Cranford Joins 12 Towns In Affordable Housing Lawsuit Against Gov. Murphy

CRANFORD, NJ — The Township of Cranford, as well as 12 other New Jersey municipalities, have filed a lawsuit against Gov. Phil Murphy for "violating the Fair Housing Act."

The aim of the lawsuit is to compel the governor to reconstitute New Jersey's Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). According to the lawsuit, the towns argue that the Murphy administration has failed to appoint members to the COAH Board, which is in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

"As a result, Cranford’s and New Jersey’s residents, including the very families who need affordable housing, have been left at the mercy of an over-burdened court system that real estate developers exploit to push through large over-sized projects," a press release by Mayor Kathleen Miller Prunty states.

Cranford, and the 12 other towns, are demanding the governor reconstitute COAH to restore the regulatory protections that the legislature originally created through the Fair Housing Act to protect municipalities from "run-away development." The township argues that reinistating this board would help create "actual and livable affordable housing consistent with sound land-use planning principals."

The lawsuit cites the Mt. Laurel doctrine, that was created almost 50 years ago, which prohibited New Jersey towns from adopting zoning laws that would prevent the creation of affordable housing.

Many towns resisted this, and real estate developers statewide began using the Mr. Laurel doctrine to bring lawsuits, known as "Builders Remedy" suits, to invalidate municipal zoning rules to allow large, multi-family developments that were inconsistent with municipalities' master plans.

The New Jersey Legislature later adopted the Fair Housing Act in 1984 and created the 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.

The COAH also wrote and enforced regulations to advance the policies the legislature

Former Governor Chris Christie attempted to abolish COAH in 2011, characterizing it as a costly and burdensome regulatory agency. But the New Jersey Supreme Court deemed that this attempt exceeded his authority and that it was unlawful.

"Governor Murphy has an opportunity to right this wrong by reconstituting the COAH board," the Cranford press release states. "The failure to comply with the Fair Housing Act again puts Cranford and New Jersey municipalities at the mercy of a court system being exploited by real estate developers pressing for over-sized developments without regard to community impact — exactly what the Legislature intended to prevent by passing the Fair Housing Act."

Cranford recently passed the North Avenue Gateway redevelopment project, which sets aside 2o percent of the apartment units for affordable housing. The development was merely passed in a 3-2 vote by the township committee.

Prunty was among those who voted to adopt the plan.

"The impact on the Cranford community, including those who have been waiting for decades for affordable housing, has been immediate," the press release states. "The trial courts tasked with replacing COAH are busier, less specialized, and more inclined to leverage municipalities into settlement than they were when the Legislature passed the FHA."

Without COAH to regulate the creation of affordable housing, the township argues that Cranford, and towns like it, are facing mega-projects, like Hartz Mountain Corp.’s proposal to build 900+ units in a single-family neighborhood.

Cranford officials argue this is costing taxpayers millions of dollars, and forcing towns into unfavorable settlements for projects that are out of place in their community and that do not create much affordable housing.

The full list of towns who signed the lawsuit can be found below:

• Beach Haven
• Bordentown
• Chatham
• Cranford
• East Hanover
• Egg Harbor
• Fairfield
• Freehold
• Jackson
• Mahwah
• Montvale
• Readington
• Sayreville

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