Mandate for NJ affordable housing to proceed in 2025
Judge denies request to pause state measure
By: William Westhoven
Morristown Daily Record
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... New Jersey's affordable housing mandate will proceed in 2025 - at least for now - after a judge rejected a bid to halt a new state law.
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Ruling in Mercer County on Thursday, [01/02/2025] state Superior Court Judge Robert Lougy denied a request by more than two dozen municipalities to pause implementation of the legislation enacted in March. [2024]
..... The law is designed to speed enforcement of the Mount Laurel Doctrine, a landmark set of court rulings that require New Jersey towns to provide their "Fair Share' of low- and moderate-income housing.
..... Sweeping aside complaints by towns about over-development, Lougy sided with the Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit agency empowered to assist courts in enforcing the mandate.
..... "The court cannot lightly enjoin a legislative enactment where plaintiffs fail to meet their burden," Lougy wrote in his ruin, according to an FSHX statement announcing the decision. "The court finds it incongruous will all principles of equity to leave the state's low- and moderate-income households in worse shape than before the Legislature's comprehensive reshaping of the field."
..... In the same news release, Fair Share Housing Executive Director Adam Gordon called the lawsuit :a thinly-veiled political statement attempting to revisit arguments that failed in the legislative process."
..... "For decades," he continued, "New Jersey's Judiciary has been asking the Legislative and Executive branches to institutionalize the Mount Laurel Doctrine, which they final did in 2024."
..... Attorney Michale Collins, representing the plaintiff towns, said they will appeal Lougy's denial and take additional legal steps to challenge the "unconstitutional and unfair" affordable housing laws. He said municipalities object to "the extraordinary authority" granted by the courts "to review every municipality's housing plan - an unprecedented grant of power that not even the Legislature was willing to give."
Thousands of new housing units in NJ?
..... The housing mandate dates back to the original Mount Laurel ruling in 1975 and has been upheld by the state Supreme Court in subsequent legal battles over the years. The latest calculations by the state Department of Community Affairs estimate that municipalities, many of them in North Jersey, need to allow for construction of 85,000 more units over the next decade, along with the renovation of 65,000 existing residences.
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Already struggling to cut deals with developers to meet their prior Mount Laurel obbligatos, about 25 towns sued to challenge the new law and suspend their next round of obligations, which go into effect this year. [2025]
..... "Our courts are not acting impartially and are actually giving favored treatment to favor Fair Share Housing Center against the municipalities," Monntvale Mayor Michael Ghassali wrote in a statement provided by Collins. "this proves that the "fix is in" against our communities."
..... "This doctrine was commandeered by developers and special-interest groups," East Hanover Mayor Joseph Pannullo said at a round table of mayors focused on the issue in June. [2024] "T Hey only care about more development and more profit. And housing advocates are unrealistic, single-minded, and care little about the real ramification that come about by overdeveloping an area."
..... Another hearing is scheduled for January 31 [2025] for Lougy to consider a motion to dismiss the lawsuit altogether.
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"The municipalities that have signed on to this lawsuit are deeply unrepresentative of New Jersey;s diverse population," Fair Share's Gordon said Thursday. [01/02/2025] It's a smokescreen supported by many of the same wealthy towns who have fought affordable housing for decades, every step of the way."
..... State Senator Troy Singleton, D-Burlington,
who cosponsored the affordable housing bill, applauded Lougy's decision, saying it "confirms what we already knew - that this is a politically-driven and manufactured lawsuit."
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"The participating municipalities are not just challenging our affordable housing law; they are essentially challenging their constitutional obligation to provide affordable housing in the first place," Singleton wrote in a statement from his office.
..... In the meantime, municipalities face legal requirements to begin addressing their next round of housing obligations. The Department of Community Affairs quantified those obligations in October, [2024] release a list of the number of affordable homes each municipality must provide for through zoning decisions and developer agreements, over the next decade.
..... Municipalities have until January 31 [2025] to adopt the DCA calculations or present alternatives that are consistent with New jersey law. Barring any further legal delays, they will then have until June 30 [2025] to adopt a specific plan to address that number.
..... Collins said the municipal coalition will take additional legal steps, including amending its complaint to challenge that guidance form the court. Another appeal will be field to challenge recent rules issued by the New Jersey Housing Mortgage finance agency, which he says "were issued without any notice or comment under the Administrative Procedures act."
..... Ghassali added, "We will also be standing up against illegal rule-making that has prevented any New Jerseyans from having any opportunity to be heard regarding bureaucratic regulations affecting not only the next 10 years, but the future of community planning in New Jersey into perpetuity."
..... In his statement, Singleton said, "while I am grateful that this motion was dismissed,it is disappointing that this lawsuit will still linger. I hope that rather than continue to waste time and taxpayer resources on frivolous lawsuits, the mayors of these 26 towns will instead work to meet their long overdue affordable housing obligations."