Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a landmark bill to revamp how New Jersey calculates and enforces each town’s obligations for affordable housing, setting a path for a new phase of residential development across the state under the Mount Laurel doctrine.
The next chapter of affordable housing in New Jersey is now in Gov. Phil Murphy’s hands, following the state Senate’s passage of a bill to revamp how officials calculate and enforce each town’s obligations under the landmark Mount Laurel doctrine.
The state Assembly has passed a bill that would revamp how New Jersey calculates each town’s affordable housing obligations, seeking to streamline a process that had languished in recent decades before being taken over by the state judiciary.
Homebuilders joined key public officials at the Atlantic Builders Convention last month to confront New Jersey’s housing supply and affordability crisis, pledging a spirit of cooperation as they search for solutions.
The state’s long-running battle over affordable housing policy is still rife with uncertainty and unanswered questions, stakeholders say, even for the roughly 200 towns that have reached settlements on how they will zone for new development.
Attorneys for the township of South Brunswick are accusing a former Superior Court judge of having a conflict of interest, citing his ties to a developer that he went to work for only months after ruling that the municipality must zone for at least 1,500 affordable housing units.
A ruling by the state Supreme Court on Wednesday is being hailed as a victory for affordable housing advocates and developers, but reaction from other experts and stakeholders was mixed, as they worked to understand what the decision would mean going forward.
Arguments before the state Supreme Court are now underway in one of more pivotal cases tied to New Jersey’s beleaguered affordable housing policy, centering on the so-called gap years in which developers and towns were without clear guidelines.
A deal between local officials and a housing advocacy group will result in Toms River having the fourth-highest number of new affordable housing units in the state in the coming decade.
