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State Land Use Enacted Legislation

Bill # State Year Party Topic

AN 4

 NJ 2024 D Accessory dwelling units regulations, Affordable housing incentives and financing, Appeals, Commercial land, Density bonus, Development Fees, Enforcement, Fair distribution of housing, Funding, Lands near transit, Planning Requirements, Pro-Housing Designation, Publicly-owned, Technical assistance, Written findings, burden and standard of proof

Provided by Furman

Summary

  • Substantially amends the New Jersey Fair Housing Act based on the legislature’s recognition of the need to further increase production of affordable housing in the State and to enforce the Mount Laurel Doctrine, the New Jersey Supreme Court’s ruling that every municipality has a constitutional obligation to provide through land use regulations a fair share of its region’s present and prospective needs for affordable housing.
  • Section 3 abolishes the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), initially established by the Fair Housing Act, and establishes a process to enable a municipality to determine its own present and prospective fair share affordable housing obligation based on the formulas established in Section 6 and 7 in the bill, which includes consideration of factors such as estimation of deficient housing units occupied by low- and moderate-income households.
    • Section 3 allows a municipality to take into consideration calculations made by the Department of Community Affairs.
  • Section 3 requires a municipality to determine its present and prospective fair share obligation by January 31, 2025.
  • Section 3 requires a municipality to adopt a housing element and fair share plan, and propose drafts of appropriate zoning and other ordinances to implement its present and prospective obligation by June 30, 2025.
    • Section 2 requires a fair share plan to detail the development regulations necessary to implement the housing element, including the elimination of housing cost-generating features from municipal land use ordinances.
    • Section 22 requires the housing element to contain an analysis of consistency with the state development and redevelopment plans based on guidance and technical assistance from the state planning commission.
    • Section 29 requires housing elements and fair share plans to ensure that at least half of units made available to low- and moderate- income households be made available for families with children.
  • Section 3 requires municipalities to comply with deadlines for determining present and prospective obligations, and for adopting a housing element and fair share plan, in order to qualify for immunity from exclusionary zoning litigation, including builder’s remedy litigation.
    • Section 3 terminates immunity in circumstances where an interested party challenges a municipality for failure to comply with its compliance certification (the certification obtained by a municipality that protects the municipality from exclusionary zoning litigation) or if the municipality violates the Mount Laurel Doctrine.
  • Section 5 establishes the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program for resolving disputes involving the Fair Housing Act.
    • Section 3 establishes procedure for challenges by interested parties against municipalities for failing to comply with the Fair Housing Act or Mount Laurel Doctrine, and the process by which the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program resolves challenges.
  • Section 23 requires any municipality that received an adjustment of its prospective need obligations based on lack of vacant land to identify parcels likely to redevelop to address adjusted obligation and adopt zoning that allows for adjusted obligation.
  • Section 24 expands the techniques municipalities must consider for providing low- and moderate-income housing to include planning for conversion or redevelopment of unused or underutilized real property.
  • Section 24 allows municipalities to receive credits against affordable housing obligations for each unit of low- or moderate-income housing, including units located in proximity to a transit station, or units redeveloped from commercial spaces.
  • Section 27 requires the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency to develop controls to maintain housing affordability for low- and moderate-income households for 40 years for newly created rental units, 30 years for for-sale units, and 30 years for housing units for which affordability controls are extended or a new term of affordability.
  • Section 30 places requirements on municipalities who have been authorized to impose and collect development fees from developers, including in relation to reporting to the Department of Community Affairs on collection and expenditure of fees.
    • Section 30 limits expenditure of feeds to municipalities who have immunity from exclusionary zoning litigation.
  • Section 31 requires the Department of Community Affairs to publish online municipal status reports relating to the number of affordable housing units, collection of residential development fees and other information.

Provided by lawmakers

Bill Title

AN ACT concerning affordable housing, including administration and municipal obligations, amending, supplementing, and repealing various parts of the statutory law, and making an appropriation.

Related resources

Enacted Legislation Related Posts

Research and analysis from the Furman Center on this and related housing policy topics.