Affordable Housing Committee Meeting: May 28, 2025
The Lambertville Affordable Housing Advisory Committee met at 7pm on Wednesday, May 28, 2025.
The Mayor called the meeting to order. They read the mission, said the pledge of allegiance, and approved meeting minutes from April.
The Mayor said he continues to meet with developers of Village Apartments. He has requested meetings with the CVS site owner with no success. The city also reached out to South Mountain Apartments.
Mayor Nowick thanked Elaine Clisham for the 230-page housing plan. Elaine highlighted that the plan is actually two documents with the first part being a housing document. She said they just got the 2025 income limits:
A 2-person household income can earn up to $98,240 (on page 13).
She said the city’s demographics have changed. There are many more two-person households than there were ten years ago. It looks like there is a demand for smaller units in the city.
The jobs housing ratio is a measure of how many people live in town and commute to work.
- 1,899 people live here but work outside of Lambertville.
- 972 people commute into Lambertville from out of town to work.
Michelle Harris asked if the ratio included remote workers working from home.
Elaine said it was based on CES data, and that a website called “on the map” does a nice job of outlining the information. She said they are still considering the small cities program, and pointed out that the housing plan is on page 29.
Realistic Development Potential
Elaine said they did a vacant land analysis to see if Lambertville has any places to develop. Based on vacant land alone, the city has zero areas to develop. The bottom of page 45 has the law about it.
“There is no clarity on this requirement at all,” Elaine said.
She explained that the city is making a good faith gesture with SpokeWorks doing 40 units, with 6 affordable units set aside. The last ten pages contains the spending plan, which explains how to manage affordable housing funds that came in from development fees. They have not yet budgeted development fees from the Finkles site, because they don’t yet have that information.
Paul Stevens asked about RDP unit numbers if they submit the six units and apply them to anything other than the third round. The RDP is zero, and they need 25% of zero in units. It’s a good faith gesture to say they’ve looked for redevelopment sites and found one.
Paul asked about the set aside at SpokeWorks, which is 15% for rentals, 20% for sale, based on ordinance.
The Mayor has met with the SpokeWorks property owner, and there is a possibility there, but it’s too early to know details. They’re looking at minimum of 40 units, but there is no plan. They have enough to put forward an ordinance to move forward, but it would be a draft ordinance.
Conversations with the owner have happened in the last four to six weeks. The owner has some ideas, and is interested.
Meanwhile, the CVS lease is up in 2026, but the property owner hasn’t been very responsive. Mayor Nowick said Mayor Fahl had talked to the property owner years ago.
Elaine said the current affordable housing plan is built to be revised if something new happens.
Michelle Harris pointed out that anything happening at the CVS site is just hopeful.
Mayor Nowick said it could be declared an area of redevelopment, and then they could develop a plan.
Paul asked about the old high school, and the group discussed how things work. If there is an area of redevelopment plan on a property, then it’s more attractive to a developer who wants to build affordable housing on a site.
The owner of SpokeWorks did submit some plan ideas, but nothing is concrete.
Councilman Lide said he thought they should introduce an ordinance. Mayor Nowick agreed.
The 3rd round RDP is based on vacant land. SpokeWorks was not counted, because it is not vacant land. That is why it wasn’t included in the third round. Clossen Farm was included in the third round.
They discussed the upcoming meeting schedule, canceled the meeting on June 9th, and moved it to the 26th.
Michelle asked the Mayor what value he has taken from the committee. The Mayor said the committee having open and public conversations about possible sites was incredibly valuable—even if this was a six-month ad hoc committee.
He acknowledged the limitations of an advisory committee, and said he wants open and active conversations about redevelopment rather than being reactive.
Michelle mentioned that they are advisors, but she still didn’t know everything that was going on.
“The inclusion could be expanded,” she said.
Cindy Ege said it was valuable going through site-by-site and taking that information to the governing body. She would like to see bi-monthly or quarterly meetings, and felt that input from the committee could help with the website, and forms, and getting information out to the public.
Mayor Nowick explained that having the engagement of the group means having experts sharing their knowledge.
