March 3,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
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. 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
