Politics & Government
Affordable Housing Numbers Challenged In Stafford Township
The state Department of Community Affairs said Stafford needs to build 208 affordable housing units; the town wants to build fewer.
MANAHAWKIN, NJ — Stafford Township has taken the first step to challenge the required number of affordable housing units to be built over the next decade.
All towns are constitutionally mandated to provide their "fair share" of affordable housing for the region, under the Mount Laurel Doctrine. Stafford's obligation was a prospective need of 208 affordable housing units over the next decade. This is calculated by the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
At a special meeting on March 27, the township approved a mediation agreement with the Fair Share Housing Center that allowed Stafford's number to 175 units, and they hope to lower that further in the coming months.
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This agreement to lower the number allows the township to develop a detailed vacant land analysis and to calculate the realistic development potential, Mayor Bob Henken explained. The meeting had to be held before March 31 to meet court deadlines.
"This is just a simple process to the first step in the legal challenge," Henken said.
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Township Attorney Christopher Dasti explained that the state's numbers come from the land available in the township. But they're arguing that Stafford is limited in terms of developable land.
"They didn't factor in what land was actually able to be developed in our town," Dasti said. Some of the land the state said was buildable included a golf course and a cemetery, according to Dasti. Other lands may be in the Pinelands and could have northern pine snakes, which are threatened.
The township will work with their planners now to determine what land is available and ideally lower the number even further.
"We're going to take the land that DCA or Trenton think we have to develop, and we're going to show them what really is able to be developed in the next 10 years," Dasti said. "And the actual units that we're going to have to provide will be set forth in our housing element plan."
The number of units to build will then "go down a whole heck of a lot more," Dasti said.
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