Trenton NJ, At 1 am on the 4th of July Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi finally had an opportunity to force a vote on her bills which would help our towns in their fight against forced over development. Not surprising, but certainly disappointing, the Bergen County democratic members of the Assembly all voted to stop my legislation from moving forward. Chairman Jerry Green gave a speech as to why he won’t move the bills forward stating among other things that the legislature should essentially cede its duties and obligations to the Courts. Schepisi has asked for a copy of the video of his speech which she will circulate promptly. The attached link is a copy of her speech.
“While I know this is Somerset, it is obvious that with the exception of District 39 and District 40 leadership, the crickets from District 36, District 37 and District 38 are becoming more incessant. When will the leadership of NJ Legislature stop playing this “partisan card”? “, Edward Durfee
Affordable housing mandate threatens quality of life, mayor says
Updated on June 20, 2017 at 3:31 PMPosted on June 20, 2017 at 3:30 PM
BY DAVE HUTCHINSON
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
MONTGOMERY TWP. – Mayor Ed Trzaska is concerned that a potential court mandate requiring the township meet an affordable housing unit quota will put an overwhelming burden on the municipality and negatively effect the quality of life.
At issue is a state Supreme Court ruling in March of 2015 that opened the door for municipalities to be sued for not providing a “fair share” of affordable housing units. The ruling also allows a municipality to demonstrate in court that it has met the requirement to provide affordable housing.
The township, which has a population of some 23,000, has been in the forefront of providing affordable housing units, said Trzaska. Currently, he said the township has 300 affordable housing units, of which more than one-fourth are vacant.
Under a possible court ruling by the Fair Share Housing Counsel, the township could be forced to build between 501 and 1,000 additional affordable housing units, as well as 4,000 market-rate units, said Trzaska. The township has yet to be given the exact number of affordable units it must build, he said.
Ridgewood NJ, The Fair Share Housing Center expected the Mercer County Superior Court to affirm it’s projected affordable housing obligations; but are now saying those numbers are a lie after Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi used them to paint a picture of over-development.
Fair Share, which has taken towns to court to enforce its calculations, said in April that the state needed 146,000 units to cover a 16-year gap period when the state failed to calculate obligations, and another 140,000 to fulfill housing quotas from 2015 to 2025.
The group submitted those figures to Mercer County Superior Court to help determine the housing obligations of five municipalities that have not reached settlements. Its executive director Kevin Walsh said at the time, “We expect the courts to affirm this study.”
However, contrary to positions taken before the courts, Walsh reversed course and called Fair Share’s housing numbers a lie in his letter to Schepisi.
In a letter Thursday, Walsh wrote, “our organization is not taking the position that municipalities must develop hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes by 2025.” He further argued that any claim “that municipalities are being required to provide 280,000 affordable homes is a lie.”
For decades state courts have relied upon Fair Share’s methodology to establish municipal obligations under the Mount Laurel doctrine. Cases involving more than 350 municipalities are either currently before the courts or have been settled. Most of the disputes between municipalities and Fair Share have been over the size of prospective need.
“Their deceptive practices are similar to certain retail clothing stores that used to raise their prices by 40 percent immediately before a 30 percent sale,” Schepisi (R-Bergen) said. “Towns I represent in Bergen and Passaic counties have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on professional fees just trying to comply with Fair Share’s mandates that they now admit should be significantly less.”
The center is seeking a court order blocking Edgewater from issuing occupancy certificates for non-affordable housing units, as well as a mandate that any construction related to non-affordable housing cease until it completes building 75 promised affordable housing units.
Econsult Solutions, a Philadelphia consulting firm hired by more than 200 municipalities, issued a report in 2016 setting the current need statewide at 33,140, with a prospective need for the next decade of 36,494.
It is unbelievable if not one of our council members attended this event!!! Instead of wasting your time on silly squabble, bet down to the issues that affect each and every tax payer in Ridgewood. We do not want to turn our town over to developers who are going to destroy the Village and line their pockets under the banner of “fair housing.” Can someone confirm whether or not we participated in this event and whether we are taking an active ole in supporting this Assembly womens’ efforts? And if our council people are not, they should consider resigning because they really are not addressing the most pressing issue facing and threating our town. Its outrageous that our council members are fiddling while Rome starts to burn beneath their feet! Arohnson and his ilk turned the town over to developers. But this group is doing nothing to try and take it back. Its time for action.
