affordable housing litigation - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

January 16,2018

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, councilmen Ramon Hache gave us an update of the Affordable Housing Litigation and how its effecting the Village of Ridgewood .

According to the councilmen , “This litigation continues from 2015 when the Village filed its Declaratory Judgment complaint in Superior Court seeking approval of its adopted housing plan and immunity from builders remedy law suits while the decision by the Court was pending. Presently, the Village enjoys immunity from suit until the end of January, 2018. It is conducting Court mandated settlement negotiations with Fair Share Housing Center managed by the Court appointed Special Master, Michael Bolan, PP. The effort is to resolve all issues with FSHC and reach an understanding with the Special Master and all interested parties to present an agreed upon Fair Share and Housing Plan to the Court sometime in the next few months of 2018. A significant part of the Housing plan designed to meet the constitutionally mandated requirement of providing affordable housing in the Village was approved in 2017 by the Planning Board for 4 developments in the Central Business district. These four developments are known as:

KS Broad -Ken Smith site;
The Enclave – South maple and East Ridgewood avenue intersection;
Chestnut Village – Chestnut Street, north of Franklin Avenue;
The Dayton – formerly Brogan Cadillac site on South Broad Street ”

Councilmen Hache states , “the Village council has pushed very hard to lower the density of each development and provide a component of “Special Needs” housing in at least one of the developments with the assistance of the Untied Way to assist persons and families in the area who are searching for residential living accommodations for special needs individuals. Settlement negotiations may provide additional Special Needs housing through an agreement with West Bergen Mental Healthcare and the Chestnut Village developers that will require approval of the master, FSHC and ultimately the Court.”

Details of the number of units of each development can be obtained by reading the Planning Board’s Resolutions of approval of each development.

March 12,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, is it time for the Mayor and Village Council to step up and support Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi’s legislation , bill (A4666) which imposes a moratorium on all affordable housing litigation until the end of the year.

Please get your local Mayors and Councils to support these bills and call your legislators to co-sponsor them.

“The problem with this particular issue is that if people wait too long, there’s no way to reverse it,” said Schepisi. “I don’t think people know how critical of a timing issue this is for so many of the residents we represent and the municipalities we represent.”

As towns near the end of their court-granted immunity from builders’ remedy lawsuits, many are beginning to settle their affordable housing obligations.

“Municipalities, their mayors and councils, are feeling tremendous pressure to enter into settlement agreements which may not benefit their communities in any sort of fashion because they literally feel as though they have a gun to their heads,” Schepisi said.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/2017/03/10/pascack-valley-towns-support-affordable-housing-bills/98905412/

Schepisi proposes putting the brakes on litigation while Legislature addresses affordable housing crisis.
https://theridgewoodblog.net/schepisi-proposes-putting-the-brakes-on-litigation-while-legislature-addresses-affordable-housing-crisis/
Trenton, N.J. – New Jersey municipalities could get relief from building more than 200,000 low income housing units and 1,000,000 total new housing units under a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi on Tuesday. The bill (A4666) imposes a moratorium on all affordable housing litigation until the end of the year.

“If we wait any longer the transformative impact on our communities will not be reversible,” said Schepisi (R-Bergen). “Now is the time for the Legislature to act.”

Municipalities have spent millions of taxpayer dollars over the years fighting affordable housing mandates in court. After a January NJ Supreme Court ruling forced towns to consider past housing needs for the first time, municipalities statewide are struggling to compensate. The far-reaching mandate increases low-income housing need by 142 percent while forcing municipalities to permit building that would accommodate a phantom 30 percent population increase.

“The court’s social engineering will devastate all 23 municipalities I represent and suburban municipalities throughout the entire state,” said Schepisi. “The legislature needs to stop ignoring affordable housing and instead should immediately act to fix this problem in a responsible manner. While we focus our energies to vote on the State bird and State butterfly our communities are being turned into mini Brooklyns. We cannot let the court legislate what is best for individual communities. This isn’t temporary; this is forever. I am circulating a resolution to every Mayor and Council in the State seeking their support for an immediate legislative solution.”

Schepisi also introduced a companion bill (A-4667) creating a short term commission that will study prior court decisions, the effectiveness of past affordable housing practices, and analyze projected population increases and corresponding housing need. The commission will hold public hearings and is required to publish a report of its findings at the end of the year.

The January court mandate would unnecessarily increase housing supply by as much as 30 percent in the next 9 years anticipating a population growth of 2.73 million. If built, the number of new housing units in New Jersey would exceed housing numbers for the entire city of Manhattan. These projections would cost New Jersey taxpayers over $11.75 billion more in education alone. On the flip side, Rutger’s economists project a population increase of only .3 percent, or 219,000 people, per year until 2026.