Tired of Being Number One in all the wrong things? Hope to see representation from all of our communities on June 15, 2017. Help be part of the solution !
June 3,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
WESTWOOD NJ, Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi will initiate a series of statewide legislative hearings to address New Jersey’s affordable housing crisis. The first will be held on June 15 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Bergen Community College’s Technology Education Center room 128.
One candidate for New Jersey Governor GOP Joseph Rudy Rullo has promised to dissolve COAH altogether while other candidates have only spoken in vague generalities or ignored the subject all together.
“The tough job of finding a solution cannot wait another day,” said Schepisi (R-Bergen). “If the state Legislature won’t hold meetings on court-forced overdevelopment, I will.”
Schepisi will be joined by other invited guests, including fellow legislators, mayors, town officials and planners, engineers, traffic experts, board of education members, environmental groups and other interested parties.
She said the hearings will examine ways to provide a better way toward affordability for the residents of this state while protecting towns from a recent state Supreme Court ruling that could force the construction of up to 1.5 million unneeded housing units to satisfy a fictitious population increase of 3.35 million in the next nine years – while Rutgers projects a population increase of only 219,000.
“We have reached a critical juncture in the State of New Jersey. We are the most costly, the most densely populated with the highest number of outmigration because people can no longer afford to live here. Instead of smart discussions regarding how to implement change to reduce living costs for all of our residents, the legislature’s inaction is forcing communities to potentially double their housing population in just the next nine years, destroying all existing housing prices while increasing property taxes,” said Schepisi. “We need to stop the court’s action and fix this issue while we still can.”
Schepisi recently introduced two bills to freeze municipal affordable housing obligations through the end of the year, and establish a commission to study the issue and determine each town’s obligations. As a result of the failure of the legislature to move any of these initiatives forward, Schepisi has decided to hold her own hearings and provide the transcripts and testimony to the NJ Legislature.
Over forty-five municipalities in Bergen, Gloucester, Morris, Essex, Union, Somerset, Mercer, Passaic and Hudson counties have passed a resolution urging action by the legislature to stop such discrepancy. The resolution also supports Schepisi’s bills to temporarily halt affordable housing litigation and create a special commission.
This woman is the savior of the equity in all of our houses – – why is it that she only gets press on the Blog (not knocking the blog mind you) but she should be front page news and a picture of her should be placed on all of our refrigerators.
Considering the legislature won’t even debate the matter on the floor I’d say we are still screwed and chances of her measures passing are (sadly) slim.
If people just read this and don’t share the information, nothing will change. Do people think change comes by people sitting on their duffs in the living room and doing nothing more? Go to the event and support her at this event, otherwise, leaving it to someone else just won’t cut it anymore. Progressives who want to change the face of all the communities are working to make it happen…what are YOU DOING? If you can’t go, call your legislator even if it’s Pascrell and tell him this will lead to blighted areas in your town, overbuilding which perhaps including taking people’s homes through eminent domain if you are in the area they want, higher taxes due to more schools being needed, more traffic and of course road repairs and infrastructure costs – sewer, water, etc.