Ridgewood NJ, Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi represents 23 municipalities located in Bergen and Passaic counties, all of which have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on professional fees as a result of the failure and inaction of our State to provide guidance on how to comply with Court decisions on affordable housing.
The largest drivers of cost result from third party “intervenors” appearing and demanding to build large numbers of market rate units in exchange for providing a small number of affordable units. One of these intervenors is a non-profit organization Fair Share Housing. This non-profit has been granted enormous power in our State and has been dictating settlement terms for almost all of our municipalities.
Their deceptive practices are similar to certain retail clothing stores that used to raise their prices by 40 percent immediately before a “30 percent sale”. Indeed, Fair Share put forth a report that is being relied upon by our Courts which states, among other things, that NJ needs 280,000 units of affordable housing.
page 2
Many community leaders have reached out seeking help and guidance on how to handle this issue. In an effort to start dialogue on this topic Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi decided to host a bipartisan group of hearings. Schepisi invited Fair Share so that their point of view could be heard. Rather than attend or call or meet with me they choose to personally attack and bully Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi . A copy of their extremely unprofessional letter is attached. If you ever wonder why the large issues in NJ never get addressed, it is because of nonsense like this. I urge every municipality fighting their numbers to use a copy of this letter as one of their exhibits.
Paramus NJ, Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi hosted a meeting on June 15th at Bergen Community College to talk about OVERDEVELOPMENT, affordable housing and the biggest issues affecting Bergen County local communities.
The event was packed with legislators, mayors, engineers, planners, environmental experts, school superintendents, non-profit housing groups and others who joined Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi at the Thursday night legislative hearing to address New Jersey’s affordable housing crisis.
The hearing will provided the first significant legislative discussion addressing New Jersey’s affordable housing crisis in 5 years.
The meeting was very well attended given how little publicity from New Jersey main stream press .Senator Gerald Cardinale, Assemblymen Robert Auth and Kevin J. Rooney and the several hundred people took time to talk about overdevelopment and affordable housing.
The Speakers included Mayors and former Mayors from Closter, Haworth, Demarest, Dumont, Upper Saddle River and Montvale. Council members from Park Ridge, Ramsey and Dumont. Elected officials and representatives were also present from communities including Westwood, Mahwah, New Milford, Old Tappan, Emerson, Paramus, Allendale, Mountain Lakes, Montville, Hillsdale and Woodcliff Lake. Tom Toronto and Lynn Bartlett, the heads of non-profit affordable housing agencies United Way and the Bergen County Housing Authority, along with Bruce Young, the President of the Bergen County School Boards all provided great testimony.
Captain Bill Sheehan from Hackensack Riverkeepers for discussing environmental concerns. I was disappointed that none of our other Bergen County legislators chose to attend. This is an issue that every municipality is struggling with regardless of political party lines. We must work together to assist the communities we represent.
Joanne Minichetti, mayor of Upper Saddle River, told Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi and other state officials that the analysis leading to the obligations was “ridiculous” and “stupid.” The obligations were created by the Cherry Hill-based Fair Share Housing Center.
Derek Michalski also from Upper Saddle River recounted to the Ridgewood blog ,” in the case of USR two developers father and son “forced” rezoning Apple Ridge property on USR mayor and Council and after obtaining the “rezoning signature” re-sold the same property to Toll Brothers for $20-30milion quick gain. if the town did this deal for its own benefit(residents) we wouldn’t have to raise taxes for decades to come. Thus such chaos is creating enormous benefit to developers and leaving communities in fear.”
Schepisi has 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. Over fifty municipalities throughout the state of New Jersey have passed a resolution urging action on Schepisi’s bills.
