Articles Affordable housing
Branchburg's Fourth Round Housing Plan, Explained: 255 Units and the April 15, 2026 Order
What Branchburg's 2025–2035 affordable-housing numbers mean, how the obligation was settled with Fair Share Housing Center, which mechanisms the plan counts, what the court certified on April 15, 2026, how the Committee and Planning Board adopted the implementing ordinances and resolutions, and where the record's figures disagree, with each discrepancy set side by side.
The short version
- 255 is the number of new affordable homes Branchburg must plan for between 2025 and 2035 (the “prospective need”). Its rehabilitation share (the “present need”) is 0.
- The plan provides 208 units plus 63.5 bonus credits — 271.5 credits — against the 255-unit obligation plus seven unsatisfied Third Round units carried over.
- On April 15, 2026, the Superior Court approved the plan and entered a Consent Order Final Compliance Certification, effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2035. The court retains jurisdiction and requires annual monitoring.
- The order lists all four mechanisms — Whiton Hills, Evans Way/KRE, Vollers/Premier and 147 Stony Brook Road — as proposed. The certification is not a record that any of the homes has been built.
The case is In the Matter of the Application of the Township of Branchburg, County of Somerset, Superior Court, Law Division, Somerset County, docket SOM-L-142-25 (court file stamps read SOM-L-000142-25), before Judge William G. Mennen. Filings are posted on the NJ Courts Somerset affordable-housing page.
How the obligation was set
| Date | Step | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 18, 2024 | The state Department of Community Affairs’ advisory prospective-need estimate for Branchburg: 297 units | Recital in Resolution 2025-45 |
| Jan. 27, 2025 | Resolution 2025-45 commits to 0 present-need and 247 prospective-need units; the Planning Board’s June 2025 resolution later recites the recalculation as 248 | Resolution 2025-45; Planning Board Resolution PB 2025-018 |
| Jan. 28, 2025 | The Township files its declaratory-judgment action and the resolution in docket SOM-L-142-25 | The April 15, 2026 order; the NJ Courts file list dates the resolution by this filing date |
| Mar. 20–24, 2025 | Mediation with Fair Share Housing Center settles at 0 present-need and 255 prospective-need units; Resolution 2025-70, adopted Mar. 24, authorizes the agreement | Resolution 2025-70; HEFSP p. 6 |
| April 2025 | A Superior Court order establishes 0 / 255 | Recited in later records (see the date discrepancy below) |
| June 24, 2025 | The Planning Board adopts the HEFSP, Resolution PB 2025-018 | Planning Board resolution |
| June 25, 2025 | At a special meeting, Resolution 2025-124 endorses the plan, 4–0 (Mayor Thomas Young, Mr. Schworn, Mrs. Columbus and Mr. Owens; Mr. Beatrice absent); the HEFSP is filed with the court | Resolution 2025-124; special meeting minutes; the April 15, 2026 order |
| Dec. 8, 2025 | Resolution 2025-218 authorizes the Township to execute a Consent Order for Conditional Compliance Certification, 5–0 on the consent agenda | Committee minutes |
| Jan. 8, 2026 | A Consent Order Conditional Compliance Certification requires the AH-8 ordinance, as the Township’s filing recites | March 13, 2026 filing |
| Feb. 9, 2026 | Ordinances 2026-1507, -1508 and -1509 introduced, all five members in favor | Committee minutes |
| Feb. 10, 2026 | The Planning Board finds the three ordinances consistent with the Master Plan: Resolutions PB 2026-010, -011 and -012, each 7–0 | Planning Board minutes |
| Mar. 9, 2026 | The three ordinances adopted, each 5–0; Resolutions 2026-64 to -67 adopted on the consent agenda, 5–0 | Committee minutes |
| Mar. 13, 2026 | Six implementing items filed with the court | March 13, 2026 filing |
| Apr. 15, 2026 | Consent Order Final Compliance Certification entered | The order |
Fair Share Housing Center and the New Jersey Builders Association objected to the Township’s January calculation; Resolution 2025-70 recites an NJBA letter stating it had no intention of objecting to or appealing the settlement.
