HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP TDR ANALYSIS
Hopewell Township, NJ
Hopewell Township is a modestly growing community adjacent to the City of Bridgeton in western Cumberland County that has received interest from developers of age-restricted housing. The Township feels this type of development is consistent with its community objectives and the Township desires to steer these and other development pressures toward a compact pattern near Shiloh Pike/Route 49. Adding demand for age-restricted housing together with underlying and perhaps accelerated demand for non-age restricted units, total demand for new housing development in Hopewell Township can be expected to be in the range of 70 to 90 units annually during the 2011-2020 period (target absorption of 800 units in ten years) and 50 to 65 units annually thereafter. This would result in total housing unit absorption of 1,375 units in a twenty-year period.
To better manage this growth, Hopewell is incorporating a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) element into its Master Plan. The TDR Program establishes a Sending Zone of 9,204 acres, an undeveloped area of farmlands and open space. The Township wishes this area to remain in these uses and desires development rights of the Sending Zone to be transferred to the Receiving Zone. Under the proposed zoning, the Township will allow moderately intensive development within the Receiving Zone of 1,447 acres.
Urban Partners prepared the draft Real Estate Market Analysis for this TDR program. The REMA is intended to establish and document land values in the Sending and Receiving Zones, to estimate the land value component of the proposed development in the Receiving Zones under the proposed zoning, and to determine the economic relationship of development rights in the Sending Zone to development rights in the Receiving Zone for various use categories.