However NJ Housing and Development Chairman Jerry Green (D) is not going to release those two bill to the floor for vote (IMHO). They will die waiting…..in the meantime the town in fear of loosing this issue in court are marketing (horrible deals with developers). For instance in the case of USR two developers father and son “forced” rezoning Apple Ridge property on USR mayor and Council and after obtaining the “rezoning signature” re-sold the same property to Toll Brothers for $20-30milion quick gain. if the town did this deal for its own benefit(residents) we wouldn’t have to raise taxes for decades to come. Thus such chaos is creating enormous benefit to developers and leaving communities in fear.
And you guessed it Green is a major fund raiser for Murphy (he told me that himself in his office) so this issue is almoeast a dead issue.
New Jersey has the highest property taxes, foreclosure rate and is the most expensive state in the nation to own a home. Common sense and basic economics tell us that there is too much supply and too little demand, with high taxes and a dense population distorting total housing costs upward.
Now we are facing the equivalent of housing Armageddon. A non-profit entity with ties to developers is attempting to force towns across the state to build 280,000 affordable housing units in the next nine years.
Unfortunately, just a few months ago the New Jersey Supreme Court sided with the non-profit Fair Share Housing Center to force towns to build approximately 201,000 affordable housing units. Emboldened by the court’s opinion, the FSHC decided to double down and increased its extortion demand to 280,000 new units of affordable housing. This would financially ruin our state, towns and taxpayers.
While the 280,000 number is insane, the problem is actually far worse. Builders don’t only build affordable housing because they can’t make a profit from those units. So they build four times as many unaffordable units to make up the difference. In total, New Jersey is on the hook for approximately 1.4 million homes – which equals a minimum 2,500 per community. To make things worse, the state Supreme Court is supporting this assault on our communities.
Towns across the state, Democrat and Republican, feel as if they have a proverbial gun to their head. They are being forced to enter into settlements that could be disastrous to their communities as a result of lawsuits brought by a non-profit. They are spending money they don’t have to fight unreasonable court-mandated obligations. This is an unwavering threat to taxpayers who can’t afford already nation-high property taxes.
If the Fair Share Housing Center gets its way, the state will be unrecognizable and the change will be irreversible.
Building an additional 1.4 million homes will cause irreversible problems for our schools, environment and water sources, as well as our roads and power grids. Where are the clean drinking-water advocates who lament that 90 percent of New Jersey water fails at least one water-quality standard? Or the environmentalists that want to restrict sprawl and protect New Jersey’s ecosystem? Where is the teacher’s union fighting for smaller class sizes and increased resources for students?Where are the legislators who represent our communities?
And Fair Share’s logic doesn’t make any sense: The most densely populated state in the country, with the highest property taxes in the country and the highest foreclosure rate in the nation needs affordable housing, and its solution is for that state to build massive quantities of housing funded with higher property taxes, making the state denser and more expensive.
It is mind boggling that the state Supreme Court sided with this faulty logic and is enforcing lawsuits that obligate towns to build housing they don’t need. Why aren’t we considering the obvious issue, that there isn’t a lack of housing supply but that housing is just too expensive because of our obscenely high property taxes and cost-of-living?
Isn’t there a fundamental disconnect that families earning $70,000 per year, an amount $14,000 more than the average US family, are eligible for affordable housing. Plainly, people struggle to own a home in New Jersey because it costs too much. The solution isn’t to make the rest of homes cost more by building 280,000 new affordable units.
We cannot let the courts get away with allowing a non-profit that has no constitutional power to force towns into building what they don’t need. It is also unfathomable that the court would legislate what is best for individual communities.
I have introduced two bills, A-4666 and A-4667, giving the Legislature until the end of the year to properly study and fix the problem: one that suspends all affordable housing lawsuits and another establishing a bi-partisan commission to study the issue. If we wait any longer to stop this insanity, the impact on our communities will be irreversible and our already unaffordable property taxes will skyrocket.
I am calling for an immediate stop to these obligations, and to provide relief for towns across the state that can no longer take the burden. We must take action now before it is too late. We must stop this madness or it will hit us like an avalanche.
Holly Schepisi, Republican, represents parts of Bergen and Passaic counties in the 39th Legislative District in the Assembly.
Reader, “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.”
