By Joshua Burd
Nine towns are suing to block New Jersey’s new affordable housing law, arguing it imposes excessive mandates on municipalities without fully considering local conditions and resources.
The bipartisan coalition, led by Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali, says the mandates go beyond what is constitutionally required under the landmark Mount Laurel doctrine that has guided affordable housing policy in New Jersey for the past five decades. And it comes as state officials prepare to publish new calculations for each town and city’s obligations for the development of low- and moderate-income homes, part of a framework that the Department of Community Affairs is slated to unveil by year-end.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law in March, calling it a “monumental piece of legislation” in the long-running, controversial policy debate over how to address the state’s shortage of affordable housing. But the saga is now set to continue with the legal challenge by Montvale, Denville, Florham Park, Hillsdale, Mannington, Millburn, Montville, Old Tappan and Totowa, which say they and other towns would unfairly shoulder the burden of some 60 urban and low-income communities that aren’t explicitly required to build new affordable housing.
“This isn’t about politics — it’s about fairness,” Ghassali said in prepared remarks. “Whether Republican or Democrat, we all believe that communities should have a say in how they grow. Our communities lose the ability to plan for their future when they are mandated by Trenton to support the housing needs of other municipalities, often significantly larger in size, on top of our existing obligations.”
Click here to read the full complaint.
Lawmakers involved in crafting the bill quickly blasted the lawsuit as a stall tactic.
“Affluent, suburban towns opposing affordable housing mandates is nothing new — same story, different day,” said Sen. Troy Singleton, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee. “What is incredibly offensive, beyond using taxpayer dollars to fund this politically driven, superfluous lawsuit, is the attempt to use the legal process to intentionally delay our affordable housing laws — not by weeks or months, but years.”
New Jersey Builders Association CEO Jeff Kolakowski, whose group supported the new law, added: “NJBA is disappointed but certainly not surprised at yet another attempt by certain municipalities to get out the constitutional obligation to provide their fair share of affordable housing. We are looking forward to the implementation of the balanced affordable housing legislation enacted into law early this year and are optimistic that the court will see through the real purpose of this lawsuit which is obfuscation and delay.”
Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez, a top sponsor of the measure and chair of the Assembly Housing Committee, noted that supporters “worked with mayors to ensure the law is workable and will give responsible local elected officials the tools they need to accomplish this goal.”
The nine towns involved in the lawsuit, which call themselves Local Leaders for Responsible Planning, say there are at least seven others from Bergen to Salem counties that have adopted resolutions supporting their efforts and are anticipated to join them as named plaintiffs. They include Allendale, Oradell, River Vale, Washington, Westwood, Wharton and Wyckoff.
Michael L. Collins of King, Moench & Collins LLP is representing the coalition in the lawsuit, which is docketed as Borough of Montvale v. State of New Jersey.
In the meantime, the complaint in state Superior Court takes aim at the mediation system established by the law, which calls for having retired judges and other experts resolve disputes between DCA and municipalities that are challenging their affordable housing obligations. The plaintiffs call the program “an unconstitutional structure” that places the decisions in the hands of unelected officials.
“Local leaders are the ones who know their communities best,” Ghassali said. “Handing our future over to a panel of unvetted ‘experts’ with no connection to our towns is a disservice to our residents.”
Murphy said after signing the law that his team and lawmakers sought “to craft a new process where all three branches of government are involved,” with the next round of state-mandated affordable housing requirements for municipalities set to begin July 1, 2025. The new framework emerged as part of a package of bills tied to affordable housing, with Democrats spearheading the legislation with support from key stakeholders such as the Fair Share Housing Center and NJBA.
“New Jersey has a shortage of over 200,000 affordable housing units and there are 14 prospective renters for each vacant apartment,” Adam Gordon, Fair Share Housing Center’s executive director, wrote in response to Monday’s lawsuit. “A delay of three years or more of building affordable housing, as Mayor Ghassali has proposed, would harm families, people with disabilities and seniors struggling with record-high rents and home prices.
“The lawsuit will inevitably get thrown out in court. It’s purely a smokescreen to undermine and delay the implementation of New Jersey’s landmark new affordable housing law (S50/A4). This lawsuit is nothing new — it’s supported by many of the same ultra-wealthy communities who have fought affordable housing for decades, every step of the way. The lawsuit also is a thinly veiled attempt to revisit through the courts arguments that failed in the political process.”
Both Gordon and Singleton also pushed back on the coalition’s argument that 62 urban municipalities are exempt from affordable housing requirements.
“One of the ideas that had been purported as behind the lawsuit — that urban municipalities don’t have affordable housing obligations under New Jersey law — is simply not true,” Gordon said. “Since urban municipalities have historically produced far more affordable housing than suburban municipalities, their obligations primarily consist of rehabilitating existing housing — often running into thousands of affordable homes they have to rehabilitate.
“S50/A4 requires these urban municipalities to meet these rehabilitation obligations, which often far exceed suburban obligations in total. By pretending that urban municipalities don’t have obligations under the law, Mayor Ghassali is counting on the willful ignorance of residents who are already inclined to oppose affordable housing.”
