We, the undersigned, hereby respectfully request that the Hopewell Borough Planning Board formulate, and the Hopewell Borough Council adopt an ordinance to amend Ordinance Number 887 which was adopted by the Hopewell Borough Council on July 1, 2024.

The ordinance was adopted without sufficient time for study and consideration or taking into account legitimate concerns of borough residents, which were not adequately answered. Some of these concerns include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. The number of units which may overtax the borough’s resources and are too many for the small neighborhood involved. This topic would include addressing the potential number of new students in the school system, along with evaluating the ability of our emergency services to be able to serve this complex and the people living there.

2. The esthetics of multiple three-story buildings in a residential area of single-family homes and townhouses. Developments of multi-unit townhouses and apartments in Hopewell Township are all placed in areas that are not established residential neighborhoods.

3. The impact of such a large development on traffic as Hopewell’s roads are overtaxed and were not intended for the volume of traffic this development will create. Residents would like to know exactly where the parking spots will be for all of the units.

4. The failure of the council to consider and evaluate the comments made by concerned residents. We would like a special meeting of council to answer and address all of the specific issues in a public forum.

5. At the above recommended meeting, we would like council to address the history of flooding on Lafayette Street and how this development will affect what we are told is an already high-water table.

We have no objection to placing 26 units of affordable housing units in this town, in fact, we welcome them. We do object to having over 130 units of housing built on such a small lot. We would also like the borough to set design standards specific to this area, and not just leave it up to the developer’s imagination. It is essential to have community input regarding these specifics.

Please take the necessary action to amend the ordinance as quickly as possible before the ordinance becomes binding as applied to this development.