June 14,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Paramus 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.
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.”
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.
Paramus NJ, Under recent affordable housing rulings by the NJ Supreme Court, our communities are being forced to permit construction of up to 1.5 MILLION new units of unneeded housing in order to satisfy a fictitious population increase of 30 percent in the next 9 years.
Protect our State from ridiculous affordable housing court mandates (which may result in over 1.5 MILLION new units of housing in NJ) by supporting A-4666 and A-4667 to stop the Court actions and study the issue while we still can.
Many of our NJ residents are unaware that their communities will be forced to DOUBLE their housing population in just the next 9 years, destroying all existing housing prices.
Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi is now asking of volunteers. “I’m going to need all volunteers willing to help. I’ve received permission to host a “town hall” session on June 15th at 5:30 at Bergen Community College in Paramus. If the NJ Legislature won’t hold meetings on housing affordability and court forced overdevelopment, I will. The intent of this meeting is to host an open hearing to gain thoughts, concerns and options from members of the public, Mayors and Councils, planners, engineers, traffic experts, board of education members, environmental groups, etc. I will personally pay for transcripts of this hearing and will have them delivered to the Legislature. This will be the first of numerous hearings held throughout the entire State. I will draft a formal letter tomorrow for distribution throughout the County. Anyone willing to help out in the circulation efforts would be greatly appreciated. If you have an hour or two to spare please call my office (201) 666-0881 and ask for Doreen.”
TRENTON — A pair of Republican state lawmakers is looking to do away with tenure for state Supreme Court justices, proposing a constitutional amendment that would have voters give them a thumbs-up or thumbs-down every four years.
State Sens. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) and Michael Doherty (R-Warren) say the move would make the justices accountable to New Jersey voters, but some worry the move would further inject politics into the state’s highest court.
Currently, New Jersey’s seven justices are appointed by the governor and approved by the state Senate with an initial term of seven years. Then, if the governor reappoints and the Senate again approves, a justice gets tenure until hitting a mandatory retirement age of 70.
VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE COUNCIL REGULAR PUBLIC MEETING
MAY 10, 2017
8:00 P.M.
Call to Order – Mayor
Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act
Roll Call – Village Clerk
Flag Salute and Moment of Silence
Acceptance of Financial Reports
Approval of Minutes
Proclamations
National Cancer Survivors Day
Emergency Medical Services Week
Proclaim May as Mental Health Month
Proclaim May as Older Americans Month
Proclaim June as Gay Pride Month
Proclaim June 2nd as National Gun Violence Awareness Day
Comments from the Public (Not to exceed 3 minutes per person – 40 minutes in total)
Scoping Hearing – Green Acres Diversion on South
Broad Street
Adoption of Ordinance 3592 – Establish a CAP Bank
2017 Budget Hearing
Overview of 2017 Budget
Village Council’s Comments
Public Hearing on 2017 Budget
Resolution 17-126 Adopt 2017 Budget
Village Manager’s Report
Village Council Reports
ORDINANCES – INTRODUCTION – RIDGEWOOD WATER-NONE
ORDINANCES – PUBLIC HEARING – RIDGEWOOD WATER-NONE
RESOLUTIONS – RIDGEWOOD WATER
THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION, NUMBERED 17-127, WILL BE ADOPTED BY A CONSENT AGENDA, WITH ONE VOTE BY THE VILLAGE COUNCIL. THERE IS A BRIEF DESCRIPTION BESIDE THE RESOLUTION TO BE CONSIDERED ON THE CONSENT AGENDA. THE RESOLUTION WILL BE READ BY TITLE ONLY:
17-127 Award Professional Services Contract – Engineering Services for Suez Corrosion Control (NTE $15,000) – Awards a Professional Services Contract to Mott MacDonald, 111 Wood Avenue South, Iselin, NJ
