New Affordable Housing Obligations are Fast Approaching

NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ – Borough Planner McKinley Mertz attended the Tuesday, October 8 council meeting to give the council an update regarding the next round of affordable housing obligations. Due to the absence of Mayor Al Morgan the meeting was presided over by Council President Peter DeSarno.

The newest affordable housing legislation came into effect in March 2024. The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) is now responsible to calculate the new obligations for each New Jersey municipality. The DCA calculations are due on October 20. Mertz noted that since October 20 is Sunday, the calculations will likely be available before or immediately after that date. The methodology and datasets used for those calculations will also be made available to the municipalities. Once the calculations are released municipalities are allowed to calculate their own obligations based on the information given by the DCA as well as the municipality’s own data. She pointed out that the planners are committed to ensure that the housing obligation numbers are reasonable.

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By January 31, 2025 the borough is required to adopt a resolution accepting the borough’s new affordable housing obligations. Any interested party, such as a developer or property owner, may object to these obligations during the month of February. Any objections must be filed through a new program created by the DCA. The municipality will be allowed one month, March, to resolve any issues raised by the objections that were filed. Mertz noted that the timeline is very aggressive.

The borough has until the end of June to prepare and adapt a new Housing Element and Fairshare Plan. The housing plan will be similar to the previous one of July 2019. The borough will have to reevaluate the town’s demographics. The borough will also have to take into consideration previous housing sites that have not been developed and state the reasons why. The status of all new housing developments will also be included into the new plan. Any mechanisms to implement that housing plan, such as zoning or rezoning, can be done after the June deadline.

In past affordable housing rounds the borough has prepared “a vacant land adjustment” which recognizes that the borough is “completely built out.” “You are a fully developed municipality,” Mertz said. Any new development will come through infill development (underutilized or vacant land) or demolition and rebuild. The borough planners will prepare a vacant land inventory and any borough assigned housing numbers will be adjusted based on the vacant land available, she explained.

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