COAH – Blog Archive

Affordable Housing Oversight: Q & A

sstark on April 27, 2016

Category: Affordable Housing, Real Estate, Uncategorized
Tag: Affordable Housing Oversight, Builders, COAH, Council on Affordable Housing, Developers, Owners

BRIEFLY EXPLAIN THE RECENT NJ SUPREME COURT DECISION RELATED TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING OVERSIGHT.

After sixteen years without viable and constitutional regulations for Affordable Housing, the Supreme Court created new mechanisms to meet Affordable Housing goals. To really explain this issue, we need to go back for some history. In 1975 the Supreme Court said every municipality has an obligation to provide a reasonable opportunity for Affordable Housing. In other words, there needs to be a variety of choice in housing for residents and citizens of New Jersey at all income levels. In the eighties, the courts created a methodology to provide Builders’ Remedies, whereby builders who brought suit and established that municipalities engaged in exclusionary zoning would be granted the remedy of rezoning of their property for an inclusionary development, providing for a percentage of affordable housing within a market rate project. In response the legislature adopted the Fair Housing Act (FHA) whereby the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) was delegated as the authority to create and enforce regulations concerning affordable housing. Since 1999, COAH has failed to act in a responsible manner to create those regulations—we’ve been without constitutionally satisfactory regulations for sixteen (16) years.

Q&A Video Podcast on NJ Affordable Housing Oversight

sstark on May 6, 2015

As you are undoubtedly well aware, the March 10, 2015 ruling from the New Jersey Supreme Court stripping the Council On Affordable Housing (COAH) of their oversight of the constitutional obligation of every municipality in New Jersey to plan for and accommodate affordable housing has effectively changed the rules for all of us.

The Rules Have Changed!
Not only have nearly 400 New Jersey municipalities been put on notice that they must submit suitable plans for affordable housing to the Courts by July 8, 2015; but this ruling gives builders and developers legal remedies (outside of the administrative appeals process within COAH) with which to compel these municipalities to comply. If you have a property/site that you believe is suitable for affordable housing, the time to act is now.

For your convenience, here is a breakdown of the ruling and the implications for owners and developers in a video podcast Q&A.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T978BBWm8g

How Can We Help?
Stark & Stark’s attorneys are prepared to leverage our relationships at the municipal level along with our intimate understanding of the zoning and land use process to help get your sites included in municipal affordable housing plans. Our litigators are also ready to counsel you on the legal remedies at your disposal if/when your property/site is excluded from an affordable housing plan. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Are You Ready? New Jersey Supreme Court Sends Affordable Housing Oversight Back to Trial Courts

sstark on March 23, 2015

Category: Affordable Housing, Real Estate, Uncategorized
Tag: COAH, Council on Affordable Housing

On March 10, 2015, setting aside the state’s “non-functioning” affordable housing process, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a ruling removing executive branch jurisdiction over low- and moderate-income housing and sent enforcement and oversight back to the trial courts. The ruling is the most significant action in 40 years, when the court originally established the so-called Mount Laurel doctrine, which held that municipalities must provide their “fair share” of affordable housing.

In many ways, the recent decision turns back the clock to a time when individuals, developers, and advocates had to sue to prevent municipalities from blocking approval of zoning for affordable housing development. Although generally regarded as unlikely, the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) – the executive branch body tasked with setting fair housing obligations and approving municipal plans for meeting those obligations – still has the opportunity, as spelled out in the court’s decision, to reverse their inaction and set new rules.

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