January 1, 1900

by Henry A. Hill

As this Builders' Edition of the Quarterly makes clear, recent regulatory and legal develoments have further complicated the builder's task of finding suitable land on which to build new homes and places to work. For example, DEP's new septic regulations and the recently adopted State Plan impose major challenges to developing over 60% of New Jersey's vacant land. In addition, the availability of new funds for public acquisition of "open space" has made towns much bolder about blocking development by simply trying to condemn the land.

Traditional legal strategies have had mixed results this year. Courts have remained reluctant to strike down local zoning ordinances as unreasonable, or to find that such ordinances amount to an unconstitutional taking.

Public resistance to new development, and the regulatory challenges that come along with it, continue to increase. This requires innovation on the part of developers and new legal strategies. Successful developers will have to intensify their search for vacant land within the State's growth areas. They will also have to focus on the remaining undeveloped sites that others have found problematic, or which have been rezoned pursuant to the Mount Laurel doctrine. They will also have to consider other offensive legal strategies, such as the Federal Fair Housing Act. Creative defenses against downzonings and condemnations, sought by anti-development forces, have also become more important as the inventory of available sites decline.

In short, this newsletter, and our website at www.nj-landuselaw.com, seek to convey to clients and other readers some of the innovative strategies which we have developed to cope with the ever-increasing challenges presented by our regulatory and judicial climate.

Henry A. Hill is a senior partner of Hill Wallack. He is head of the firm's Land Use Division and partner-in charge of the Division's Land Use Litigation Practice Group. A recognized national expert in the field of land use law, he is a past-Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association's Land Use Section.