State Sets Affordable Housing Quota For East Brunswick. What To Expect

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — New Jersey recently released the affordable housing quotas for towns and cities, including East Brunswick. And they have the next 10 years to meet the needs of residents.

Last week, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs 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).

A law passed last year gave DCA the authority to determine how many affordable housing units municipalities must create and maintain.

Here are East Brunswick’s numbers:

• Present Need: 170
• Prospective Need: 314

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)

So what does that mean for East Brunswick? Mayor Brad Cohen said his administration has been looking at the numbers since the release of the list.

“It was a little larger number than I had anticipated getting for the township. But right now, we have our planners that are looking at that number to try to see how it was derived, where the fair share housing had derived that from, where they thought that the properties that would be able to accommodate that number come from,” Cohen said.

“At the end of the day, there's an overwhelming need for affordable housing in the state, and as long as it's done in a fair manner and it's reasonable, we will do our part like every other town.”

Local governments have until Jan. 31, 2025 to either approve the numbers or provide their own calculations consistent with state law, as the New Jersey League of Municipalities noted.

Then, officials have until June 30, 2025 to adopt specific plans for how they will meet that need.

All towns are constitutionally mandated to provide their "fair share" of affordable housing for the region, under the Mount Laurel Doctrine.

Cohen said that East Brunswick is ahead of the curve as the township's Housing Corporation predates the Mount Laurel Doctrine.

Over the years, East Brunswick’s Housing Corporation has been periodically going out and finding housing that they could purchase and rent them out at below-market rates to people who qualify based on their income levels.

“We've been doing it, which is one of the reasons why our number for such a large town is relatively low compared to comparable size towns like Monroe and South Brunswick. That's why you see a big difference: we get credits for the stuff we've always been doing,” Cohen said. “Affordable housing isn't really new for us. Many people may not have heard about it. But we’ve been doing it for years.”

The current housing projects in East Brunswick would satisfy the third-round housing obligation set by the state. Going forward, East Brunswick will have to make accommodations for the number that they've been given. The town will have to identify locations where housing could be built, which would then go to the developer.

"Our job as a town is to make that property available for affordable housing towards our goal. There are properties that we got in the third round that have been built on, and some of those people are already occupying units. Some properties haven't been built on at all, because there's no developer that has made an effort or felt it was worthwhile for them to build that there,” Cohen said.

“There's nothing that the town could do about that. But it doesn't change the fact that those properties are still available for future development and that a builder would have an obligation to meet that affordable housing obligation that's already on that property.”

So what would be the impact of this fourth-round obligation on budgets – whether for the school district, fire, or police department?

Cohen said the township will have to look at the numbers, calculate where that impact would be, and plan an appropriate response.

“We are way away from knowing the answer to that question. As far as the impact on services is concerned, the more people live here, there's going to be a need for services, but exactly how many people? For instance, in the last round, all of those units aren’t built yet. So I'm not going to gear up for a possibility when I have no idea of the number of potential units. So, I'm not going to budget that way,” Cohen said.

“If I see that the number of people living here goes up, if I see that there are densities in particular parts of town that require more police or more fire department services or a change in the infrastructure, those things generally will be dealt with when we see that they're happening and they will probably occur gradually, not overnight.”

Cohen feels confident of the town meeting its obligation, even though currently they are uncertain of the final number.

"Our approach is going to be no different than the approach we had in the last round. I don't think there's ever a need to panic or make knee-jerk reactions. We, like every other town, have an obligation to make living in New Jersey more affordable, and we will do it," Cohen said.

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. 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.

• See Related: Housing Proposed Near Forest In Several Essex County Towns
• See Related: Golf Course In North Jersey Will Be Turned Into Housing

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.

Meanwhile, the new law has caused some bad blood between municipalities and the state. Leaders in more than 20 municipalities have joined a lawsuit seeking to overturn the new affordable housing law, as they say it will place unnecessary strain on their towns.

These communities include Millburn, Denville, Florham Park, Hillsdale, Mannington, Montvale, Montville, Old Tappan, Totowa, Allendale, Westwood, Hanover, Wyckoff, Wharton, Mendham, Oradell, Closter, West Amwell, Township of Washington, Norwood, and Parsippany-Troy Hills.

(With reporting from Eric Kiefer, Patch Staff)

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