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An affordable housing development is one step closer to being built on the city’s West Side.

The Asbury Park planning board approved an application for The Michaels Organization, one of the master developers of the Springwood Avenue redevelopment area, to build a mix of 64 residential townhouse and multi-family units on vacant lots within the Springwood Avenue Redevelopment Area, between Memorial Drive and Atkins Avenue.

The Michaels Organization is a Marlton-based company that specializes in affordable, mixed-financed housing.

Michael’s is calling the development “The Renaissance,” according to project architect Karen Nichols of East Orange-based KNTM Architects.

The vote was 4-2. Planning board chair Herb Fehrenbach and board members Tony Perillo, Conrad Neblett and Barbara Krzak voted yes. Planning board members Jim Henry and Councilman John Moor, the council’s planning board designee, voted no.

The Renaissance consists of five buildings across three sites.

One of the buildings, a three- to four-story mixed-use rental apartment building, provides 32 apartments along with residential support space on the first floor. Support space includes a multipurpose room, computer room, management offices and a health suite along with limited retail space. The remaining sites have a total of four separate buildings comprised of two- to three-story stacked townhouse-style structures. Each have eight apartment units per building, Nichols said.

Rents, on average, will be between $500 and $1300 per month. Those who earn between $25,000 and $56,000 annually, dependent on family size, will be eligible to live in the units.

United States census data shows median household income in Asbury Park is $32,695.

The board approved variances for front and rear yard setbacks, parking setbacks, driveway setbacks and a parking variance that allows the group to shift several parking spaces for one of the buildings in a lot adjacent to another one of the buildings. Although the variance relocates parking spaces for one site to another building 200 feet away, the entire project provides parking in excess of their requirement.

Moor and Henry’s dissenting votes were largely based off of the latter parking variance, which they fear will lead to parking issues down the road on the West Side of a city that is already experiencing parking woes on the East Side.

“Besides that, I think it is a very good product. But I can’t go along with it because of the parking,” Moor said.

“The materials are good quality, there are pieces of the project that benefit the community — the drawback is parking but I think they can make that work,” said Chairman Fehrenbach.

Developers estimate the total cost of phase one is $13 million. Phase two, which still requires approval, consists of a sixth building at the northern corner of Springwood Avenue and Memo

The Michael’s Organization will apply for project funds in the form of tax credits through the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency [HMFA].

The group must still sign a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT agreement, with the city to complete the checklist of items needed meet the November grant application deadline. Funding awards will be announced by February of  next year, said Ginger Dawson, vice president of The Michaels Organization. If funds come through the organization plans to close on the funds within three months of the announcement and break ground by late summer of 2015, she said.

“We’re excited about the project and the prospect of building in Asbury Park because of the energy and excitement generated in the Central Business District that is now making its way across the train tracks,” Dawson said.

[Renderings provided by KNTM Architects, East Orange, NJ.]

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