Denville reviews affordable housing obligation
DENVILLE — Against the backdrop of the proposed 55-unit apartment complex near the Mt. Tabor Train Station, Planning Board Attorney Edward Buzak provided a lesson in affordable housing to members of the public and the Town Council.
Business Administrator Steven Ward said affordable housing is “an extremely important topic” for the town that could have “a significant impact” on the future of the community.
“The Township felt it was important to provide a summary of the historical and current status of our court-mandated affordable housing obligation,” Ward said.
How much of an obligation the town has on its hands is a matter of debate at the moment. On its website, the Fair Share Housing Center defines itself as "devoted to defending the housing rights of New Jersey's poor through enforcement of the Mount Laurel doctrine.”
According to Ward, the Fair Share Housing Center has petitioned the court for Denville to construct 1,313 affordable housing units between 2015 and 2025.
On the other side of the fence sits the Consortium, municipalities that have band together in reaction to the Fair Share Housing Center’s calculations, which Consortium members say are too high.
"Our expert report that was initially submitted to the courts as part of the consortium indicates we have to facilitate the construction of 112 units between now and 2025,” Ward said.
Why the wide gap between the two positions? That is where Buzak’s presentation last week comes into play.
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Back in 1975 a landmark court case resulted in the state establishing Mount Laurel Doctrine, a set of guidelines that were supposed to make housing available to residents in lower tax brackets across the state, according to the Fair Share Housing Center.
The guideline were put in place to prohibit “economic discrimination against the poor by the state and municipalities in the exercise of their land use powers,” according to the FSHC.
The reality, however, Buzak said, is these guidelines only required towns to provide the opportunity for affordable housing through zoning laws. They lacked teeth because towns were not required to build anything.
This led to the state’s Supreme Court attempted fix in 1983. Builders were given the ability to sue towns that were not living up to their affordable housing requirements. Thus, the "builder's remedy” lawsuit was born.
Towns that lost in litigation were forced to rezone so developers could build. Affordable housing advocates saw this as an improvement because it enforced rights for housing, according to Buzak.
A series of attempts to define quotas, how much affordable housing towns were required to provide, and debates over enforcement followed through the years. In 1985, the Fair Share Housing Act established the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) as a regulating body that would oversee municipalities, which tried to evolve its own set of rules, such as tying a town’s affordable housing requirement to its residential growth or its fiscal growth.
Ultimately, in 2015, the state's Supreme Court disbanded COAH ruling it failed in its enforcement of housing obligations. In January the Supreme Court ruled municipalities must allow the development of affordable housing and it put enforcement in the hands of Superior Court judges, when it comes to calculating affordable housing obligations.
One such case is pending before Superior Court in Morris County and from this Denville's obligation will be determined.
“Despite not knowing our ultimate obligation, the court will likely direct Denville to adjust the zoning on the properties included in the Fair Share Plan we were required to provide to the court in early 2016 in order to accommodate the construction of affordable housing based upon our expert’s calculations,” Ward said.
Email: myers@northjersey.com