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How much housing does Maplewood have to create over the next decade? Here are the numbers – and some background on the controversy.

Patch Staff

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — State officials have released the affordable housing quotas that New Jersey towns and cities will have to meet over the next 10 years, including Maplewood.

A law passed last year gave the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) the authority to determine how many affordable housing units every municipality must create and maintain.

Last week, the DCA released its highly anticipated list for 2025-2035. The calculations include numbers for “present need” (existing housing units deemed substandard/deficient and in need of repair), and “prospective need” (the number of new units that will be needed based on population trends).

Here are the totals for Maplewood:

Municipalities have to come up with a plan to meet their quotas and get it approved by state officials by next summer – unless they plan to challenge the numbers. Read More: New Affordable Housing Mandate Released By NJ (See Your Town's Share)

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Some towns have already gotten a jump on the process, with one New Jersey mayor declaring that a recent settlement isn’t perfect, but “doesn’t bleed out forever and doesn’t cost us lawyers.” Read More: NJ Town Reaches Settlement, Will Build 1,500 Affordable Housing Units

CONFLICT BREWS IN NEW JERSEY

Towns and cities don’t have to create the housing themselves, but must ensure that the threshold is met – often by requiring affordable housing units as part of local real estate development projects.

This has caused some bad blood between the state and some municipalities, including Millburn, which has joined a lawsuit with several other New Jersey towns seeking to overturn the law. The town is on the hook for 555 prospective units, as per the DCA’s numbers.

The mayor of another town involved in the lawsuit, Montvale – which will need to add 348 affordable units over the next decade – said that the quota opens the door to massive development in the borough.

“Montvale's obligation is 348 units, which means if we were to follow and allow to build at 20 percent inclusionary affordable housing, we will have to build 1,740 units,” Mike Ghassali wrote last week, bashing the DCA’s numbers.

“The state has handed us housing requirements that defy reality and will force local governments to stretch their resources to the breaking point, all while diverting attention from other critical community needs,” Ghassali insisted.

Other towns that have signed on for the lawsuit include Denville, Florham Park, Hillsdale, Mannington, Montville, Old Tappan, Totowa, Allendale, Westwood, Hanover, Wyckoff, Wharton, Mendham, Oradell, Closter, West Amwell, Township of Washington, Norwood, and Parsippany-Troy Hills.

Assemblywoman Victoria Flynn (NJ-13) said the current method of calculating affordable housing quotas is a "logistical nightmare."

"There isn’t enough land in New Jersey to meet these development goals," the state lawmaker argued. "The state's electrical and water infrastructure cannot afford to absorb additional development. Our roads and bridges are in constant disrepair, and public transportation is insufficient or nearly non-existent in most of the state. The high-density development proposed will cause irreparable and irreversible harm to the environment."

On the flip side of the coin, some elected officials have supported the law, arguing that it’s time for “ultra-wealthy communities” to create their “fair share” of affordable housing. Read More: NJ Advocates Defend State's Affordable Housing Rules Amid Lawsuit

“This is a statewide issue that is driving up costs for everyone living in our state, not just in the suburbs or cities but across the board,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said last month.

“Most New Jerseyans understand the need for more housing because most New Jerseyans want to reduce costs, prevent homelessness and raise our standard of living,” Baraka said. “But we can’t do this by fighting each other. When we waste time fighting amongst ourselves, housing continues to go unbuilt and we all lose.”

Newark – the state’s largest city – has 4,630 affordable housing units that need to be rehabbed, the highest total in New Jersey. See Related: ‘Affordable’ Isn’t Affordable: Newark’s Plan To Create More Housing

Some advocates, including the Fair Share Housing Center, called the legal effort to derail the new law a “smokescreen,” and said it will likely be thrown out of court.

“This lawsuit is nothing new — it’s supported by many of the same ultra-wealthy communities who have fought affordable housing for decades, every step of the way,” the nonprofit charged.

According to a statement from the group, the methodology is fair: Towns that have more jobs, fewer environmental constraints, more proximity to transportation corridors and less existing affordability have larger obligations. Meanwhile, towns that have fewer jobs, more environmental constraints, less proximity to transportation and more affordability have lower obligations.

And letting real estate developers run rampant in the suburbs is far from the only way to meet a quota, the nonprofit says:

“New Jersey law gives towns a wide variety of tools to create affordable housing in the way they prefer. Municipalities can choose from a range of options — including 100% affordable housing, mixed income housing, preservation of existing affordable homes that otherwise would no longer be affordable, and accessory dwelling units that a property owner can place on their property. The recently-enacted law and associated bills give towns additional tools like new bonuses, financing options, and credits to meet their obligation.”

Currently, the state needs to rehab 65,410 affordable homes or apartments to meet its housing needs. Looking ahead, an additional 84,698 units will need to be built across New Jersey over the next decade, officials say.

These numbers still fall short of what the National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates is needed for extremely low-income households, which is 214,475 rental homes.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN NEW JERSEY

When Gov. Phil Murphy signed the new law last year, he gave some background about what led to its creation. He wrote:

“Affordable housing has been a central public policy challenge in New Jersey for nearly half a century. Forty-nine years ago, in a case brought by two local branches of the NAACP, the New Jersey Supreme Court held in a landmark ruling that every municipality must ‘make realistically possible an appropriate variety and choice of housing.’ The court went on to say that towns cannot stand in the way of opportunities for low- and moderate-income housing. This principle became known as the Mount Laurel doctrine. To this day, it is studied by law students and lawyers all across the nation.”

There have also been negative impacts from the Mount Laurel doctrine, some pundits point out.

Community activists have complained that real estate developers have been able to use the doctrine to file "Builders Remedy" lawsuits in order to build large, multi-family developments that may be in conflict with municipalities' master plans – setting up conflicts between local leaders and angry residents.

The New Jersey Legislature later adopted the Fair Housing Act in 1984 and created the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) — a bipartisan agency of members representing different interest groups — in order to prevent courts from becoming the forum for resolving these land use issues.

“For decades, all three branches of government have wrestled with how to apply the principles of Mount Laurel in practice,” Murphy wrote last year. “At times, our state Legislature has tried to address this issue. At other times, the process for determining affordable housing obligations was left to an executive branch agency. But more recently, over the last 10 years, this process has mainly played out in the courts, through litigation.”

The time for that is over, Murphy said.

With the signing of last year’s bill, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs is now running the numbers. Towns will have the freedom to come up with plans to meet those quotas. Municipalities can earn bonus credits for constructing affordable housing where it is needed most, such as transit hubs, or for providing housing for vulnerable populations like senior citizens.

The new process replaces the role previously played by the COAH, which has been “defunct” for over a decade and was formally abolished under the bill, the governor’s office said.

The law also bans regional contribution agreements — in which towns pay neighboring municipalities to bolster their affordable housing stock instead.

DCA Commissioner Jacquelyn Suárez said the new law gives New Jersey a unique opportunity to develop “missing middle” housing: options like townhouses, duplexes and other types of multi-family units.

These types of housing can “bridge the gap” between single-family homes and large apartment complexes, offering the diverse housing choices that New Jersey families need, Suárez said.

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