Residents pleased to hear rezoning will not proceed
Mobile home owners feared being forced from Howell location
BY TOYNETT HALL Staff Writer

HOWELL - Mayor Joseph DiBella told a group of residents who live in the Green Acres Manor mobile home park that the property on which their homes sit will not be rezoned.

The announcement drew applause from residents who were in attendance at the Jan. 22 meeting of the Township Council.

The residents' concern arose out of an ordinance that was introduced by the council on Dec. 18 to rezone land at West Farms and Snyder roads from mobile home park and agricultural rural estate to residential adult community. The rezoning could have resulted in the property on which the Green Acres Manor mobile homes sit being sold by the land owner and the residents being forced to move.

Green Acres Manor is at 1 Snyder Road. The residents own their mobile homes, but not the land.

During the Jan. 22 council meeting Di- Bella called the inclusion of the mobile home park within the rezoning ordinance a "technical deficiency" and said it has been removed from the ordinance, which is being revised.

Upon hearing the news one woman told the mayor and council, "thank you for not throwing us out on the street."

Resident David Dutton, who appeared before the council during a previous meeting when the rezoning ordinance was discussed, asked the council members to officially declare Howell's mobile home parks as affordable housing.

Township Manager Helene Schlegel addressed that request, saying, "There is a process that has to be followed. Each mobile home park will have to fill out paperwork to qualify" as affordable housing.

Affordable housing as defined by the state is housing that is sold or rented to people whose income meets regional guidelines established by the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). Municipalities are required to provide a certain number of affordable housing units.

Councilman Robert Walsh said a residential development cannot simply be labeled affordable housing as COAH defines it.

"There is a lot more to it," he said. "There are not separate rules made for you or your neighbor. There is a process. There are income verifications, sales limitations and the owner of the park needs to agree" to that designation.

DiBella asked Schlegel to research the matter.

Dutton urged the council to make an effort to deem the mobile home parks as affordable housing.

"We just need to survive, we are barely surviving now. The only people that benefit in these situations are the developers," he said.

Shari Williams, the state vice president of the New Jersey Manufactured Homeowners Association, came to the meeting to show her support for people who own mobile homes.

"There are many mobile home parks that are under siege. It is scary for people with fixed incomes," she said. "Eminent domain laws give these mobile home owners no rights."

Williams suggested that Howell officials "should encourage developers who purchase land around Green AcresManor to uplift the landscape of [the community] and offer those residents low interest loans."

She praised officials for addressing the situation which involved the rezoning ordinance and the mobile home park.

"You all have the opportunity to set precedent for the county and the state," Williams said.

Linda Hanson, administrative director for the Mobile Home Owners Association, was also in attendance at the council meeting. In a telephone interview Hanson said, "Mobile home owners need to realize they have rights." She said mobile home owners should be aware of their rights and not let themselves be harassed by anyone.