Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority and COAH Poised to Enter into Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Development of Affordable Housing
By Henry T. Chou, Esq.
Wtih the closing of Fort Monmouth approaching in just over two years, the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA) moved promptly to adopt its "Fort Monmouth Revitalization Plan" on September 3, 2008. The Plan, which provides proposals for the reuse of the base, calls for various types of development, including market-rate and affordable housing.
Given that the New Jersey Fair Housing Act was amended this past summer to require agencies that have planning and zoning authority over large areas of land to oversee and implement compliance with constitutional affordable housing obligations in those areas, FMERPA is poised to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) concerning any affordable housing that may be built as part of the redevelopment of the "Fort Monmouth Reuse and Redevelopment Area."
The MOU provides that COAH and FMERPA will establish a cooperate planning process and include the several municipalities on which Fort Monmouth is situated an opportunity to participate in the process. While not setting any specific deadlines, the MOU obligates FMERPA to identify sites and opportunities for inclusionary housing (developments that contain a minimum 20% of affordable housing) within the Fort Monmouth Reuse and Redevelopment Area.
COAH and FMERPA have agreed to implement a unique methodology for calculating the affordable housing obligation on the former base, one that would only generate obligations when sufficent new jobs have been created to replace the jobs lost to the base closing, as well as crediting job loss only against job gain that occurs within the Fort Monmouth Reuse and Redevelopment Area.
Because FMERPA has a 20-year "implementation horizon" for its revitalization plan, is anticipated that the formulation of an affordable housing plan for the Fort Monmouth Reuse and Redevelopment Area will be a fluid process not tied to the standard COAH timeframes that apply to municipalities. Development of affordable housing could either occur quickly or slowly depending on the motivation of the parties involved.
The proposed MOU will be the subject of COAH's next public hearing on December 10, 2008.