300 Main St. Back in Borough's COAH Plans

Once thought to be ruled out as an option for affordable housing, Chester Borough has welcomed the property at 300 Main St. back into its plans to move toward its COAH affordable housing requirements.

The Chester Borough Council agreed on Tuesday night in a series of motions to designate part of its nearly $1 million in affordable housing funds to the eventual construction of a housing development on an acre of the two-acre property by Homeless Solutions, Inc.

The development at 300 Main St. is expected to contain a total of eight affordable housing units, with four more designated for very low income residents still scheduled to go on the property at 235 U.S. 206.

With the borough’s July 17 deadline to allocate affordable housing funds looming, Borough Planner David Banisch presented two other options for affordable housing development to the council on Tuesday night. Those included, respectively, keeping the property at 310 US 206 in the mix alongside one half acre of 300 Main St. and the four units at 235 US 206 and developing 235 US 206 in addition to the entire two acres at 300 Main St.

In the end, however, the majority of the council decided that it wished to designate an acre of the property for affordable housing. This was to strike a balance that will somewhat curb density issues on the property while leaving an acre of the property up for future residential or non-residential development.

“I’m still in favor of committing one acre for affordable housing and still retaining one acre as an asset,” said Councilman Gary Marshuetz, who was initially opposed to developing 300 Main St. for the purpose of affordable housing. “With all of the facts that have been presented at the last couple of meetings, I’ve conceded that we need to do something at 300 Main Street.”

Not everyone was in agreement, however. Councilman Tim Iversen noted that, despite recent events, he still is not in favor of developing the property for affordable housing.

“I’m more in favor of ownership as opposed to the Homeless Solutions option, and I would like any agreement that we have to continue as I spoke of,” Iversen said. “I just emphasize with 300 Main that I’m not really in favor of it.”

The cost of the projects comes out to $798,207, still $25,000 to $50,000 short of the at-risk funds eligible to be reclaimed by the state after the July 17th deadline. To curb the possibility of losing the unused funds, the council agreed to allocate them to cover administrative costs and site cleanup wherever needed in association with the affordable housing project.

The council may be in general agreement on how to allocate its affordable housing funds, but the decision ultimately comes down to COAH approval. Before the borough can move forward with beginning the projects, the affordable housing organization has to approve the spending plan laid out by the council on Tuesday night.

“Everything is subject to COAH’s approval of the spending plan,” said Borough Attorney Brian Mason. “If we end up in a situation where COAH disagreed, it could all get scrapped and we could start over.”