Business View Magazine | August 2019

307 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019 Furthering the township’s efforts to promote diversity and housing opportunities for all income groups, in 2016, North Brunswick became the first municipality in Middlesex County to reach a settlement agreement to provide housing opportunities for low and moderate income households. Part of the township’s affordable housing plan included providing $5,250,000 of affordable housing trust funds (collected from private developers) to Community Investment Strategies, Inc., a leading developer of affordable housing in the state, to purchase and renovate the 184 unit Oak Leaf Village garden apartment complex that was dilapidated and crime-infested. Womack states, “We are very proud of this project, which is now known as North Brunswick Crescent, as we took a property that was a real problem for existing tenants and the surrounding community, and facilitated it being turned into safe, clean, and affordable housing for 183 lower income families without a cent of taxpayer dollars being spent on this redevelopment effort.” In the past, the township also facilitated low income housing for the elderly by the creation of the clergy-driven North Brunswick Housing Corporation, a non- profit housing corporation that developed the Paul J. Matacera Senior Apartments at North Brunswick, a 150-unit, four-story building for low and moderate income seniors. More recently, the township approved a 220- unit, four-story age-restricted rental project known as Amaranth on Route 130. While this project is luxury apartments, the township is requiring 10 percent of the units to be affordable to lower income households. According to Vigna, “The first of the township’s innovative efforts to address regional problems through municipal action that can readily be duplicated by other municipalities, took place in 1987 when the township appointed a Task Force of corporate citizens and elected officials to examine alternatives for reducing rush hour automobile trips in the Township, as traffic congestion on Route 1 pictured left Low and moderate income senior apartment building constructed by the North Brunswick Housing Corporation. NORTH BRUNSWI CK , NEW JERSEY