11.29.23 Did you know? The Cranford Township Committee did not inform our School Board that 750 Walnut developers would receive an $85 Million tax exemption, shortchanging our schools $48 Million in revenue when they need it most. Our own referendum for $70 million for our schools comes up end at the end of January 2024. Shouldn't we be fighting to have the developer pay for our school upgrades, not us?? Read what happened in Princeton when faced with the same scenario: https://planetprinceton.com/2023/11/29/princeton-school-board-district-leaders-did-not-get-to-provide-significant-master-plan-input-schools-dont-receive-money-from-pilots-officials-negotiated-with-developers/

11.22.23 Cranford Mayor continues to quash residents right to free speech. Discussion ensues regarding Val Kilmer and Pomona College, CA

10.24.23 Calling out the Mayor for the ongoing lies and fraud regarding the $85 million tax exemption given illegally to the 750 Walnut Ave developer Hartz Mtn. The deal adds over $18k in additional taxes per Cranford resident, and all to pad the billionaire developers profits. My lawsuit exposing the corrupt deal is ongoing and bringing the truth to light here in Cranford and similarly across new NJ.

Here's some of the fraud uncovered in my lawsuit, where our Town and redevelopment attorneys colluded to hide and doctor an unfavorable financial analysis of the PILOT, 30-year tax exemption deal at 750 Walnut Ave. from the Township Committee. The report said the deal was too generous to the developer by over 20% and should be renegotiated saving the Town at least $10M. But, the attorneys buried the report from their client; our Township Committee; and made the analyst rewrite the report to say the deal is just fine. Why the attorneys would want to help the developer save an extra 20% is a good question, that the attorneys or our Mayor has refused to answer since March, 2023. 

 

          Dear Friends, I am trying stop our local government from giving billionaire developers huge tax exemptions which we residents will have to pay for. So far, they have promised over $150 million of our tax revenue to Birchwood, South Ave and 750 Walnut developers, with plans to offer more such exemptions to developers at North Ave/Springfield, and beyond.

        These exemptions cost our schools over $70 million in lost revenue which we residents will have to pay for out of pocket. It’s roughly an additional $2,000 a year in extra taxes per household for 30 years so that the developers can make more profit off of our backs. It’s a scheme being perpetrated across NJ towns, and is only successful because residents are kept in the dark and told false narratives.

        I filed a lawsuit in Superior Court to challenge the latest PILOT (Payment in lieu of Taxes) tax exemption offered to Hartz Mtn. LLC, the developers of 750 Walnut Ave. and interviewed our Committee members and the developers’ attorneys under oath. The interviews confirmed our suspicions that none of these huge 30-year tax exemptions are necessary or legally required in any way. Nor were any of the publicly stated reasons for awarding them accurate. Committee members admitted to having had little to no understanding of the financial implications when they voted for the exemptions, and confessed to relying entirely on the directions of the Town’s attorneys and never thought it necessary to question that advice.

        Most concerning perhaps, it was revealed that the Town attorneys intentionally hid our financial advisers’ report from the Committee members which states unequivocally that the PILOT tax abatements are excessive by over 20% and should be renegotiated.

        In the quest to uncover the truth as to why our Committee members would vote for such an extraordinary tax giveaway to a billionaire developer the following facts were uncovered which run contrary to everything the public was led to believe for the past several years.

1. A PILOT means a huge loss in tax revenue to the Town. A PILOT agreement is when the developer pays @10% of their "self-reported" annual revenue to the Township instead of paying taxes. The problem is that in NJ where PILOT agreements are made, municipalities receive on average only @13-15% of the revenue that they would receive if the developer paid their taxes.                                                          
2. The Township was never legally obligated to offer any PILOT or tax exemptions whatsoever to the developer.          
3. Cranford’s attorneys approached the developer Hartz Mtn. LLC first and asked them to accept a PILOT and 30-year tax exemption, not the other way around.                            
4. Cranford had already met its Affordable Housing quota before negotiations with Hartz even began and so was not in jeopardy of being sued over unmet Affordable Housing. 
5. The Hartz threat to build 905 apartments without a PILOT was never actually a real threat. The huge project would have never been financially feasible for Hartz or any developer.                                                                                     
6. The conventional taxes from the Land at 750 Walnut which the public was made to believe were bonus revenue we would receive, are actually being refunded every year to Hartz Mtn. LLC as a Land Tax Credit so we actually receive no bonus.
7. The State can require a Township to create Affordable Housing but the State can never require a Town to offer 30-year tax exemptions or PILOT deals. If a developer owns land zoned commercial and the Town has not met its affordable housing than the developer may sue the town to force the rezoning of their property to residential. However even if a developer is able to successfully sue a town the developer can never force the town to give them a tax exemption or PILOT.                                                                                                                 

CranfordNeighbors@gmail.com

CASE FILE FOR PUBLIC VIEW

Lawsuit Challenging $60 Million PILOT Tax Exemption Awarded to 750 Walnut Developer Hartz Mtn. LLC

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URGENT! HELP SAVE CRANFORD. PLEASE SHARE WITH ALL RESIDENTS.

