Affordable Housing Oversight: Q & A

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.

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Good News for Developers: New Jersey Permit Extension Act Extended

Just before the end of 2014, Governor Christie signed legislation that extended the time periods contained in the New Jersey Permit Extension Act. The Permit Extension Act deals with various land use approvals and permits that were either approved and/or set to expire after January 1, 2007.

The purpose of the Permit Extension Act was to acknowledge the difficult economic climate and to toll the expiration dates for the covered permits and/or approvals. Without the Permit Extension Act, many developers who were unable to move forward with their projects, were conceivably going to have their approvals/permits lapse. This would force developers to through the costly and time consuming process of reapplying and obtaining various permits and approvals under the current statutory regulations, or perhaps simply not be able to re-obtain the lapsed approvals.

Previously the Permit Extension Act ensured that the covered approvals/permits would not lapse prior to December 31, 2014. Pursuant to the recent legislation, that date has now been extended through at least December 31, 2015

However, it is important to note that not every permit or approval obtained or set to expire after January 1, 2007 is covered by the Permit Extension Act. The approvals may extend up to an additional six months for any unexpired term of the approval or permit, thus not later than June 30, 2016, Moreover, further extensions as permitted by law are not precluded when the tolling period expires.

To ensure your project’s success and that all land use issues are dealt with effectively and efficiently, contact Stark & Stark’s Commercial, Retail and Industrial Real Estate Group. Attorneys are active members of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

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