Round Four: Affordable Housing (AH)

There’s one bill going through the NJ senate worth watching regarding affordable housing: a bill that stalls Round Four until 2028.

The best way to summarize how we got to where we are is nicely written by Colleen O’Dea here at NJSpotLightNews. 

But for a brief context, the Coalition of Affordable Housing (COAH) was established in 1985 to direct municipalities to provide zoning that allows for housing that could be accessed by “those of modest means.”

However, the baseline for “modest means” was from a standard set in 1975; the guidelines were set to expire in 1999. COAH was directed to come up with new guidelines on acceptable affordable housing targets for municipalities. But COAH quickly became unpopular, as former Gov Chris Christie made clear himself when he tried to dismantle COAH during his term. As the disagreements on terms for affordable housing continued, the coalition met a significant amount of resistance in reaching their objective. This is where the New Jersey Supreme Court took back the charge of meeting fair housing obligations. 

Part of the court’s dictate was to execute their plan in a series of ten-year-long rounds of which the fourth is set to begin in 2025.

Berkeley Heights wasn’t necessarily required to go to court before the third round began in July 2015; instead, the dictate was designed so that it was in the township’s interest to do so. Had Berkeley Heights not made its case that it had or can meet its AH obligation based on an accepted formula, developers would be free to sue the township for making an environment unwelcoming to developers. 

See what they did there? I can’t blame NJ if they didn’t require their compliance. Isn’t political law fun?  

Here’s the history specific to Berkeley Heights we’ve successfully found on the BH website.

To ensure municipalities didn’t create exclusionary zoning, they were threatened with a bad deal: “four market share rate units to each affordable unit.” O’Dea This means that after the court directs the municipality on what it deems an appropriate amount of affordable units, the municipality is also obligated to support the additional market rate units.

As an example, if a municipality requires 500 affordable units, depending on the settled rate, you are looking at north of 1500 market rate units added to the town. Thats 2000 units that developers will have the luxury of bidding on to meet the townships legal obligation. And that is likely lowball example. 

The known consequences are two fold: the environmental consequences are catching up, and, though Berkeley Heights was among many towns that shielded themselves from a worse deal, the massive increase of units also brings with it a cost on infrastructure.

The environmental impact is far less recognized, and with old ordinances controlling tree loss, stormwater, or other modern environmental standards, many developers are given too many allowances on zoning rules in the rush to meet AH mandate. This has been found to exacerbate local flooding.

The infrastructure impact is more obvious and is what legislatures have counted on to delay further rounds of affordable housing.

Bill NJ S-3739 was proposed in the March 30th NJ Senate session to stall the beginning of the fourth round of affordable housing until July 2028. The bill text mostly cites economic hardship (infrastructure and cost to tax payers) but fails to recognize the environmental impacts that have become apparent to some advocacy groups and residents experiencing increased local flooding.

There is also a lawsuit between a handful of townships and the Murphy administration to bring back COAH. It raises the question, though that if a town seeks remedy with the courts, they risk the possibility that their fair share settlements could come into question.

Currently, these efforts aren’t promising given state political climate but raising the questions and bringing awareness is key. The more informed we are of these efforts and their consequences, the more we can work towards good solutions.

For more reading:

Berkeley Heights Twp Mount Laurel History

NJ Supreme Court Decision on Affordable Housing

Township v. Murphy on Affordable Housing

Mayors Call for Oversight over Affordable Housing Mandate