Homes

Residential property carries 80% of the tax burden in Summit, up from 70% when we first arrived here 25yrs ago.  This is because homeowners file the bulk of our 1,500 Building Permits each year, worth $35 of the $50 million investments occurring annually in town.  Three hundred existing homes turnover every 12 months.  In 2004 the average price reached $900,000 because of our gracious neighborhoods.

We have 8,100 households per the Census Bureau, including 2,500 who live in rental units.  That means 31% of our families can live here without buying their house, which makes Summit much more affordable.  Over 200 families fortunately live in public housing.

Because Summit has little vacant land, New Jersey’s new Growth-Share formula will not impose radical change.  Rather than build a fourth large complex, we intend to rehab 18 individual units a year scattered around town.  This mainstream approach will help retain our cultural diversity in more neighborhoods.  Working class families and senior citizens get forced out of town when 20% of their disposable personal income is consumed by housing costs.

We also need to bolster any residential property that directly adjoins the CRBD (central retail business district).  Homeowners manning these outposts do the rest of us a favor, and deserve an explicit Buffer Zone Management policy that keeps commercial traffic in check.     

Tom's Current Agenda

Smaller Government
Recycling
Public Art
No Freight Trains
Downtown Economy
Municipal Budget
Taxes
Traffic