Project Freedom Housing For Developmentally Disabled in Woodstown Approved

[njriverman]

Residents complain about Woodstown developments

Friday, July 03, 2009
By Jennifer Dailey
jdailey@sjnewsco.com

WOODSTOWN - Roughly a dozen residents came out to the planning board meeting here Wednesday night to complain about the new developments proposed in Woodstown.

During the meeting, the public hearing was held on the Project Freedom, Inc. final site plan approval for its development coming to the corner of Bailey Street and Woodstown-Alloway Road.

Carneys Point resident James Pope, who lived for many years in Woodstown, came to speak for the residents. Pope is also president of the Salem County Chapter of the NAACP.

"It sounds like a great project, but what have you done to notify them about the traffic impact and how it will affect the value of their homes?," he said. "They need a good reason why the development should come, how they would benefit, and what's in place to make them comfortable."

The residents complained that because the Bailey Street area is already congested, bringing in new developments would make it worse. They fear the value of their homes will go down with the new developments coming in. With low-income developments such as Bailey Corner from the Ingerman Group, they believe the borough is trying to put all the low-income developments on Bailey Street. The Bailey Corner development would be built off Bailey Street on land that is in Pilesgrove Township.

Some residents were specifically confused about the Project Freedom development The Village. As Project Freedom is a non-profit that provides housing for those that are developmentally disabled, they expected the whole development to be for the disabled.

"After the first meeting I thought the development was for the developmentally disabled, but it doesn't look like that now," said resident and Salem County NAACP Vice President Ken Braxton.

Braxton is now referring to the fact that Project Freedom must offer a minimum of 10 units for those that are very low income.

"Our mission is to provide the disabled with housing but the state has asked us to be more integrated since we are receiving COAH credits. We expect it to be predominantly disabled but we do have to open it to the general public," said Tim Doherty, executive director of Project Freedom, Inc.

As far as the traffic issue, planning board Chairman Forrest Eichmann said traffic is a problem in the area of Bailey Street. However that is an issue that would need to be taken up with the county and the state as it is considered Pilesgrove Township.

Though the board did discuss having one of the entrances to The Village as an emergency exit, they will be unable to do so for fire safety reasons.

In the end, the planning board gave Project Freedom, Inc. final site plan approval for the development with conditions as there are a few things that need to be squared away. Such conditions included a driveway encroachment that needs to be resolved and a walk path to the park to be added into the site plans.

Pope questioned the board as to why they didn't consider their concerns before voting.

"This has been in the works for years. There's been publicity in the paper and we have legally fulfilled what we had to do to inform residents. We feel this is positive thing for the community as a whole," said Eichmann

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congrats and good luck!

[nemisis]

This could be a very good thing. Very uplifting for those living far different lives than we do. Why force people into dependence when they can enjoy even some independence.

Really don't understand why there always must be a requirement for set asides for low income? Why isn't there a requirement for set asides for the people this development was designed for instead of just low income? Any developer could include this group as well as low income.

[Sassygrl]

Actually, the set aside is for low income disabled and very low income disabled.

I agree with you that any developer could include disabled units, and Tim from Project Freedom has said that he gets calls for such units. He focuses on low income because most disabled folks are more likely to have limited financial means depending on their level of disability.

There is a trend in the building industry to build 'universal design' standard buildings which are basically regular new construction that includes universal access features (level entries, wide doorways, roll under kitchen cabinets, bathrooms with adequate turning areas and roll in showers...)as the standard of construction. It is happening now in areas with a lot of boomers.

I am really pleased about this and wish Project Freedom the best of luck. They have done wonderful projects in central NJ and it is a real blessing to have one of their communities built here in Salem County.