Plans to bring nearly 1,000 affordable housing units to Wall Township have been finalized after a nearly 10-year court battle.
A Monmouth County Superior Court judge approved an amended settlement agreement between Wall Township and the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center last month dictating where 937 affordable housing units for individuals and families will be located within the town, according to a 20-page final judgement.
The units will be for low- and moderate-income residents.
The judgement means Wall Township, one of the largest municipality in Monmouth County at 32 square miles, will move ahead with satisfying its state obligation to provide a fair share of affordable housing. Some of the affordable housing projects are already built, under construction or nearing completion, according to local officials.
“The court approval of that settlement gives us time to exhale for a second from doing paperwork,” said Wall Township Administrator Jeff Bertrand.
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Wall’s original obligation was for 1,250 affordable housing units, but the town had 313 eligible “bonus credits” that offset its affordable housing obligation under the state’s rules, officials said. New Jersey offers more than one credit per unit for certain affordable housing units — including housing set aside for individuals with special needs.
The court decision means Wall is protected from the threat of builder’s remedy lawsuits. The lawsuits can be filed by developers if towns fail to comply with their fair share obligations, according to Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on housing justice.
The settlement is the end of a lengthy court case “and a pretty long process of planning for Wall’s third round of affordable housing obligations,” said Josh Bauers, senior staff attorney at the Fair Share Housing Center.
“They have a wide variety of different affordable housing types that we’re excited to see move forward,” said Bauers.
The court battle over Wall’s obligation under the Mount Laurel Doctrine began in 2015. The Mount Laurel Doctrine refers to a series of landmark state Supreme Court decisions that outlawed exclusionary zoning practices and required all towns in New Jersey to provide their fair share of the region’s affordable housing.
Wall and the Fair Share Housing Center eventually entered into a settlement agreement in 2019 to end the court fight. The settlement has been amended twice since then to include new housing projects, said attorney Erik Nolan, who represented Wall in the affordable housing case.
“Wall has always done the right thing, it’s just been tough for them and taken a while,” said Nolan. “At this point, the plan that’s in the settlement agreement is being implemented.”
The affordable housing units in Wall are spread all over town, rather than being concentrated in one area, local officials said. Many of the projects are under construction.
“We have projects that have been completed already. We didn’t sit back and wait for the court to say we were doing the right thing in order to do the right thing. We were doing what we were supposed to do,” said Bertrand, the township administrator.
Bertrand said Wall officials wanted to take their time and strategize where to built affordable units.
“What we attempted to do was actually plan how we’re going to do this, as opposed to taking a vacant land and popping a building on it,” said Bertrand.
Wall adopted a new redevelopment plan for several languishing properties in the Route 33/34 corridor, including “some undesirable motels,” Bertrand said.
“It’s added workload for us but we think, in the long run, it benefits us to have a distribution across the township,” said Bertrand.
The township will also implement additional housing projects and programs that will provide surplus credits for future affordable housing obligations. The next round of Wall’s affordable housing obligation is not anticipated to be as large, town officials said.
In March, Gov. Phil Murphy signed new legislation meant to ease ease the critical shortage of affordable housing across New Jersey.
The new law will standardize obligations for towns throughout the state to build more units. Towns will also receive more protections from lawsuits that aim to stop the building of affordable housing.
Stories by Jackie Roman
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