We recently consulted a local professional planner about the Mayor and Council's plan to develop 150 units of "very low, low and moderate income" apartments in a 100% rental project at 200 Hartford Road. That planner was surprised the Moorestown Council is developing a project of that size for two reasons: 1) 150 units of low income rental housing in one large development seem too large for a town such as Moorestown. He said he normally sees developments 1/2 of that size for suburban towns the size of ours. 2) he was shocked that the Council would be placing that size and type of a development in a semi-rural area such as what is being considered on Hartford Road. There is no access to public transit, no walking distance to shopping or recreation. And, the rental project would not "blend in" aesthetically with the long-established and existing nearby residential neighborhoods. This information arose during an informal discussion with the planner and before he reviewed any of the relevant documents. But, he has been a planner for many years and has worked with other towns in southern NJ to address similar affordable housing issues. This discussion supported our position on this matter in that we cannot be sure that the Council has done its due diligence in selecting this location (200 Hartford Road) for this type of low income housing project. Additional anecdotal evidence of this planner's opinion can be seen by simply looking at the nearby towns of Marlton and Mt. Laurel and each of their "100% low income rental projects." For instance, Marlton is about twice the size of Moorestown (both in geographical size and population) and the 100% low income housing rental development they built was 104 units. Likewise, Mt. Laurel is about twice the size as Moorestown. Their first (and largest) 100% low income rental project was 140 units. Here, in Moorestown (which again is 1/2 the size of those 2 nearby towns), the Mayor and Council plan to build 150 low income rental units in one large project. And, because they figured no one was paying attention to their proposals, they planned to do so on a prime parcel of real estate located on Hartford Road. Because the Council has not been transparent on this issue, they have deprived the Moorestown residents/taxpayers of important information needed to make decisions on this topic. Is the Council aware that if they make a bad decision on this issue they will forever bind the Township and its residents/taxpayers to their decision? Once the construction starts and the low income housing project is built, we will not be able to look back and say "oh, maybe that was not such a good idea." Why wouldn't the Council want to consider all possible sources of information before making up their minds on this issue? Don't they think Moorestown deserves better than this project? We will maintain our efforts on this issue until we are assured that the Council has performed full and thorough due diligence on this critical issue. Thanks.