Habitat for Humanity project has new life in Rockaway Twp.

Plans for a Habitat for Humanity project near White Meadow Lake in Rockaway Township are back on track now that an unpopular proposal to build homes on Comanche Avenue has been dropped.

The township still needs to donate the vacant land for the project -- which originally called for at least two volunteer-built homes on Valley View Drive and Comanche Avenue -- but council President Michael Dachisen said he does not foresee any further obstacles that would block an approval.

Now, township officials are waiting to receive a concept plan for two single-family homes on Valley View Drive. The plan, township administrator Greg Poff said, should be submitted by Habitat officials within the next few weeks.

Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit group that uses volunteers to construct affordable homes, decided to scrap the Comanche Avenue houses after several residents spoke out against the project this summer. The chief complaint about the plan was that the roughly 5,500-square-foot property was too small to hold the type of dwelling that the nonprofit agency wanted to build.

"The other location has a lot more frontage, and it's a bigger lot," Dachisen said.

He said the homes, if approved, will help the township gain ground on meeting its Council on Affordable Housing quota, and the project will return the lots to the township's tax rolls.

Once the land is donated to Habitat for Humanity, the project must receive an approval from township planners. If everything goes as planned, the homes could be built in 2011, said Blair Bravo, executive director for the Morris Habitat for Humanity.

She said families for the houses will be selected once the project receives zoning approval.

Eugene Paik is a reporter with the New Jersey Local News Service. He may be reached at (908) 243-6240 or epaik@njlns.com.