Two date and number discrepancies the record leaves open:
| Question | Record A | Record B |
|---|---|---|
| The Township’s initial figure | Resolution 2025-45’s operative text: 247 | The June 2025 HEFSP and Planning Board Resolution PB 2025-018 recite the Township’s recalculation as 248 |
| The date of the order fixing 255 | Resolution 2025-124 and the March 13, 2026 filing: April 8, 2025 | Planning Board Resolution PB 2025-018: April 18, 2025 |
| How long the Whiton Hills controls are extended | The HEFSP: at least 40 years beyond the original expiration | Board Planner Kendra Lelie, in the Planning Board minutes of June 24, 2025 and February 10, 2026: another 30 years |
The April 2025 order is known from these recitals. The settlement figure of 255 superseded the initial number in every later record.
The plan’s mechanisms
The Planning Board adopted the Housing Element and Fair Share Plan after a June 24, 2025 public hearing at which Board Planner Kendra Lelie presented it; the minutes record that no member of the public commented. Mr. Owens, a Committee member who sits on the Board, said the question was not whether to accept a plan but how many units it must include, and that housing development is preferable to warehouse development, a view the minutes say other Board members shared. Its table:
| Mechanism | What it is | Units | Bonus credits | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whiton Hills extension of controls | Block 74, Lot 1: 288 apartments built 1992–1996, 74 deed-restricted affordable (30 age-restricted rental + 44 family rental); Township-subsidized extensions of at least 40 years | 74 | 37 | 111 |
| Evans Way/KRE | A proposed 400-family-unit inclusionary project on 38 acres, 80 affordable (20%), about 10.5 dwellings per acre, with a two-acre donation along Stony Brook Road contemplated | 80 | — | 80 |
| Vollers/Premier | A proposed 250-unit inclusionary project on 21.5 acres (Block 9.03, Lot 16): 46 affordable family units plus four special-needs bedrooms | 50 | 22.5 | 72.5 |
| 147 Stony Brook Road | A four-bedroom single-family home (Block 36, Lot 2) owned by Youth Consultation Service, Inc., for supportive and special-needs housing | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| Total | 208 | 63.5 | 271.5 |
That is a 16.5-credit surplus before, and a 9.5-credit surplus after, the seven unsatisfied Third Round units carried into this round. The Evans Way site is covered in its own issue.
The zoning that carries it out
| Instrument | What it does | Vote |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinance 2026-1507 | Creates the Route 22 Affordable Housing 8 (AH-8) zone for the Vollers/Premier site: up to 250 multifamily apartment, townhouse and stacked-townhouse dwellings plus one special-needs group home; 50 affordable credits (at least 46 affordable multifamily units and four special-needs bedrooms); 10% minimum open space; 60% maximum impervious coverage; site-plan review to refine a 31.9338-acre concept plan | Introduced Feb. 9, 2026; adopted Mar. 9, 2026; 5–0 at both readings |
| Ordinance 2026-1508 | Adopts the amended Evans Way Redevelopment Plan (up to 300 apartments and 100 townhouses, 80 affordable) | Introduced Feb. 9, 2026; adopted Mar. 9, 2026; 5–0 at both readings |
| Ordinance 2026-1509 | Repeals and replaces the affordable-housing and development-fee articles of the Land Development Ordinance to match the State’s amended regulations | Introduced Feb. 9, 2026; adopted Mar. 9, 2026, 5–0 |
| Resolution 2026-64 | Affirmative marketing plan | Mar. 9, 2026, 5–0 (consent agenda) |
| Resolution 2026-65 | Spending plan | Mar. 9, 2026, 5–0 (consent agenda) |
| Resolution 2026-66 | Whiton Hills agreement and deed restriction for the extension of controls | Mar. 9, 2026, 5–0 (consent agenda) |
| Resolution 2026-67 | Amended redevelopment agreement and affordable housing agreement with S/K Stoney Brook Associates (Evans Way) | Mar. 9, 2026, 5–0 (consent agenda) |
At the February 9 introductions the minutes record that “all were in favor,” with all five members present. On March 9 each ordinance passed by recorded vote, 5–0: Mr. Thomas Young, Mrs. Anna Columbus, Mr. David Owens, Mr. Brendon Beatrice and Mayor James Schworn. The minutes record 40 members of the public, none of whom spoke at the three hearings. Township Attorney William Willard said the State had amended its affordable-housing and Uniform Housing Affordability Controls regulations, so every municipality must update its fee ordinances, and later that once the remaining agreements are executed the developers can bring their applications to the Planning Board or Zoning Board. Between the two readings, the Planning Board found each ordinance consistent with the Master Plan on February 10 (Resolutions PB 2026-010, -011 and -012, each 7–0). Ms. Lelie told the Board that Fair Share Housing Center had made a “soft objection,” not to anything of substance, seeking a consent order approving the plan, and that the Housing Element did not need to change.
