Gap Decision Released: NJ Supreme Court Holds that Municipalities Must Address Affordable Housing Obligations Attributable to the Gap Period (1999 to 2015)

In an eagerly anticipated decision released this morning, the New Jersey Supreme Court reaffirmed one of the core tenants of the Mount Laurel obligation that the municipal fair share obligation continues year-to-year and does not have any gaps that will not be addressed. At stake in this appeal was whether municipalities could ignore a sixteen year time period (1999 to 2015) of affordable housing obligations as a result of COAH’s refusal and inability to adopt compliant regulations since 1999. Quite simply, there were tens of thousands of affordable housing units at stake in this decision.

In this decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court determined:

* The obligation for municipalities to address their fair share obligations is cumulative and there cannot be any gaps for time periods that are not addressed. On that point, the Court was emphatic: “As to the fundamental disagreement – whether the gap period must be addressed – we waste no time in settling that issue. There is no fair reading of this Court’s prior decisions that supports disregarding the constitutional obligation to address pent-up affordable housing need for low- and moderate income households that formed during the years in which COAH was unable to promulgate valid Third Round rules…. [T]here could be no hiatus in the constitutional obligation.”

* The manner in which the affordable housing need from 1999 to 2015 is calculated must be reexamined as a component of “present” versus “prospective” need. While the foregoing distinction will require a reexamination of how the housing obligations are to be calculated, that calculation must include affordable households that were formed from 1999 to 2015 and which households were denied the constitutionally required affordable housing opportunities across the State.

With this appeal resolved, the trial courts will now proceed with establishing the fair share obligations of municipalities across the State, which should facilitate a resolution of the pending declaratory judgment lawsuits. Bisgaier Hoff, LLC has participated in the only trial court decision that has been issued thus far for such a methodology trial involving South Brunswick, Middlesex County, and our firm is participating in the methodology trial that is currently ongoing in Mercer County.

A copy of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision, which is styled In re Declaratory Judgment Actions Filed By Various Municipalities, Ocean County, Docket No. A-1-16, is available at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/supreme/A116MvO.pdf

Bisgaier Hoff, LLC was involved in the Ocean County litigation that gave rise to this decision. Please contact us if you would like more information regarding this decision.

Click to access q4-2016-b-erhardt-tampa-bay-area-land-interactive.pdf

Dear Colleagues,
The following represents excerpts from economic and real estate journals, notes from conventions, seminars and other meetings I attended, along with personal opinions of my own and others that affect the land market in the Tampa Bay Region. Previous Market Overviews can be found at http://www.cushwakelandfl.com/tampa.
ERHARDT’S QUICK LOOK AT THE LAND MARKET
Multifamily Land
• Same as the last 22 quarters, rental continues to be very active. For sale townhomes and condominiums are under contract or construction in urban and suburban markets, and are gaining momentum. Suburban rental is picking up because urban infill has little or no A sites remaining. Look for infill assemblages.
Single Family
• As for the last 29 quarters, builders and developers are closing and making offers on A and B locations. Starting to see some land buys outside the A/B market. Entry level is strong.
Retail
• Mainly tenant and location driven. Outparcel subdivisions and unanchored strips in A locations is active.
Industrial
• New and local developers continue to contract and close land positions in Tampa, Lakeland, Plant City and Manatee/Lakewood Ranch.
Office
• Same as last 17 quarters, users and B-T-S only. Medical office building construction by developers and providers continues to be active.
Hospitality
• Same as the last 11 quarters, development activity continues ini urban and suburban locations.
Agricultural Land
• Active. More buyers than sellers.
Cycle
• I’m still predicting the overall Tampa Bay land cycle has five to six years left, with solid growth for the next three years. Population and job growth will keep the show on the road.

BRUCE ERHARDT, ALC
Executive Director
Office: +1 813 204 5312
Cell: +1 813 230 9005
bruce.erhardt@cushwake.com
cushwakelandfl.com/tampa

Check out this article from Courier-Post:

Affordable housing agreement to bring hundreds of units

http://on.cpsj.com/2ibfkey

Affordable housing agreement to bring hundreds of units
Celeste E. Whittaker , @cp_CWhittaker 1:16 p.m. EST December 21, 2016
Play Video

Rosebud, a therapy chicken who lives in Haddon Twp., visited a Mt. Laurel rehab facility. Patients loved her. Celeste E. Whittaker
ethel lawrence

MOUNT LAUREL – The township where a major legal fight for affordable housing was born reached an agreement to create hundreds of affordable housing units.

The settlement with the Fair Share Housing Center gives the township credit for previously approved developments, slashing the number of required affordable housing units from 1,074 to 879. More than half of those will be deferred until the 2025-2035 compliance period under the agreement.

Some of the 879 units, to be completed in two phases, have already been built, township officials explained.

145-unit apartment complex planned for Mount Laurel

About 85 towns across the state — including Medford, Cherry Hill, Winslow, Harrison, Maple Shade, Delanco, Edgewater Park, Willingboro and Florence, among others — have also reached settlements with the Cherry Hill-based nonprofit.

Mount Laurel Mayor Linda Bobo said in a statement that township officials “are pleased with the deal struck on behalf of the township. This provides the township certainty going forward and the ability to plan for the future.”

The debate over affordable housing stems from the Mount Laurel doctrine, a court ruling prohibiting municipalities from engaging in zoning practices that exclude low-income residents from attaining affordable homes.

In rulings in 1975 and 1983, the state Supreme Court “declared that municipal land use regulations that prevent affordable housing opportunities for the poor are unconstitutional,” according to the Fair Share Housing Center web site.

Municipalities had to provide a reasonable opportunity for the construction of homes affordable to low- and moderate-income families as well.

The late Ethel Lawrence, a Mount Laurel resident, who was a mother of nine, wife, church leader, community activist and day care teacher, was the lead plaintiff on the cases. A housing complex in Mount Laurel is named in her honor; she died in 1994.

The Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) was created to implement the Fair Housing Act, but in March of 2015 after years of stagnation, the state Supreme Court ordered municipalities to draft new affordable housing plans.

Single family homes coming to missile site in Lumberton

According to a copy of Mount Laurel’s plan received by the Courier-Post, the affordable units will come in a variety of ways, including inclusionary developments, group homes, low-income rental homes and a market-to-affordable program, where market rate homes are purchased and then subsidized for low-income families.

Mount Laurel Township Council recently approved the settlement.

The Fair Share Housing Center agreed to the deferral of 492 units until the 2025-2035 phase as a compromise with Mount Laurel, according to a spokesman.

“We are pleased to have reached a historic settlement with Mount Laurel that will lead to the construction of hundreds of new homes for working families, seniors and those with disabilities,” said Anthony Campisi, Fair Share Housing Center spokesman. “… Both sides compromised to get shovels in the ground. We have reached settlements with more than 85 towns across the state recognizing a fair housing need of more than 30,000.

“This shows that a consensus is forming among municipalities that they can and should meet their constitutional obligations to expand opportunities for New Jersey families.”