New Jersey Supreme Court to Hear Housing Appeals

by: Damika Webb at Fair Share Housing Center

Tue Apr 05, 2011 at 04:37:58 PM EDT

The New Jersey Supreme Court has decided to review the October 8, 2010 Appellate Division decision that invalidated the Council on Affordable Housing's (COAH) flawed Third Round regulations. The Court's decision is in response to request filed by 13 municipalities and the New Jersey Leaque of Muncipalities that want the Court to relieve them of the obligation to provide zoning for starter homes for New Jersey's working families. The muncipalities have the support of the Christie Administration, which has called for allowing wealthy municipalities to build walls that exclude lower income New Jerseyans, seniors, and people with special needs.

In a brief filed with the Court, the Christie Administration supported policies that will allow towns to abuse their powers and exclude working people by prohibiting all housing from being built or only allowing large, expensive housing on large lots in the same towns where significant job growth is expected.

For over three decades, New Jersey towns have been required to allow homes for low-income working families, seniors and people with special needs and Fair Share Housing Center remains optimistic that the Supreme Court will again hold that municipal zoning may not be used to block the market for starter homes. Zoning that allows for a fair share of affordable homes is right thing for our state and our economy.

Damika Webb at Fair Share Housing Center :: New Jersey Supreme Court to Hear Housing Appeals

A recent study released by the Christie Administration found that over 80 percent of residentially zoned land in Route 1 Corridor towns like Princeton and West Windsor required minimum lots of one-half acre or greater. This kind of restrictive zoning, which the Christie Administration supports, means that only one out of every thirteen workers will be able to live anywhere int he corridor. Such exclusionary zoning remains a serious impediment to a stronger economy and more racially and economically integrated New Jersey.

The Appellate Division's October 8, 2010 decision held that COAH had given muncipalities too much leeway, allowing them to avoid their constitutional obligation to provide realistic opportunities for lower-income people to find homes. The Appellate Division decision resulted from appeals by Fair Share Housing Center and major private sector groups including the New Jersey Builders Association and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, New Jersey Chapter. The decision would require COAH to end its decade of delay in coming up with constitutional and effective regulations.