By Joshua Burd
The coalition of towns seeking to block New Jersey’s new affordable housing law will soon have another day in court, having raised fresh concerns about the process that state officials will use to resolve zoning disputes and about a set of newly released regulations.
The group, known as Local Leaders for Responsible Planning or LLRP, has made a new request to halt the program’s rollout after a judge rejected its first attempt earlier this month. Oral arguments are now slated for Jan. 23 as the towns take aim at the mediation system proposed by the law — in which retired judges and other experts would settle disputes over a town’s affordable housing obligations — arguing that those mediators are susceptible to conflicts of interest.
Namely, lawyers for LLRP argue that some of those experts would be exempt from the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct, pointing to retired judges who are no longer eligible to be recalled to the bench. Those mediators would be subject to what the coalition described as looser standards and, to that end, will not be banned from political activity or outside income.
At issue is the high-profile law signed last March by Gov. Phil Murphy and the ensuing calculations by the state Department of Community Affairs, which identified a statewide deficit of more than 150,000 low- and moderate-income homes. The agency also released individual obligations for New Jersey’s 564 municipalities, giving them until Jan. 31 to adopt those guidelines or come up with their own, which would subject them to challenges from developers, affordable housing advocates and other stakeholders through the end of February.
The coalition of some two dozen towns filed suit in early September to block the law’s implementation, specifically ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline, arguing it imposes excessive mandates without fully considering local conditions and resources. They’ve also said they would unfairly shoulder the burden of some 60 urban and low-income communities that aren’t explicitly required to build new affordable housing.
Aside from arguing against the dispute resolution program, LLRP has taken issue with new regulations released by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, contending that the nearly 200 pages of rules were released in mid-December without giving municipalities an opportunity to even review or comment on them.
“Under the law, New Jersey’s suburban towns must create four affordable housing units for every 10 people that move into an urban aid municipality such as Jersey City or Hoboken,” Montvale Mayor Ghassali, who leads LLRP, said in a new statement this week. “That’s the formula. We have a moral obligation to litigate this flawed approach to the Supreme Court, even if it takes us time to get there.”
Lawyers for LLRP and for the state, which must argue their opposition to the group’s latest request, are now slated to appear virtually for the Jan. 23 hearing before Superior Court Judge Robert Lougy. The oral arguments would come two weeks after Lougy rejected the towns’ first application to stay the new program and the DCA guidelines, pending final judgment, while the court is also scheduled to hear arguments on a pending motion by the state and affordable housing advocates that seeks to dismiss the municipalities’ lawsuit altogether.
The new framework applies to the fourth round of requirements — essentially a 10-year cycle — under the state Supreme Court’s landmark Mount Laurel doctrine that has guided affordable housing policy in New Jersey for decades. According to DCA, that deficit includes 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.
Towns say they’ll appeal after judge rejects bid to halt state’s new affordable housing law
