SOMERS POINT — The Planning Board may allow a developer planning luxury waterfront townhomes to construct a group home for developmentally disabled adults on the other side of the city to satisfy affordable housing requirements.
City Council adopted a resolution Feb. 12 referring the amended 90 Broadway Redevelopment Plan to the Planning Board for review.
Its next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 18, but an agenda released last week did not list the item for consideration.
Council voted July 10, 2025, to adopt the 90 Broadway Redevelopment Plan, designating the property an area in need of rehabilitation.
It is adjacent to John F. Kennedy Memorial Park and includes three two-unit bayfront homes and an apartment building.
Development plans call for their demolition and the construction of 24 townhouses on the property fronting Great Egg Harbor Bay, requiring an affordable housing element that is planned off-site.
The amendment sets the location of the affordable housing at 104 Cleveland Ave., a property owned by Planning Board Chairman Paul Striefsky where a group home is being planned.
Striefsky told the Sentinel that he would recuse himself and that Vice Chairman Brian Cotton would oversee the meeting.
Councilwoman Janice Johnston said she received a letter concerning the plan but could not address the issues cited because it was anonymous. However, she said she received a lot of questions on the issue from other residents.
A copy obtained by the Sentinel states “the proposal would construct what has only been referred to as a ‘6-bedroom group home’ on this empty lot. This neighborhood is currently zoned R-1 residential and would normally need a variance to comply with multi-family housing.”
Johnston said state statute makes development of housing for developmentally disabled residents a permitted use in all residential zones.
“We are not allowed to say ‘no, you can’t build that there’ if somebody wants to come in and build a group home,” she said, noting it would be run by a nonprofit agency.
She said there would be a deed restriction preventing the property from ever becoming a rooming house.
City resident John Helbig, who is chairman of the Environmental Commission and Green Team and served on the Economic Development Advisory Commission, said he dislikes redevelopment agreements such as the one regarding 90 Broadway because of their “lack of transparency.”
Helbig said if the resolution passed, it would go to the Planning Board to determine whether it is consistent with the city’s Master Plan, noting the board’s chairman, who owns the property, does not open those meetings to the public.
He said that while it’s true that the use is permitted in all residential zones, the city still has the opportunity to review the project for stormwater management, parking, impervious coverage and landscaping.
“These are issues that people in that neighborhood would be concerned about,” Helbig said.
“I don’t understand why we don’t have a public hearing, have somebody come in here, tell us what a group home is, tell us how it’s managed,” he said. “I think that we should have the people that are actually going to manage the facility come here.”
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff