Online videos irk Millstone Twp. officials

The ongoing debate over what Millstone Township should do to fulfill its Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligation has resulted in two videos about the issue being posted on YouTube.

The videos blast Mayor Nancy Grbelja and the Planning Board's decision to site 85 COAH units requiring a sewage treatment plant on a 33-acre parcel off Route 33 and Bergen Mills Road. Brian Lourenco, who lives near the site, produced the videos, which contain material edited from township meetings among shots of sewage treatment plants.

Lourenco, the owner of a New York City entertainment company, has been working on Republicans Scott DeMonte's and Michael Campion's campaign, but said the candidates did not approve the videos. The newcomers are running against RepublicanMayor Nancy Grbelja and her running mate Gary Dorfman in the June 2 primary.

Lourenco said he made the videos as a direct response to "the mayor's misleading letter to the entire town on township letterhead with regard to our COAH plan" and "to share with fellow taxpayers how one citizen interpreted the actions and statements of our elected officials throughout the entire unfortunate [COAH planning] process."

He alleges that the videos accurately reflect the problems he and other concerned citizens have with the manner in which township officials handled the COAH situation. Grbelja has alleged that the material is inaccurate.

"Viewers see video snip-its and hear voiceovers used out of context with an incredible skew toward [my opponents'] selfserving position," she said.

She said residents should compare the video content to the township meetings available in the municipal video library at www.millstonevideo.org.

The first video alleges that Grbelja did not inform the public about the Route 33 plan until Oct. 22, 2008, and that Committeeman Elias Abilheira only found out about the plan two days prior to that.

Grbelja said the video does not state that the township held nine public meetings about Millstone's affordable housing plan throughout 2007 and 2008.

"Despite the time and effort he put into the video, he must have accidentally forgotten to add the truthful and accurate elements of what actually transpired," she said.

In one video scene, Grbelja mistakes the number of bedrooms in the units as a qualifier for the number of COAH units and Township Planner Richard Coppola corrects her. Another scene shows Abilheira stating that the township could have submitted an alternative COAH plan. He did provide the township with two alternative COAH plans for possible submission to the state. They featured inclusionary development, meaning developing COAH units throughout the town instead of en masse. During the Dec. 10, 2008, Planning Board meeting, Coppola deemed these plans "not viable."

Grbelja alleged that an alternative COAH plan would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars or would require building 858 homes on 5,500 acres of farmland and open space.

Another video scene shows an exchange between Township Attorney Duane Davison and Abilheira regarding inclusionary COAH development.

When asked about the video, Davison said, "If you were to watch the entire reply by me from an unedited tape of that township meeting, I think you would see that, while I indicated that inclusionary development was in COAH's rules as a potential compliance mechanism, it was not realistic for Millstone or similar words conveying the same concept."

Davison said he has not seen the official tape of that township meeting, but feels the YouTube video has misrepresented him.

The YouTube video also shows the mayor stating that Davidson advised her that inclusionary COAH units would not count toward the township's 172-unit obligation.

"I don't recall the issue being whether or not units built in an inclusionary development would count toward our obligation," Davidson said. "I recall the question being whether or not an inclusionary development was an available compliance mechanism."

Davison said that he does not believe that Millstone should use inclusionary development to comply with its COAH obligation due to the "unrealistic" number of new units it would have construct. He noted that the township is involved in two lawsuits that take issue with the new COAH obligations. One lawsuit, authored by Special Counsel Stuart Koenig, Esq., states, that with inclusionary development "the affordable set-aside only serves to satisfy the increased growth share obligation created by the increased density."

"As a practical matter, inclusionary development is not capable of being used to satisfy any of the following: a growth share obligation created as a result of prospective residential densities less than COAH's presumptive densities; prospective non-residential development; nor retroactive growth share obligation back to Jan. 1, 2004," the lawsuit states.

Lourenco said the video does not question whether Davison thinks inclusionary zoning is a good or bad idea. He said that the video shows what the mayor said and Davison's response and no dialogue on that specific issue had been omitted.

When asked why the video does not mention Coppola, who drafted the COAH plan, Lourenco said that Coppola is not an elected official and is not directly accountable to the taxpayers of Millstone.

Lourenco's second video posted on YouTube accuses the mayor of lying about the number of COAH units the township must provide. During a meeting at the end of Aug. 2008, Grbelja stated that COAH has updated regulations and confirmed the municipality's new obligation of 172 units.

When asked to substantiate his claim, Lourenco cited COAH substantive rules provided under 5:97-2.5 which state that if a town's actual growth share obligation is less than the growth share obligation projected pursuant to N.J.A.C. 5:97-2.4, the municipality shall continue to provide a realistic opportunity for affordable housing to address the projected growth share through inclusionary zoning or any of the mechanisms permitted by N.J.A.C. 5:97-6.

"We must continue to 'provide a realistic opportunity for affordable housing' and continue to build in proportion to actual growth," he said. "This in no way requires us to have 172 units built at the end of 2018 if actual growth does not meet COAH's projections. Any statement insinuating that COAH is requiring Millstone to build 172 units is false, and by definition a lie."

Davison said he does not recall any township representative stating that the units must be built now and agreed with Lourenco about the wording of the rule.

"[The rule] says the town must provide a 'realistic opportunity' for those numbers of units," he said. "It does not say the town has to build those units. They must be in the plan and a developer may go forward with the 'realistic opportunity.'"

Davison said Millstone is involved in the litigation against COAH because it wants COAH to amend its rules.

"So that if the growth isn't there, you can amend your plan and take the excess units out of the plan to make sure they aren't built," he said.

With regard to the videos' references to the COAH project opening the door for other sewage plants to be built in Millstone, Planning Board Chairman Mitchell Newman said that the Planning Board's approval of the affordable housing plan in December states, "The approval of the housing plan element and fair share plan does not constitute an approval or an endorsement of supporting public sewers, package treatment plants, or sewer treatment plants in Millstone."

The second video alleges that the mayor forced the Planning Board to bring sewage treatment plants to Millstone under duress. A quote from Newman in the video states that he is acting out of duress, but Newman said it is used out of context because he is not referring to Grbelja.