Paul echoed Michelle’s point. He said the public was looking to him, but he didn’t know the answers. He felt a little uncomfortable not knowing things when people asked him questions. Michelle concurred. The group’s mission statement said they were helping formulate the plan.
Councilman Lide said these problems are because the city is in a reactive position. He said it may have been easier had this been done ten years ago. He wants to be proactive towards the next ten years in Lambertville. He’d like to look at the master plan, things that are important to the community in town, and how the future is envisioned. Paul agreed.
Mayor Nowick said they haven’t looked at zoning ordinance in 15 years.
Sean Goodwin said if they can inform people to the extent that they can, it could be a function of the community. The advisory committee could follow along with developments and keep an eye on them.
Mayor Nowick said the Lambertville Matters newsletter goes out to 2,500 people.
Michelle said that people on Facebook talk about how it is not affordable to live in Lambertville. She said people are unable to live here, not even to rent.
Affordability vs. Affordable Housing
Mayor Nowick said there is a difference between affordable housing and affordability. He said they can’t change everything, but they can talk about affordability and think outside the box.
Councilman Lide said they have developments that are providing no housing and that’s something they can talk about and get ahead of.
Michelle said the demographics showing the need for smaller units could inform decisions. She looked into tiny homes, but unfortunately state, city, and county requirements made it not a viable option here.
Elaine said there are ways to look at things. About 35% of the community rents in NJ, while only 22% rents in Lambertville. Increasing the rental units will affect rent prices. The Mayor said density is how to get more rentals.
Councilman Lide said the CVS site is a great spot for density, and he wants to prevent problems in the future.
Paul said there is a lack of communication and the public is not more engaged, because 230-page reports are not readable.
Elaine asked about Facebook. She’s not on it, but she wanted to know what was happening there.
Michelle said people sometimes list rentals on the Lambertville Facebook group, and folks ask the rental price. If the landlord posts the price, people get angry and attack the landlord for charging too much.
Michelle said landlords have to raise prices, because city and state fees have gone up. She said her rental investment property has become a long-term hold investment, and landlords are not making a lot of money.
Elaine and the Mayor pointed out that retail rents have also gone up.
Michelle said there is a big difference between small property owners and 8 or 10 to 30 units. She said she wouldn’t be surprised if many of the rentals in town are owned by very a small group of people.
The Mayor said that there are people in town who only raise their rents 2% every year. He said he purposefully keeps rent low at his rental property in town, and he wouldn’t be able afford to buy and rent a second property now, because prices are so high. He said he couldn’t imagine buying a $600k house to rent.
Mayor Nowick said the city’s valuation went up $700 million dollars last year.
Paul had feedback on the report. He said appendix D had the vacant land analysis. He explained how Elaine should do it. Elaine thanked him. She said this version is going to the planning board, but she can make corrections.
Public Comment
Jeff from Wilson Street said, when visioning with the community, half of the people want 1955 and half wants 1975.
As far as the high school redevelopment site, they didn’t mention that it might not be available.
“We won’t know for maybe two years to know what is going up there,” Jeff said.
With the unlined and inclosed landfill, Jeff felt that the document should further explain what is going on up on the hill, because it can impact the development. He wasn’t happy about the narrative.
He also mentioned the flood rules around Village Apartments. He said the main area of concern is that the building has to be available by road.
“Having a sidewalk or walkway above flood zone is enough,” Jeff said, “and if there are more than 44 units there, they can just do it.”
The Mayor said if Village Apartments is realistically developed with affordable units then they can revise the plan. He said the city wants to move forward, they’re just waiting for information from the developers.
The Mayor said he feels good about the narrative.
Councilman Lide said the egress at Village Apartments is not determined.
Jeff said the rules do allow for parking underneath.
Councilman Lide reiterated that he wants more affordable units at that spot.
Jeff said the floor requirement is not the rule, because it hasn’t been signed off by the governor. He said it’s not an issue since the rule is not in place.
There were no further public comments, and public comments closed.
Elaine said the report would not have happened without everyone in the committee streamlining the process. The Mayor said it’s been an amazing amount of work.
The meeting adjourned.
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