ORANGE, NJ — The Orange Housing Authority held a community meeting on Oct. 20 at the Walter G. Alexander Village apartments to discuss its Small Homes Initiative, which is in the beginning stages of planning; the initiative is to create residential spaces that encourage community growth and are safe. The special guest panel was led by OHA Executive Director Walter D. McNeil Jr. and consisted of OHA and Orange Housing Development Corporation representatives, OHA Chairperson Ernest Williams, and architectural design firm Kitchen & Associates managing principal Steve L. Schoch and junior planner Dan Farrell. Elected officials, including Orange Mayor Dwayne Warren, were also in attendance.
McNeil, who was heavily involved and oversaw the creation of the Walter G. Alexander apartments, discussed plans for the Central Place and Chapman Street parcels, presenting renderings of the plans.
“We have about 11 parcels that are going to be our small home developments. We had a community meeting that was fantastic, and we talked with the community about what they would like to see happen based on past developments that they’ve seen — not just ours but any development that they’ve seen,” McNeil said at the meeting. “The meeting revealed a number of good things for us to take into consideration, but, for the most part, with the 11 parcels, we want to decide based on the community feedback how many units we’re going to develop and what are the things that are important in developing these units.
“Our intent is to build more workforce housing when people are utilizing the homes or apartments to essentially live and play but are going to work during the day. It’s the same thing as Walter G.,” he continued. “It’s pretty much set to develop the units, and we’re going to use the defensible space strategies. We’re not going to provide common spaces. As we develop the units, we’re going to have an eye towards safety, lighting and cameras, so people can feel comfortable in the area.”
The defensible space theory, developed by architect and city planner Oscar Newman, posits that architectural and environmental design play a crucial part in increasing or reducing criminality.
According to McNeil, though this initiative may eventually be implemented elsewhere in the city, it will be implemented on Chapman Street and Central Place first, as Orange owns those properties.
Dozens of Orange residents attended the meeting, raising concerns, which were then discussed by the panel.
“From my perspective, it was incredible — 40 to 50 people attended and we had it open to everyone,” McNeil said. “It was a nice space and we discussed the possibilities and the community told us what we should be concerned about. They were concerned about parking, space for kids, making sure that we have protective services out there, homeownership opportunities, central air and system unit concerns, insulation concerns, making sure there is a washer and dryer, and other issues. Parking has been a problem in that area for a very long time, and not only in the current Walter G., but also with the past Walter G., which had problems with parking.
“With this new initiative, we are planning to build driveways so that people can park in their driveways. There will be on-street parking but we also want to make sure there is enough on-street parking for people to have visitors, so they can park, too.”
To McNeil, the Small Homes Initiative will grow the community.
“There’s a lack-there-of in terms of the amount of affordable workforce housing in our community. Not only in Orange, East Orange and Newark, but all over the country,” McNeil said. “We’re finding that out even more during this pandemic, and it’s very competitive to find a place to live and that’s affordable. If you have a lot of demand for something, the cost goes up and people are willing to pay more, which shuts certain people out of the market.”
According to McNeil, the OHA and OHDC have a mission and responsibility to ensure there is a steady supply of affordable housing for community members.
“Doing this will give good people an opportunity to be in decent housing in our communities,” McNeil said.
A completion date for this initiative has not yet been announced. According to McNeil, a second community meeting needs to be held to present initial plans to the public for the development in January, and the initiative will likely get started in March or April of 2022.
The next community meeting in January will discuss what will be implemented based on the community feedback.
Photos Courtesy of Darryl Jeffries
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