WESTFIELD — Proposed amendments to New Jersey’s affordablehousing laws could spell trouble for land-poor communities like Westfield, Mayor Shelley Brindle said Tuesday.
“Last month, the Assembly passed an affordable-housing bill, and now it is barreling through for a full vote by the Senate on Monday,” Mayor Brindle said. “I speak to other mayors very regularly, and there are alarm bells going off all over the state. It doesn’t matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat.”
The new legislative package (S50/ A4), which serves to codify the methodology behind affordable-housing obligations and reduce judicial involvement in the process, cleared the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee last week. And while advocates claim that the proposed amendments would streamline the process and provide more direct regional oversight, Mayor Brindle said that she and many other local leaders across the state have some very specific concerns.
“There is a provision that requires land-poor municipalities such as ours to create a realistic opportunity to satisfy 25 percent of our unmet need,” Mayor Brindle said, adding that up until now, the Fair Share Housing Center has provided each municipality with a base number of required affordable units that is then later adjusted based on vacant land and the potential for future construction. Under the terms of the new package, however, that adjustment, which, Mayor Brindle said, has always been a benefit to built-out communities like Westfield, will no longer carry as much weight.
“This is a change that would have a significant impact on the number of affordable units that we will be required to build,” Mayor Brindle said. “In our case, we have an existing obligation of 998 units that they say are currently unmet, so we have to prove that we’re doing what we can to try to meet them. That’s where things like overlay zones come in. It doesn’t mean that all of those units will be built, but we have to prove to them that we have made an effort.”
Under the proposed legislation, Westfield would be required to provide approximately 250 more affordable units. But, Mayor Brindle said, since affordable-housing units only constitute about 15 percent of any new residential development project, the amount of requisite new construction for the community would be “absurd” and “unrealistic.”
“This would equate to a maximum build out of approximately 1,666 total new units. This is not anywhere near the realm of good planning or policy,” Mayor Brindle said.
Mayor Brindle also expressed concerns that the new legislation would negate certain municipal protections against builder’s remedy lawsuits.
“If we don’t make the effort to meet our obligations, builders can take us to court and sue us and we could end up with a much bigger project than what you would have to do otherwise. Many municipalities have seen that happen, and I’ll be honest with you, nobody ever wins a builder’s remedy lawsuit in court,” she said. “We stand to lose a lot of sovereignty over our own planning and zoning policies under the threat of costly litigation.”
The state Senate is expected to move the bill forward this coming Monday.
The council also voted to adopt three new ordinances on Tuesday — one that will allow the town to purchase a residential property on Central Avenue to be used as a potential expansion site for the Westfield Fire Department, and two others intended to codify design standards for business awnings and signs.
The next meeting of the Westfield mayor and council, which will include this year’s final budget presentation, is scheduled to be held at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 26, at the town hall.
