Which North Jersey towns met affordable housing deadline? Which are fighting? See the list
After a Jan. 31 deadline, almost 80% of New Jersey municipalities have signed on to participate in the fourth round of a state-mandated order to build more affordable housing.
At the same time, a small but growing consortium of towns has vowed to keep fighting, despite two recent court setbacks in their challenge to the law enacted last year. As of Thursday, 440 of the state's 564 municipalities had adopted resolutions to declare their compliance with the housing mandate, according to the Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit that advocates, and sometimes litigates, on behalf of the program.
'It's encouraging that the vast majority of municipalities are moving forward with creating homes under the new law,' Adam Gordon, executive director of Fair Share housing, said in a release after the deadline. 'In the midst of a deep housing crisis, New Jersey's new affordable housing law creates a win-win situation by giving municipal leaders tools to plan in the best way for their communities."
The mandate, born of a decades-long series of court rulings known as the Mount Laurel doctrine, has fueled a wave of construction in what is already the nation's most densely populated state. The coalition challenging the process recently added three more municipalities, expanding to 28 total. They filed a new lawsuit on Feb. 3.
Under the law adopted last year, all New Jersey towns had until the end of January to declare whether they would accept the 10-year affordable housing goals announced in October by the Department of Community Affairs. Their other option was to challenge the numbers by presenting their own goal calculation to the state's new Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program.
Towns that failed to meet the Jan. 31 deadline may still be working on their strategy. They may already have agreed to separate goals in settlements with the Fair Share Housing Center. Or they may have decided to take their chances in a court battle, as Edison did when it objected to the state's proposal that it could accommodate 727 new homes.
Collectively, the Community Affairs goals could require the construction of 85,000 more affordable housing units over the next decade, along with the renovation of 65,000 existing residences.
Towns are not required to build their own housing, although some, like Madison, have approved municipal projects to create all-affordable dwellings to meet their Mount Laurel obligations. Most municipalities, however, choose to set their master plans and local zoning to entice private developers to construct the required units.
Towns that do not accommodate developers willing to commit a small percentage (an often negotiable number, up to 20%) of their inventory to be sold at "affordable" rates can be hauled into courts. Through so-called "builder's remedy" lawsuits, judges can award broad leverage to developers to build whatever they wish and sell or rent at market rates if they include an affordable-housing component.
Any interested party can file a challenge to the municipal calculations before the end of February. The Dispute Resolution Center must issue a decision no later than March 31. Towns have until June 30 to adopt what are known as housing elements and fair share plans, including proposed drafts of zoning and other measures.
As of Thursday, North Jersey towns that adopted resolutions to accept the state numbers or propose their own included:
BERGEN: Allendale, Alpine, Bergenfield, Bogota, Carlstadt, Cliffside Park, Closter, Cresskill, Demarest, Dumont, Elmwood Park, East Rutherford, Edgewater, Emerson, Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Fair Lawn, Fairview, Fort Lee, Franklin Lakes, Garfield, Glen Rock, Hackensack, Montvale, New Milford, North Arlington, Northvale, Norwood, Oakland, Old Tappan, Oradell, Palisades Park, Paramus, Park Ridge, Ramsey, Ridgefield, Ridgefield Park, Ridgewood, River Edge, River Vale, Rochelle Park, Rockleigh, Rutherford, Saddle Brook, Saddle River, South Hackensack, Teaneck, Tenafly, Teterboro, Upper Saddle River, Waldwick, Wallington, Washington, Westwood, Woodcliff Lake, Wood-Ridge, Wyckoff.
ESSEX: Belleville, Bloomfield, Caldwell, Fairfield, Cedar Grove, Essex Fells, Glen Ridge, Livingston, Maplewood, Millburn, Montclair, North Caldwell, Roseland, South Orange, Verona, West Caldwell, West Orange.
MORRIS: Boonton, Boonton Township, Butler, Chatham, Chatham Township, Chester, Chester Township, Denville, Dover, East Hanover, Florham Park, Hanover, Harding, Jefferson Township, Kinnelon, Lincoln Park, Long Hill Township, Madison, Mendham, Mendham Township, Mine Hill, Montville, Morris Plains, Morris Township, Morristown, Mount Arlington, Mount Olive, Mountain Lakes, Netcong, Parsippany, Pequannock, Randolph, Riverdale, Rockaway, Rockaway Township, Roxbury, Victory Gardens, Washington Township, Wharton.
PASSAIC: Bloomingdale, Clifton, Hawthorne, Little Falls, North Haledon, Pompton Lakes, Ringwood, Totowa, Wanaque, Wayne, West Milford, Woodland Park.
SUSSEX: Andover, Branchville, Byram, Frankford, Franklin, Fredon, Green, Hampton, Hardyston, Hopatcong, Lafayette, Montague, Newton, Ogdensburg, Sparta, Stanhope, Stillwater, Vernon, Wantage.
The original consortium of nine towns that filed a lawsuit in September to suspend implementation of the program has grown to 28.
"The law imposes new affirmative obligations upon municipalities that exceed any remedy ever imposed under the Mount Laurel doctrine," said one of the legal claims filed by the towns, which call themselves Local Leaders for Responsible Planning.
Most are in North Jersey, where densely populated communities worry about the increased traffic, utility consumption and school enrollment that the new units would require.
"High-density housing may seem like a solution, but it raises serious concerns about our infrastructure and budget," Parsippany Mayor James Barberio said at a 2024 town hall presentation on the issue attended by several mayors. "It seems like the state wants us to sacrifice quality for quantity."
Parsippany, Little Falls and Warren are the latest towns to join the lawsuits. The other plaintiffs are:
Bergen County: Allendale, Closter, Franklin Lakes, Hillsdale, Montvale, Norwood, Old Tappan, Oradell, Washington Township, Westwood and Wyckoff.
Morris County: Denville, East Hanover, Florham Park, Hanover, Mendham, Montville and Wharton.
Passaic County: Totowa.
Essex County: Cedar Grove and Millburn.
Hunterdon County: West Amwell.
Monmouth County: Wall and Holmdel.
Salem County: Mannington.
More: Paramus agrees to build 1,000 affordable housing units over next decade
Despite two recent denials of their claims by a state Superior Court judge in Mercer County, the consortium filed a new suit last Monday in yet another attempt to pause the process.
The second complaint names New Jersey, the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program and Glenn Grant, New Jersey's acting director of the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts, as defendants. The plaintiff towns allege that the court process has denied them due process and violated their civil rights.
The Mount Laurel court rulings required municipalities to provide their "fair share" of housing for low- and moderate-income families.
Gov. Phil Murphy and state legislators enshrined that goal in a law passed last year that sought to smooth enforcement of those obligations.
'We face a somewhat perfect storm of low housing inventory and escalating pricing, which leaves thousands of working families all across our state with no viable options,' said Sen. Troy Singleton, D-Burlington, a sponsor of the 2024 bill. 'Without securing the most basic human needs — a place to live — the other policies we pass cannot be as effective.'
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Which NJ towns met affordable housing mandate deadline?
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