Governor Christie Reveals Plan for Affordable Housing and COAH
By: Michael J. Lipari, Esq.
Governor Christie has unveiled his new housing reform proposal, which seeks to drastically change affordable housing policies that have been in place for decades. As promised, the Governor proposes to eliminate the Council on Affordable Housing (“COAH”) and limit State involvement in the affordable housing process. The proposal is generally consistent with the report issued in March by the Governor’s Affordable Housing Task Force.
This radical proposal would repeal the Fair Housing Act and abolish COAH. Housing obligations imposed by the State and COAH would also be abolished. Going forward, there would be a 10% affordable housing unit requirement on development projects of ten or more residential units, and would require payment into a municipal affordable housing trust fund for development projects between two and ten units. This fee would be capped at 1.5% of the project’s fair market value or some other equitable calculation. Affordable housing unit obligations could be met on or off-site, and municipalities would be permitted to use affordable housing funds for projects in other municipalities. The proposal would also permanently repeal the 2.5% non-residential development fee.
Municipalities would be required to adopt zoning that would accommodate a variety of housing types to be used for affordable housing. Local planning boards would help each municipality develop and adopt a master plan that would describe how the municipality would meet these obligations. The master plan would have to specifically address existing affordable housing units in need of rehabilitation and the availability of undeveloped residentially zoned land. The master plans would be filed with the Department of Community Affairs (“DCA”), which would review the plans for factual accuracy and legal compliance. The DCA would also be responsible for administering the State Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
This proposal still has to make its way into and through the legislature where the legislative bill known as S-1, also seeking to abolish COAH, is being considered. At this point it is unclear which direction the State is actually headed with regard to affordable housing, but it seems certain that some form of change is forthcoming.