Activists call on city for affordable housing
Unger hosts meeting on sustainable growth in Long Branch
BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH - City Councilman BrianUnger hosted ameeting at city hall last week where activists called on the city administration to focus on affordable housing opportunities in Long Branch.

The meeting, titled, "Toward a Sustainable Long Branch:ADialogue onCommunity Equity and Smart Growth," was a "great turnout," according to Unger.

"It was a really good meeting," Unger said. "There were some great speakers.

"Folks really wanted a forum where they could raise a number of issues outside of a council meeting where they only have five minutes to speak," he said.

Community groups and activists at the meeting condemned the use of eminent domain for private redevelopment and called on the city to stress affordable housing and preservation of the city's diverse socio-economic fabric, according to Unger.

Speakers at the event included Ocean- Monmouth Legal Services attorney Harold Creacy, who told the audience of roughly 90 residents that one day home health workers will have to live so far outside of coastalMonmouth that patientswill not be able to receive proper medical care.

"The average two-bedroomapartment goes for $1,200 amonth and 60 percent of the rents are higher than that," affordable housing expert Connie Pascale said at themeeting.

"The fact is, a wage earner with one child requires an income of $50,000 per year according to federal poverty guidelines, but $35,000 per year is the median income in MonmouthCounty," she said, adding, "Where are our working families going to live?"

Creacy added that when long-term residents lose their homes to new luxury developments, theywill findthat thehousing available on themarket nowis "largely unaffordable."

Unger described community equity and sustainable growth as concepts that "help us get a handle on what we care about in our towns and cities" and help transform government policies from encouraging selfishness and isolation to becoming tools that help people "win theAmerican dream."

Unger called for an intensive focus inLong Branch on development of a transit village around the railroad station on Third Avenue to develop hundred of work-force housing units for commuters and hospital workers.

Panelist Frank Esposito, a professor of New Jersey history at Kean University, pointed out that the early history of Long Branch was rich and needs protection with a new historic preservation ordinance.

He said that resort communities that preserve history are attractive tourist destinations that add dollars to the area's economy.

"It's truly tragic that as we sit here, we have lost so many presidential sites in Long Branch," Esposito said. "We need to invest in historic preservation, not luxury housing, so that our children and their children will know who we are, where we've been."

Another panelist at the meeting, N.J. Deputy PublicAdvocate BrianWeeks, talked about recent legal decisions that directly affect the LongBranchMayorAdamSchneider administration's efforts to use the power of eminent domain to develop neighborhoods along the oceanfront with luxury condominiums.

Weeks said that under the New Jersey Constitution, a municipality may take private property fromone owner and transfer it to another for redevelopment, only if it is in a blighted area.

Weeks cited the recent appellate decision in Harrison that says a property owner retains the right to challenge a blight designation until the last stages of the redevelopment process, which would mean that owners in Long Branch still have the right to challenge the city's blight designation.

"The ruling could affect pending cases, like Long Branch," Weeks said. "The ruling essentially requires local officials to be up front and honestwith property ownerswhen they target an area for private redevelopment.

"Current lawis flawed because it does not require clear notice to property owners that the town could take their property against their will," he said.