By Real Estate NJ
Proposals before the Jersey City council would increase the requirements on developers who receive tax abatements, a published report said, prompting concern among the builders and construction workers who have become a familiar sight in the municipality.
The report by The Jersey Journal cited two measures, including one that would require all tax-abated downtown properties to include 20 percent affordable housing. The other would impose additional fees on developers that would go to the city’s public schools.
Both measures are expected to pass the nine-member council, according to the report. Developers and labor unions told the newspaper that the policies would either discourage development or dissuade builders from seeking the tax breaks, which would eliminate the requirement for them to hire union labor.
“This proposal pits the middle class against the city’s critical need for affordable housing,” Paul Roldan, spokesman for the Hudson County Building & Construction Trades Council, told the Jersey Journal. “If this ordinance passes, it will create a barrier to developers working with the city. That means the very residents we were asked to partner with will lose their jobs and their wages. That is unacceptable.”
Councilwoman Joyce Watterman, the sponsor of the affordable housing measure, dismissed those concerns. The proposals come during a campaign season in which critics have taken aim at Mayor Steven Fulop’s tax abatement policy, even though he has sought to tie abatements to public policy goals such as affordable housing, school funding and development outside the downtown.
For more, see Friday’s story by The Jersey Journal.
More New Jersey real estate headlines
Sneak peek at Hard Rock plans for Taj Mahal (The Press of Atlantic City)
‘365 by Whole Foods’ concept officially ‘in development’ for Weehawken (Jersey Digs)