This is real and we need to stop it now! The Township Committee is preparing to allow for-profit developers to come in and build 6 buildings and over 400+ apartments, while making us pay for the billionaire developers' property taxes, infrastructure costs, and additional students. Taxes will soar, and our schools will overflow.

We say, "No Way", but we need people to know what is happening and vote it out, so please share the info below with every resident!! Let's keep Cranford a town! 

Vote Independent William Thilly for Township Committee on Nov. 8th. 

 

Hello dear friends, I am running for a position on the Cranford Township Committee to among other wonderful things have our current redevelopment agreement with the Fair Share Housing Center (FSHC), signed in February of 2021, renegotiated to terms and conditions agreeable and understood by our residents. Below are some points important to understand.

1. The agreement permits the building of 400+ new apartments in 6 buildings. These include 250 units in 2 buildings at 750 Walnut Ave. Two buildings on North Ave, one on South Ave. and one on Chestnut st. All in town buildings are around 40-50 units each and 4-5 stories tall. All buildings are rental units only of which 15% will be marketed as affordable. 

2. The Township has been offering all developers up to 30 year tax exemptions. In exchange for tax free status developers have agreed to pay a percentage of their self reported profits each year in the vicinity of @10% often referred to as a PILOT (Payment in lieu of Taxes). The average PILOT payment received by Townships in a good year is around 15-20% of what would be received if taxes were paid in full. In other words it's an 85% tax break for developers passed on to us.

3. The Township agreed to rezone the entire downtown and beyond to permit high density residential apartment buildings up to 40 units per acre. This rezoning sets the groundwork for additional apartment buildings to be built in the near and immediate future.

Many are concerned with the additional costs to the taxpayers associated with such a large number of new, and future apartment buildings, not to mention the inconveniences during their construction. In addition to the lost tax revenue residents will also be expected to pay for the added infrastructure costs, including new sewer lines, added school space, multi-million dollar flood mitigation projects, extra police and fire, and additional traffic etc. Add the costs of 100+ new students which average $20k per year per student. If left unchecked residents taxes would be expected to rise drastically to keep up.

Recently our administration announced plans to borrow an additional $14-20 million by issuing bonds to pay for the developers' flood mitigation projects at the site of their new proposed buildings at South, and Chestnut, and the existing Birchwood. The mitigation is just to protect the developers' assets, and can end up flooding everyone else in the neighborhood. In essence having the residents pay to flood our own neighborhoods. Issuing bonds also allows a Township to raise taxes well above the 3% annual cap to whatever percentage is needed to pay them off.

Many have been told we must build these 400+ market rate apartments to satisfy an obligation to the state to provide affordable housing units. This is not true. The state requests that we create the affordable rate housing only, not the market rate. Almost all of our affordable housing we have already built. At this time we need only 18 units to meet our quota and have until 2025 to do so. And to be clear, the state has never requested Townships to offer multi-year tax exemptions.

We may supply our affordable housing as we choose. Whether it be by refurbishing current housing stock or through a non profit to build all affordable units together; there exist many alternatives available to avoid any new construction at all if we wish. For example two single-family homes designated as group homes with 9 individuals per home or 9 two-family homes marketed as affordable would give us our 18 credits. There is no legal requirement whatsoever to produce the remainder through a 400 apartment, 5 building deal with 30-year tax exemptions. In fact our current agreement results in an unnecessary 47 unit surplus. Developers will build only 15 affordable apartments per 85 at market rate, so even if we did wish to create our 18 remaining affordable units with a developer we would need only 120 new apartments in total.

Keep Cranford a Town. To stop our over development and have developers pay their own taxes and infrastructure costs please Vote Independent on Nov. 8th!   

Please feel free to comment below with any thoughts or opinions. Yours truly, Will

https://www.cranfordnj.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif436/f/uploads/executed_cranford-fshc_amend_settlement_w_exhibits.pdf

Our total current RDP is 140 units as the Township was awarded 20 previous credits. 

Paid for by William Thilly for Cranford Township Committee