ORDINANCES – INTRODUCTION
3599 – Amend Chapter 260 – Trees and Shrubs – Establishes rules and regulations for the planting and removal of trees on both public and private properties
3600 – Amend Chapter 212 – Parks and Recreation Areas – Prohibition of Dogs Off-Leash in Certain Parks – Prohibits dogs who are off-leash in both the Irene Habernickel Family Park and the Schedler Park Property
ORDINANCES – PUBLIC HEARING
3593 – General Capital Ordinance ($6,241,000)
3594 – Water Utility Capital Ordinance ($5,745,500) 3595 – Parking Utility Capital Ordinance ($210,000)
3596 – Amend Chapter 265 – Vehicles and Traffic – Parking Restrictions – Bogert Avenue and Cambridge Road
3597 – Amend Chapter 265 – Vehicles and Traffic – Parking Restrictions – Pomander Walk
3598 – Construction of Handicapped Ramp at Irene Habernickel Family Park ($70,000)
RESOLUTIONS
THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTIONS, NUMBERED 17-128 THROUGH
17-139 ARE TO BE ADOPTED BY A CONSENT AGENDA, WITH ONE VOTE BY THE VILLAGE COUNCIL. THERE IS A BRIEF DESCRIPTION BESIDE EACH RESOLUTION TO BE CONSIDERED ON THE CONSENT AGENDA. EACH RESOLUTION WILL BE READ BY TITLE ONLY:
17-128 Title 59 Approval- Replacement of Firehouse Roof – Approves the plans and specifications for Roof Replacement at the Main Fire House, 201 East Glen Avenue in the Village of Ridgewood prepared by the Engineering Division, pursuant to Title 59
17-129 Award Contract – Replacement of Firehouse Roof (NTE $126,760) – Awards a contract to the lowest responsible bidder, NDP Construction, LLC, 200 White Road, Suite 207, Little Silver, NJ
17-130 Title 59 Approval – School Bus Transportation Services – Approves the plans and specifications for School Bus Transportation Services prepared by the Parks and Recreation Department, pursuant to Title 59
17-131 Award Contract – Rebid of School Bus Transportation Services – Day Camp (NTE $21,000) – Awards a contract to the lowest responsible bidder, Durham School Services, 248 Goffle Road, Hawthorne, NJ
17-132 Award Contract Under County Contract – Rock Salt (NTE $56.86/ton) – Awards a contract under County Contract to Mid-American Salt, LLC, 4528 Hillegas Road, Fort Wayne, IN
17-133 Authorize Additional Funding for Special Attorney for RCRD Lawsuit (NTE $15,000) – Awards an additional $15,000 for the Special Attorney in the RCRD Lawsuit, Peter Scandariato of Eastwood, Scandariato, & Steinberg, 336 President Street, Saddle Brook, NJ
17-134 Authorize Application – Designate Graydon Park – Historic Designation – Authorizing application to Historic Preservation Office of the State of New Jersey to add Graydon Park to the State and National Registers of Historic Places
17-135 Authorize Shared Services Agreement – Borrowing of County Equipment (Bergen County) – Authorizes a Shared Services agreement with Bergen County for the sharing of emergency and non-emergency equipment
17-136 Suspension of Ordinance for Certain Illuminated Signs – Suspends the ordinance for certain illuminated signs in the Central Business District until December 31, 2017
17-137 Approve Encroachment Agreement – The Office Restaurant – 32-34 Chestnut Street – Approves an Encroachment Agreement for a canopy over the doorway of The Office Restaurant which extends over the Village’s sidewalk and is minor in nature. Also authorizes the Mayor and Village Manager to sign the Encroachment Agreement.
17-138 Authorize Addition of World War I Ridgewood Resident Veteran Killed in Action to Memorial Plaque – Authorizes the addition of the name of Anthonie J. Wendels, a Ridgewood resident, who was an Army Veteran killed in action in World War I, to the plaque at Memorial Park at Van Neste Square. Also authorizes the Village to pay the cost of doing so.
17-139 Recognize the Designated Public Forum Space in Memorial Park at Van Nest Square – Display of the Gay Pride Flag – Designating the Public Forum space in Memorial Park at Van Neste Square, resolving to display the Gay Pride Flag for all of June 2017 in recognition of Gay Pride Month.