The court order of April 15, 2026
The Consent Order Final Compliance Certification recites that the Township and FSHC jointly sought certification, that FSHC confirmed compliance with the settlement terms, and that no other interested party filed a challenge or any other communication in the certification proceeding — a narrower statement than the earlier objections to the January 2025 number, which the settlement records themselves describe. The court found the HEFSP satisfied the objective standard, subject to the order’s conditions.
The order’s tables:
| Round | Obligation | What the order reports |
|---|---|---|
| Prior round | 302 units | 316 mechanisms, 241 bonus credits, a 14-credit surplus |
| Third Round | 1,000 units | Mechanisms totaling 993 units with 743 bonuses; seven unsatisfied units carried into the Fourth Round |
| Fourth Round | 255 prospective units, 0 present need | 272 credits, 208 units, 64 bonuses, 265 after the carryover, a 10-credit surplus |
As of the order’s entry, it listed the Third Round statuses this way: Henderson/Genesis’s nine family rental units awaiting site-plan approval; 40 TJC/Premier units approved; Advance/Fox Hollow’s 28 family rental units and River Trace’s 11 family for-sale units complete; and North Branch Walk (91 units), Summit Green (92 units, 22 bonuses) and Judelson/Glen (125 age-restricted units) under construction. These are the order’s statuses, not a current construction update. The Genesis project came before the Board of Adjustment on April 15, 2026 as Mitras Realty (formerly Genesis Capital), 1100–1104 Route 28: a nine-unit, 100% affordable building that Board Planner Lelie said earned 18 Third Round credits and was carried into the Fourth Round. The case was carried to July 15, 2026 without a vote.
The half-credit difference. The order’s Fourth Round table reports 272 credits, 64 bonuses and a 10-credit surplus; the HEFSP’s Table 3 reports 271.5, 63.5 and 9.5. No record located explains the difference.
147 Stony Brook Road. The HEFSP’s table marks the four special-needs bedrooms “Occupied”; the April 15 order marks the same mechanism “proposed.” No record reconciles the statuses.
What the order requires now
- Yearly entries in the state Affordable Housing Monitoring System by each February 15, covering development-fee and other trust payments, the current trust balance and prior-year expenditures with purpose and amount, and unit construction, starts, certificates of occupancy, affordability, bedroom mix and deed-control dates.
- Deed-restriction uploads for sites as developments come online.
- A realistic-opportunity review as of July 1, 2030, on which a party may file; the order’s public notice covers any inclusionary site lacking preliminary site-plan approval by that midpoint.
- The court retains jurisdiction to enforce the certification and the plan.
On trust-fund money: the 2025 audit lists $12,004 in “Affordable Housing Fees” received during 2025 as non-budget revenue, and a “COAH Trust” account label among trust-fund reserves, but its scanned figures do not securely align a balance with that account. The Committee adopted the Fourth Round spending plan for the trust fund as Resolution 2026-65 on March 9, 2026; the open-space levy in the budget is a separate fund.
What comes next
- Site plans. The Evans Way/KRE and Vollers/Premier projects each need Planning Board site-plan approval, with public hearings. On March 9, 2026, KRE’s counsel, Derek Orth, said construction can begin once all items are finalized and State approvals granted, and that the Evans Way project would take about 24 to 36 months from breaking ground.
- Monitoring. The Township’s yearly state monitoring entries, due each February 15, will report unit construction, deed restrictions and trust-fund activity.
- Open figures. The two dates for the April 2025 order (recited, with the January 8, 2026 conditional order, in later records), the half-credit difference, the Whiton Hills term and whether 147 Stony Brook Road counts as occupied or proposed are set out above as the records give them.
What residents can do
- Site-plan hearings. The Evans Way and Vollers/Premier projects need Planning Board approvals with public hearings. The Board meets the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building courtroom; check the agendas and minutes index for a posted notice.
- The court. Filings in SOM-L-142-25 are posted on the NJ Courts Somerset affordable-housing page.
- Corrections to this page can be emailed to info@localwhy.org.