NJ considers redistributing affordable housing requirements to other towns

Fair Share Housing Center, the influential advocacy organization that has negotiated hundreds of affordable housing agreements with municipalities across New Jersey, wants state officials to redistribute building targets for more than 150 towns.

Those towns had requested a reduction in their affordable housing requirements earlier this year. Many mayors and local executives complained that the state overestimated the amount of available land for housing. Altogether, the reductions would amount to 14,000 fewer new affordable homes at a time when the state is aiming to build 84,000 units priced for low- and middle-income residents over the next decade.

But instead of lowering that target, Fair Share Housing Center filed challenges in state court Friday against 68 towns, asking a panel of mediators to consider reassigning the affordable housing mandates. If adopted, it would increase housing requirements for some towns that had requested reductions, and would also mark a dramatic shift in state policy that has so far avoided redistributing the mandates across the Garden State.

Joe Burgis, a New Jersey land use planner who has been advising towns on housing for more than 35 years, said it is unclear how reallocation will work when the panel reviews the dispute, because the 2024 state law governing affordable housing requirements does not spell out how to account for reductions.

“It's a deficiency in the legislation, that's what it comes down to,” he said.

One of the towns being challenged by Fair Share is Bergen County's Franklin Lakes, which has a population of about 11,000 and is located roughly an hour northwest of New York City. Mayor Charles Kahwaty said he was “very concerned” about the nonprofit's proposal but has yet to review it in detail.

New Jersey's Department of Community Affairs allocated the affordable housing requirement in October. A majority of the state’s 564 municipalities accepted the numbers they were given.

Fair Share reviewed filings for all 159 towns that are contesting the state's requirements and found 85% had valid objections to the state's land calculations.

”For many of those towns, the analysis they provided points out things in the developable land that we think are legitimate,” said Adam Gordon, executive director of Fair Share Housing Center.

He noted that many towns rightfully sought to exclude land that was already being developed — land the Department of Community Affairs was unaware of when conducting its analysis.

But Fair Share Housing Center also argued in its court challenges that the towns did not consider the region's overall affordable housing need when they requested reductions, or what the impact would be when neighboring towns made similar requests.

By law, New Jersey’s municipalities are collectively required to come up with calculations that satisfy the state's full goal, said Gordon.

“If you're going to have some [obligation] numbers end up being lower, there are going to be some numbers that end up being higher,” he said.

But Burgis, the town planner, questioned the “legitimacy of this approach.”

“The legislation very specifically says that municipalities are entitled to 'examine their numbers,’" he said. "But it never goes on to say the municipality is also obligated to reassess the distribution for the entire region.”

To get those units back, Fair Share Housing Center is proposing a recalculation that takes regional land capacity into account, but that also only reallocates units among the 159 towns seeking reductions.

“ We were very clear, nothing should be reallocated in a way that impacts the 280-plus municipalities that accepted the numbers,” Gordon said.

How that would play out in real life is detailed in court filings.

Franklin Lakes was assigned 497 units. In January, town officials asked the state to reduce its obligation to 463, but Fair Share Housing Center wants to increase that number to 700 — a significant jump from the state's original assignment.

Gordon said this would be justified in part because Fair Share Housing Center’s analysis showed Franklin Lakes had significant amounts of developable land compared to its neighbors in Bergen County.

“I don't think it really achieves long-term objectives of affordable housing,” Kahwaty said, adding that he saw any effort to increase the town’s requirements as a “punitive action.”

Fair Share Housing Center told the state that the alternative was to maintain the original requirements. The New Jersey Builders Association also filed lawsuits last week asking the mediators to reject the 159 towns’ requests.

By the end of March, mediators are supposed to render a decision on all affordable housing obligations. Towns must develop plans for how to deliver the units by the end of June.