Judge rejects 26 NJ towns’ attempt to stop affordable housing law from moving forward

A New Jersey judge has denied a request from 26 towns to put the state’s affordable housing development process on hold while their lawsuit to overturn the state requirements plays out.

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert Lougy issued a decision Thursday saying the wider public interest in new affordable housing “overwhelmingly” outweighed the towns’ arguments that they’ve been overburdened by the affordable housing they’ve been asked to build in their communities.

"The Court finds it incongruous with all principles of equity to leave the State’s low- and moderate-income households in worse shape than before the Legislature’s comprehensive reshaping of the field,” Lougy wrote in his decision.

The towns sued in October to invalidate a state law passed by the Legislature this year that laid out guidelines for calculating how much affordable housing each town must create over the next decade. The towns claim the law unfairly requires them to build more and more housing without accounting for how much development they can truly support given their lack of available land and the increased burden on infrastructure like roads and sewers.

“All we're asking is to put the law on hold so that we can get into court and have a discussion on these issues,” Michael Collins, the towns’ attorney, told the judge at a hearing in December.

Following the judge’s decision, the towns announced in a statement that they will appeal.

“Our coalition remains steadfast in challenging a law that imposes unfair affordable housing obligations upon New Jersey’s suburban municipalities – while exempting the urban ones – for each 10-year decade into perpetuity,” said Mayor Mike Ghassali of Montvale , NJ, one of the towns involved in the litigation.

New Jersey Sen. Troy Singleton, Chairman of the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee and author of last year’s affordable housing law, said he was grateful that the motion was dismissed but is disappointed that this lawsuit “will still linger.”

"Today's decision from the Court confirms what we already knew – that this is a politically-driven and manufactured lawsuit, wasting taxpayer dollars in an attempt to intentionally delay the creation of new affordable housing,” Singleton said.

The court fight is unfolding as New Jersey enters its fourth round of state-mandated affordable housing development under what is known as the Mount Laurel doctrine, which states that all New Jersey municipalities must contribute their “fair share” of low priced housing.

In October, New Jersey officials released target numbers for the state's next 10-year round of affordable housing development, which seeks to develop more than 84,000 affordable homes in the state's suburbs by 2035. Each town is mandated to generate a total of roughly 150 affordable homes on average between June 2025 and 2035, according to an analysis of the data by Gothamist, though some towns are required to develop more.

The towns fighting the new requirements have also taken issue with the state’s process for municipalities to dispute how much new housing they’ve been assigned. Under the law, the Legislature has tasked a set of state judges and legal experts to a panel to review affordable housing disputes moving forward. In part, legislators have said they’re doing so to avoid the costly litigation that has been a hallmark of affordable housing disagreements across the state.

Collins said at the December hearing that a Jan. 31, 2025 deadline for the towns to either accept their housing obligations or officially dispute the numbers puts a “gun to their head.”

In his decision, Judge Lougy aligned himself with the arguments of state Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office, who is the main defendant in the case. Platkin’s office rejected the towns’ argument that the panel of experts violates the separation of powers between the executive branch and the judiciary. He also notes that if towns don’t want to participate they have the option to file a declaratory judgment in state court.

The judge wrote that the 26 towns “have no entitlement to deprive other municipalities” of their right to go through the affordable housing process, noting that granting an injunction could force towns to “have to scramble over uncertain legal terrain” to fulfill their affordable housing obligations.

Adam Gordon, director of the Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing in New Jersey, said the judge’s decision “emphatically” rejected the towns’ arguments.

“I would hope that this decision is a wake up call to some towns to stop spending money on litigation and instead actually figure out how to comply with the law,” Gordon said.

Platkin, in a statement Thursday, said his office will continue to defend the state's mandates.

“We are glad that the court this morning decisively rejected this meritless attempt by a small group of towns to upend New Jersey’s landmark affordable housing law," he said.

Judge Lougy scheduled a hearing on the AG’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit for Jan. 31, 2025.

This is a developing story and has been updated with additional information.