Some NJ towns can build less affordable housing over the next 10 years

Dozens of New Jersey municipalities will be allowed to lower their affordable housing targets for the next 10 years after reaching agreements, according to court records and advocates lobbying for more low-priced homes in the Garden State.

Attorneys representing towns around New Jersey have been in negotiations with the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center since early March over the next round of state-mandated affordable housing development, which will run from 2025 to 2035. Earlier this year, 169 towns requested that their affordable housing target numbers be lowered, citing a lack of available developable land.

The discussions have been run by a panel of retired judges known as the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program. It’s charged by the state Legislature with settling disagreements over the housing numbers. Towns made the requests after the state’s Department of Community Affairs handed down requirements in October 2024 to all 564 municipalities.

In total, the state is aiming to build about 85,000 new affordable housing units by 2035. On average, towns are being asked to build roughly 150 new units, though some are required to build much more, according to a Gothamist calculation of the numbers.

Adam Gordon, executive director of Fair Share Housing Center, said at least 60 municipalities that requested lower targets reached compromises during negotiations. Fair Share Housing Center challenged 67 of the 169 towns that asked the state for reductions.

“This process has worked far better than I would've even anticipated,” Gordon said, adding that Fair Share Housing Center planned to provide the final agreed-upon numbers later this week.

Gothamist identified 15 towns via state court dockets that were granted reductions, totaling 1,411 affordable homes. All were granted new affordable housing obligations that aren’t as low as towns were seeking — but are still smaller than the original numbers they received from the Department of Community Affairs in October.

“There are a number of towns in which we started being pretty far apart that we were able to meet in the middle,” Gordon said.

Representatives for Roxbury in Morris County asked for a dramatic reduction in large part because state officials included a 300-plus-acre site that was once home to the Kenvil Works ammunition factory as developable land.

Planners for the township noted in court filings that the manufacturing site — which has not been active since the 1990s — is currently undergoing environmental remediation in hopes that it can be used for non-housing development at some point in the future. During its 100-plus years of operations dating back to the late 1800s, Kenvil Works was the site of several “deadly explosions” and “industrial accidents,” according to court documents.

Roxbury received the biggest reduction among the 15 municipalities Gothamist identified. Its obligation was lowered from 989 to 499, court records show. Roxbury officials had initially sought an obligation of 358 affordable homes. Mayor Shawn Potillo didn’t respond to a call and text message seeking comment.

New Milford, Ramsey, Hopewell, Sayreville, Denville, Lincoln Park, Mountain Lakes, Randolph, Clinton, East Windsor, Stanhope, Wall, Wyckoff and Jefferson also received reductions, according to court filings.

Gordon said disputes with other towns where the parties haven’t been able to reach a “middle ground” may drag on with more litigation.

One is Toms River in Ocean County. On March 26, the township council voted to withdraw from the state’s dispute resolution program and filed a lawsuit over New Jersey’s requirement that the municipality build 670 new affordable homes.

“I feel that the number can only go down in court,” Mayor Daniel Rodrick told the Asbury Park Press last week.

The New Jersey Builders Association has challenged all of the towns’ requests to reduce their affordable housing obligations, arguing in state court that if the reductions were granted it would diminish the state’s 85,000 target by “nearly 14,000.”

Jeff Kolakowski, CEO of the builders association, said in a statement Monday that his organization had reached its own settlements with most of the towns that had obligations it challenged. He did not provide updated numbers on what the towns agreed to build.

“We look forward to having resolutions shortly in the remaining cases and moving through the next stage of the process,” Kolakowski said.

Gordon said the negotiations are a good sign for how New Jersey’s often-contentious affordable housing process is currently working.

“ Over 400 towns will have a fair share number completed that nobody is disputing, which is nothing like what has ever happened in the 50 year history of the doctrine,” he said.

The next crucial date is June 30, when each municipality must deliver a plan for where it would add new housing.