More than a hundred New Jersey municipalities have challenged new affordable housing quotas issued by the state last fall in the latest round of efforts to make apartments and houses less costly for low- and middle-income families.
Fair Share Housing Center, an affordable housing nonprofit group working with the state, said it reviewed all 446 municipal resolutions from towns that have opted into the state’s affordable housing program.
Of those towns, 286 municipalities accepted the calculations provided by the state Department of Community Affairs that said how many affordable housing units they need to allow to be built or renovated.
Another 160 municipalities challenged the state’s numbers and provided their own calculation of affordable housing needs, based on local data, the nonprofit group said.
Fair Share Housing Center accepted 92 of the towns' submitted calculations, meaning roughly 85% of participating towns in the state have now agreed on their numbers.
However, Fair Share Housing Center challenged 68 municipalities’ calculations.
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“We’re pleasantly surprised that many more municipalities are participating in the process than at any time in the 50-year history of the Mount Laurel Doctrine,” Adam Gordon, the group’s executive director, said on Feb. 28.
“This process validates the intent of New Jersey’s new affordable housing law — making the process more transparent, reducing litigation costs, and ultimately encouraging more municipalities to participate,” he said.
Last October, municipalities received their latest round of affordable housing obligations. The non-binding numbers detailed how many affordable homes the state’s 564 municipalities are required to allow to be built or rehabilitated by 2035.
Some towns accepted the state’s numbers and adopted resolutions to enter the program. Other municipalities said the numbers were too high and calculated their own alternate numbers to submit for consideration by the state.
Paramus officials, for example, voted on Jan. 21 to adopt a resolution accepting the state’s numbers that say the borough is required to allow the construction of 1,000 new affordable housing units and rehabilitate 254 existing affordable housing units.
Separately, the New Jersey Builders Association, a trade organization, filed lawsuits in state Superior Court against all 159 municipalities that filed challenges to the state Department of Community Affairs’ numbers as of the Feb. 28 deadline.
The association did not respond to a request for comment.
Fair Share Housing Center said it hopes the lingering challenges it did not accept will be resolved through the mediation process provided by the new housing law, which Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law last year.
The law standardized obligations for municipalities throughout the state to build more affordable housing units. It also gave towns more protections from lawsuits that aim to stop affordable housing from being built.
Any cases in which municipalities can’t resolve their affordable housing numbers through mediation will be decided by the new Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program by March 31, state officials said. That is when towns will know the final number of affordable homes they need to plan for over the next decade, officials said.
Municipal housing elements and Fair Share plans, including proposed drafts of zoning and other ordinances and resolutions, are required to be adopted by municipalities by June 30.
The remaining 118 of the state’s 564 municipalities that did not opt into the program by passing resolutions are at risk of facing a builder’s remedy lawsuit, Fair Share Housing Center officials said.
In a press release issued last month, the Fair Share Housing Center officials said they reviewed all 440 municipal resolutions at the time. While municipalities had until Feb. 28 to file any challenges, six more towns have since opted into the program, with two of those towns challenging the state’s quota and filing their own numbers.
It’s unclear how the state will respond to the challenges filed after the deadline.
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The quotas are part of the state’s fourth round of Mount Laurel obligations, which will begin in July. 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.
The obligations are recalculated every 10 years in cycles known as rounds. Each municipality’s obligations are calculated by looking at various factors, including job growth, existing affordable housing and the growth of low- and moderate-income households.
A coalition of 26 municipalities previously unsuccessfully sued the state and Fair Share Housing Center last fall to temporarily pause the law’s implementation.
The latest number of municipal challenges reflects an increase in municipalities agreeing to the state’s numbers from previous Mount Laurel rounds, Fair Share Housing officials said.
In 2015, at the start of the third round, 253 municipalities claimed they had zero affordable housing obligations for the next decade, which led to scores of lawsuits, officials said.
“This is a testament to the success of the new legislation — historically, disputes over fair share obligations have taken years of litigation,” said Josh Bauers, an attorney and director of the nonprofit’s exclusionary zoning litigation. “We’re glad to see money being spent on building affordable homes instead of going to court.”
Stories by Brianna Kudisch
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Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com.