By Joshua Burd
The Atlantic Builders Convention has returned to Atlantic City this week, a year after Gov. Phil Murphy signed a landmark bill to expand affordable housing across New Jersey and potentially impact the thousands of professionals who attend the conference.
With this year’s event now underway, organizers say the law has set the stage for a long-overdue, broad-based focus on housing by state policymakers, from mentions in Murphy’s State of the State and budget addresses to a package of bills now moving through the Legislature.
“I think there’s a more earnest recognition of the overarching problem of housing affordability, and that there have to be creative ways to tackle the problem in a variety of solutions,” said Debra Tantleff, chair of the New Jersey Builders Association and founding principal of TANTUM Real Estate. “In general, I think there is a more concerted understanding of the ability for the public and private sector to work together to implement that solution.”
That’s also a welcome development to Jeff Kolakowski, the association’s CEO, who said “many other states have been having the conversation around increasing the supply of housing and doing the necessary reforms.” There’s now an opportunity to catch up in New Jersey, he said, “especially when we continue to see how important affordability issues are here … and how important that issue will likely be in the upcoming elections.”
Such is the backdrop this week with the Atlantic Builders Convention kicking off for the second year at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. According to NJBA, which spearheads the massive conference, that cautious optimism around housing policy comes alongside the excitement of a bigger convention floor, a revamped schedule of special events and an expanded lineup of seminars focused on everything from design trends and financing to environmental cleanup.
That’s poised to draw several thousand attendees and hundreds of exhibitors, representing a “sizeable increase” from last year’s event, with a growing number of national distributors and manufacturers as well as home improvement contractors.
“I think that is the beauty of this organization and why this convention is so unique,” Tantleff said. “It speaks to such a wide range of audiences and membership.”
Importantly, NJBA has reformatted the schedule of its main events, which began Tuesday night with an exhibitor appreciation event. Wednesday begins with a master sponsor breakfast, giving way to the opening of the convention floor at 10 a.m., while the popular Sales and Marketing Awards, honoring the best of the best in real estate marketing and design, has moved to Wednesday night.
Attendees will also find a revamped seminar lineup that NJBA says will “ensure there is something for everyone.” That includes the always popular economic forecast, presented this year by Dr. Robert Dietz of the National Association of Home Builders, and a variety of seminars that offer attorney, engineering and planner credits.
The Thursday schedule also includes a Professional Women in Building Brunch and Panel Discussion and a separate panel on design trends, moderated by Tantleff and featuring:
- Ikea Home Furnishing Direction Leader Abbey Stark
- The Marketing Directors Executive Vice President Martin Brady
- One In A Mila Designs Founder & Owner Rachael Milakofsky
The three-day conference takes place with several key public policy issues looming. NBA and other development groups are lobbying against the pending Resilient Environments and Landscapes Rule or REAL regulations under the state’s Protecting Against Climate Threats program. The rules, which are pending implementation by the state Department of Environmental Protection, would dramatically raise the required flood elevations for new development, redevelopment and substantial improvements to existing structures, creating what NJBA argues is a “wide-ranging and hugely detrimental impact to the homebuilding industry.”
“It’s very much a concern for the industry,” Kolakowski said. “It is the most monumental land use policy the state has considered in quite some time, and I think people are still coming to terms and being educated on the true impact that it will have on the state’s future economic growth opportunities, but also our ability to redevelop key areas of our state and create new housing opportunities throughout.”
He said NJBA, which notes that the proposal is not just limited to coastal areas, continues “to actively oppose it” alongside a “broad coalition of groups out there that continue to have severe reservations about this public policy.” He expects that coalition to grow as additional mayors and other elected officials become familiar with the rule, which DEP must adopt by early August.
“We still want to educate the state’s policymakers about the true impact of this rule proposal and how we think it’s bad for the future of New Jersey,” Kolakowski said.
The association’s other high-level policy priority, affordable housing, is playing out in real time as the state implements the fourth round or 10-year production cycle under the Fair Housing Act. That began last year when Murphy signed the new affordable housing law, giving way to the release of nonbinding guidance by the Department of Community Affairs that identified a statewide deficit of more than 150,000 low- and moderate-income homes, which must be addressed through planning and zoning by local governments.
The agency also released individual obligations for New Jersey’s 564 municipalities, giving them until Jan. 31 to adopt the figures or provide their own alternative calculations. But the law has sparked litigation, including a challenge by some two dozen municipalities that say it imposes excessive mandates without fully considering local conditions and resources.
NJBA, for its part, recently sued the 159 municipalities that are seeking to reduce their obligations based on land capacity and other factors. The new law allows them to do so through a formal procedure set up by the DCA, but developers, affordable housing advocates and other stakeholders were allowed to file their own challenges to those efforts through Feb. 28. Kolakowski said the organization is now “actively engaging in the mediation process.”
“Our priority with the legislation was always to make sure that we had a more efficient fourth round when compared to the third,” he said. “We always wanted to get the numbers locked in place as quickly as possible and then get the corresponding housing plans to be locked in, because our goal is to get shovels in the ground. It’s not to obfuscate, it’s not to delay the process. At the end of the day, we want to get to building new housing.”
Builders are also encouraged, at least cautiously, by recent legislative action on other policy initiatives. Among them are S2974, which would update parking requirements for residential developments based on their proximity to mass transit and other factors. The bill recently cleared the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee, as did a measure that would support redevelopment of so-called stranded assets such as office parks and retail centers.
A third bill, A2792, would streamline the development of so-called accessory dwelling units — or smaller, independent structures that are built alongside single- or two-family homes — effectively standardizing local land use ordinances for such projects. The proposal advanced last month with a unanimous vote by the Assembly Housing Committee.
“It all speaks to housing affordability,” Tantleff said, echoing past comments: “There are ways to deliver more housing than just upzoning for new tall buildings, so all of these policy recommendations and initiatives are focused on housing affordability and ways to chip away at either the cost or the footage associated with building housing.”
