Gov. Murphy’s signing of a major reform law has some optimistic, but skeptics say it was ‘ill-conceived’New Jersey’s political leaders grappled for two decades with how to build more affordable housing in the state’s hundreds of towns and cities.Gov.
And President Joe Biden is taking note. He touted his administration’s efforts so far to cut red tape for builders but he’son proposals he argues would help Americans find an affordable home. “Now pass my plan to build and renovate 2 million affordable homes and bring those rents down,” he said during his State of the Union last month.to solving the problem of affordable housing — but there seems to be a nationwide consensus that more housing is an urgent need.
Housing policy, he says, has become less and less balanced over time, where towns’ obligations are more than they can handle. “The statute, in my mind, is ill-conceived and poorly written. So I think it will create more litigation than it quells,” he told POLITICO. “And I think they really miss an opportunity to bring this doctrine back under control.”
Besides codifying this methodology, the new law transfers the responsibility for publishing obligations to the Department on Community Affairs. It also establishes an Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program to resolve issues of fair housing law, taking some of the pressure off of the courts, and sets a specific timeline for proposals, disputes and resolutions for towns in the fourth round.
Republicans opposed the bill Murphy signed, calling it a “disastrous policy” that forces “unreasonable mandates, quotas, and deadlines pave the way for overdevelopment, traffic congestion, and sharp spikes in school enrollment.” And for others, environmental concerns raise another issue. In full Assembly debate, a number of members opposed increasing the amount of affordable housing in municipalities they represent — especially in the Highlands region, a portion of northern New Jersey with an environmentally protected status since 2004.