communities may be affected by the construction of thousands of new units.
The bills endorsed by the Committee will end the costly, inefficient and inconsistent court mandated process currently being imposed on municipalities by instituting a State legislative committee to evaluate and determine the need for affordable housing at the State and Regional levels and require an analysis of a municipality’s population, infrastructure, school class sizes and school services, before assigning affordable housing numbers.
Click here to read the entire press release.
Mayor Al Smith Speaks at Public Hearing in Trenton
Mayor Al Smith spoke in Trenton on July 25th at a public hearing on the state-imposed affordable housing requirements. The hearing was hosted by the Assembly of Housing and Community Development
Committee.
Click here to read Mayor Smith's testimony.
Affordable Housing Legislation
The Mayor and Township Council are committed to finding ways to reform the affordable housing process to make it fairer and more realistic for municipalities. State Legislation is required to reform the affordable housing process.
One example is Assembly Bill A-1648, which will reform the affordable housing process to establish additional factors for municipal adjustment used in calculating fair share affordable housing obligations and provide for a population-based cap for these obligations. Please contact Tom Strowe at (908) 322-6700 ext 317 or tstrowe@scotchplainsnj.com for any questions.