Page 18 - RE-NJ

16 WINTER 2024
CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM
Developers, advocates say new DCA guidance
brings much-needed structure to affordable housing debate
T he path is by no means clear,
not even by the most optimistic
accounts. But new guidelines on
addressing New Jersey’s affordable
housing defi cit is a key starting point
for builders and advocates as they
mull the next phase of residential
development in the state.
Stakeholders have said as much in
recent weeks, conveying cautious
optimism even as they grapple with
the fi nancial hurdles, legal battles and
political debates that have slowed
housing production in the past.
“This fi rst step in the process, I think,
will go a long
way toward
bolstering the
credibility of the
fourth-round
process that was
established,”
Princeton
Council
Mia Sacks
President Mia
By Joshua Burd
Sacks said, referring to a new phase
of state-mandated affordable housing
production across New Jersey’s 564
municipalities. She spoke in late
October, following the Department
of Community Affairs’ release of
calculations of each town and city’s
obligation over the next decade.
“The numbers are advisory,” she
added, “but I think most towns will
want to focus their time and energy
and fi nancial resources and taxpayer
dollars on good planning rather than
mounting challenges that I think are
unlikely to succeed.”
Sacks was among those on hand for an
Oct. 24 program hosted by the Urban
Land Institute’s Northern New Jersey
chapter, where panelists discussed
how local offi cials, developers and
advocates could help meet the
needs of low- and moderate-income
residents in the upcoming cycle.
That came less than a week after
DCA unveiled the highly anticipated
fi gures on each community’s unmet
need, which totaled more than 150,000
homes statewide.
According to the agency, that includes
a defi cit of 65,410 existing dwellings
that need to be rehabilitated and
another 84,698 to be built through 2035
by way of planning and zoning by local
governments. Municipalities now have
until Jan. 31 to adopt the nonbinding
guidelines or provide their own fi gures
— as outlined by a law that Gov.
Phil Murphy signed in late March —
although the latter option makes them
vulnerable to lawsuits by builders and
other interested parties.
“It’s not exclusive to New Jersey,
but we’re way ahead of the curve in
terms of just trying to deal with these
issues,” said Tom Trautner, chair of
the redevelopment, land use and
zoning group at Chiesa Shahinian &
Giantomasi PC, who moderated the
program at the law fi rm’s headquarters
in Roseland.
“But of course the challenge is that,
while everybody might agree or
hopefully would
agree that
creating housing
opportunities for
persons of low
and moderate
income is a
noble cause, the
question is: How
Tom Trautner
do you balance
bringing that to fruition while also
balancing the need for sound planning
and recognizing that New Jersey has
some unique characteristics? Which
is that there is this local control that
municipalities like to have.”
THE NEW DCA GUIDANCE APPLIES TO
the fourth round under state Supreme
Court’s Mount Laurel decisions,
which have guided New Jersey’s
affordable housing policy for some
fi ve decades. But the process faces
similar headwinds from the third