Comments from the Public (Not to Exceed 5 minutes per person)
Resolution to go into Closed Session
Closed Session
A. Legal – COAH, Valley Hospital
B. Personnel – Appointments to Boards and Committees; Appointments of Professionals
C. Contract Negotiations – Consideration of Purchase of Property 24. Adjournment
James M. O’Neill , NorthJerseyPublished 1:42 p.m. ET May 8, 2017 | Updated 18 hours ago
Residents in parts of New Jersey use tens of millions of gallons more water a day than their watersheds can safely supply – and other areas of the state could soon be in similar stress according to a state report.
Demand in much of Salem and Cumberland counties outstrips local supply by 70 million gallons a day. In Atlantic County, the deficit is 25 million gallons daily.
Rivervale NJ, I have been on the front lines fighting for the legislature to do its job and provide a legislative solution to recent Court opinions on affordable housing in the State. Even the NJ Supreme Court agrees that the legislature should do something, anything, on this issue.
As a result of recent court opinions, I drafted bills to stop the costly litigations currently taking place in every municipality so that all interested parties, including the NJ League of Municipalities, the Executive Director of the NJ Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, the Executive Director of Fair Share Housing, professional planners and members of the legislature can sit together and develop a better way to ensure affordability in this State for all people regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender. The current plan to have over 280,000 new affordable units or 1.5 million additional total units in a state that is already the most densely populated with a population growth rate of less than 0.3 percent, along with being one of the States that most people are fleeing, is irrational at best.
My bills have received support from Democratic mayors and councils, Republican mayors and councils and communities that are split between political parties. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue, this is one of the most important issues affecting every community in the State and if we, as legislators refuse to address it, we do not deserve to be legislators.
Unfortunately, many times elected officials are unwilling to step up to the plate to address the more difficult issues for fear of the backlash. It is exceptionally unfortunate that in today’s political climate, the immediate “go to” for those who disagree on an issue is to insinuate the other person is a racist or a bigot or a whole host of other items. Today I found myself just in that place. As a result of my trying to bring all parties to the table to properly address an incredibly complicated and difficult topic, the head of the Bergen County NAACP, provided a letter to the Bergen Record today accusing me of “fear mongering”, “trying to advance my political profile” and alleging that I am affirmatively trying to keep minorities out of our communities. Anyone who knows me knows how totally off base his letter is with respect to how I operate or what I believe. I have reached out to the State NAACP President to request a sit down to openly discuss this issue. If we want our State to succeed we better start having the tough conversations now, while we still can. Wanting to figure out a better way to govern this State is a quality we want in everyone who represents us.
Please call your Mayors and your legislators and ask them to protect our State from ridiculous affordable housing court mandates (which may result in over 1.5 MILLION new units of housing in NJ) by supporting A-4666 and A-4667 to stop the Court actions and study the issue while we still can. If you don’t see your town below ask your elected officials why they aren’t fighting for your community.
Here is a current list of towns that have passed resolutions in support of my legislation to provide relief to our communities in the fight against the threat of over 1.5 MILLION new units of housing in NJ. If you don’t see your town on here ASK WHY. Many of our NJ residents are unaware that their communities will be forced to DOUBLE their housing population in just the next 9 years, destroying all existing housing prices.
Closter
Demarest
Dumont
Emerson
Franklin Lakes
Harrington Park
Haworth
Hillsdale
Mahwah
Montvale
Norwood
Old Tappan
Park Ridge
River Vale
Upper Saddle River
Westwood
Woodcliff Lake
Bloomingdale
Wanaque
Wayne
Saddle Brook
Fair Lawn
Oradell
Rochelle Park
Hackensack
Lincoln Park
And how will the “low and moderate income” residents afford living in towns like Upper Saddle River, Ridgewood, Wilton, Chappaqua and other towns in the northeast? Will the courts order the local taxpayers to subsidize their living costs as well? I can’t afford to live in Ridgewood. Why should anyone who does not have the means be entitled?
This is not just a NJ issue but a national one. The courts have overstepped their power.
While the courts are at it let’s have them rule that “someone” build luxury housing in Camden to “equalize” things.
We’ve become a stupid, politically correct, entitled, crybaby, country.
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