MANCHESTER –A political war of words was heard during a recent Township Council meeting between mayoral contenders Mayor Robert Hudak and challenger Robert Arace.
Both candidates will face off once again on December 13 in an election runoff. While Hudak and his team received the most votes, the percentage he received during the general election in November was at 44%, however 51% of the vote is required to win the election. While there were three mayoral candidates and six council candidates in that election, only Arace and Hudak and their council team candidates will face off this time in the non-partisan race.
During the public comment period of the last Council session, Arace challenged Hudak’s position regarding development projects within the community. In particular he brought up a meeting that concerned the Heritage Minerals property.
“Throughout the election Mayor Hudak has campaigned against development despite the fact that he was well aware that his own Business Administrator (Brandon Umba) took a meeting with a massive developer,” Arace told The Manchester Times.
Arace added, “during that meeting Hudak’s administration discussed a plan to build nearly 4,000 homes on the Heritage Minerals site. There is no reason for Hudak’s team to have had that meeting – especially if there was never a formal plan submitted (as they allege).”
“Further, when we requested documentation about this meeting via OPRA (Open Public Records Act) they intentionally withheld records pertaining to this meeting. We only obtained copies of the plan when a concerned party released them to us under the condition of anonymity,” Arace said.
Hudak told The Manchester Times that the exchange during the meeting was the result of a political advertisement that appeared in The Manchester Times and on social media during the first week in November.
Hudak pointed to a court ordered settlement along with the concept plan and the proposed map from 2017 under former Mayor Kenneth Palmer’s administration “that was the basis of our rejection to the map in question.”
Hudak said he “wanted to set the record straight regarding Heritage Minerals. The site is the subject of a court mandated settlement that resulted in the approval of 2,450 age-restricted units on the site. This approval was ordered by the court along with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA), Fair Share Housing, Council On Affordable Housing (COAH), the Pinelands Commission the Pinelands Alliance and Manchester Township.”
The mayor added, “under the prior administration there was a movement to increase the unit count to around 4,000 units, however, the DEP and the courts blocked those plans. As I said last year and I have said numerous times this year, I do not support increasing the number of units at this site.”
“The site will not support such an increase and I do not believe increasing the number of units is in the best interest of the town. As far as making the site into a park, the value of the property is upwards of $125 million. Neither the Township nor the County have the ability to bond that amount,” Mayor Hudak added.
Mayor Hudak said that an exchange between Business Administrator Umba and Arace during the meeting “was based on the fact that Mr. Umba took a meeting with DR Horton (a home construction company) when they asked to discuss what they wanted to do with the property, if they were to buy it. In that meeting Mr. Umba made them aware of the settlement unit count and that their plan was unrealistic.
“Mr. Umba pointed out it was unrealistic because the settlement called for it to be age restricted, and the zoning of the property was for age restricted residential development, which was not proposed in the meeting,” Hudak added.
The mayor said, “increasing the unit count from the settlement figure would need DEP, Pinelands and CAFRA approvals in addition to the Township approvals, so that the claims being made by Mr. Arace, that I as Mayor could approve this plan unilaterally, was ridiculous because that is not supported by the laws currently in place.”
Mayor Hudak said, “the plan never was officially submitted as part of a development application, I assume that was because Mr. Umba told them it was unrealistic, so it never became a part of the official record and additionally it is important to point out that the current owner of Heritage Minerals was never involved, like they were in 2017.”
“It was safe to assume this plan was dead on arrival,” the mayor added.
During the meeting, Umba noted that it was part of his job, as Business Administrator to meet with groups looking to do work in Manchester in order to flush out their ideas before involving other Township officials. He added that as part of his job, he has held meetings with various groups that have ideas which never come to fruition.
In having these types of meetings, Umba said he was able meet with the owners and developer of another property in town, north of the Renaissance Senior Development which was part of a court order to build 350 homes, similar to the settlement with Heritage Minerals.
“By meeting with them, my administration was able to convert this property to a commercial development instead of a residential one,” the mayor said.
Mayor Hudak said “my administration worked with the Renaissance community to ensure they were aware of the development and were able to provide input on what was being proposed. They were extremely happy to not have 350 more homes being built at that location and that they would now have a permanent township road at the rear of their community (currently the road is private, but the owner lets residents use it).”
“For Mr. Arace to claim that this is my objective or that I could unilaterally allow this plan to go through is absurd and just another attempt at a desperate Hail Mary of lies and falsehoods which continue to be put forward by his campaign,” Mayor Hudak said.
He added, “there is no low that the Arace team isn’t willing to stoop to in order to please their corrupt party bosses and outside special interests funding their campaign. Year over year, he has continued to insult the intelligence of Manchester residents with false and egregious claims.”
“Manchester voters see right through his smoke and mirrors with 58% of voters rejecting him last year and 70% rejecting him this year. This makes abundantly clear that Mr. Arace is not qualified to lead our Township and how dangerous it would be for our town if he was elected mayor,” Hudak said.
New Election December 13
Runoff elections, like the one Manchester is facing, was pushed from December 6 to December 13 by acting Governor Sheila Oliver.
The reason was to give officials enough time to prepare. Vote-by-mail ballots need to be printed and mailed. Notices must be provided to certain parties. Schools will be allowed to provide remote instruction on that day if they were used as polling locations.
The election will be certified by December 30.
“It is imperative that we give our elections officials – who have been working around the clock – the necessary time they need to effectively gather election day materials and ballots,” said Acting Governor Oliver. “We want to make sure every voter’s voice is heard, whether that be from in-person voting or vote-by-mail. Postponing the run-off elections will allow election officials to receive ballots and count them all before the certification date and will allow voters to vote in the manner they choose, including by mail.”
Chris Lundy contributed to this story
