Affordable Housing Need Far Less Than NJ Says: Point Pleasant Official

POINT PLEASANT, NJ — Point Pleasant Borough officials submitted the town's response to New Jersey's affordable housing obligation numbers, saying the borough's prospective need is far less than the state's calculation.

The state Department of Community Affairs released its calculations of affordable housing obligations in October, defining how many low- or moderate-income units each town will need to provide for the 2025-2035 timeframe.

According to the DCA, Point Pleasant's present need is 41 units and its prospective need is 93 units. "Present need" refers to existing housing units deemed substandard/deficient and in need of repair, and "prospective need" estimates the number of new units that will be needed in the next 10 years based on population trends.

The borough submitted its response after the Jan. 27 Borough Council meeting, where the council approved a resolution that accepted the 41 present need units, but rejected the prospective need number, saying the town's calculations showed its prospective need at 1 unit or perhaps none.

"The state has really gone overboard with how they calculated a town’s affordable housing need," said Frank Pannucci Jr., Point Pleasant's borough administrator.

"What the state did was essentially use Google Earth or some type of GIS system and looked at all vacant parcels of land and 'assumed' that it was buildable," Pannucci said. The state then plugged that information in to come up with its affordable housing calculations.

"The onus was then left on the municipalities to challenge this by proving that the land the state earmarked was either a park or an already-permitted future project," he said.

Pannucci said Mayor Robert Sabosik and the borough council worked with Point Pleasant's planner and its affordable housing attorney to analyze the vacant land in the borough to ensure all of it was being categorized properly so the borough could challenge the numbers.

Point Pleasant had immunity during the third round of the affordable housing pronouncements because the borough had joined a consortium of other towns in a Mount Laurel Agreement with the Fair Share Housing Center. That brought the borough's obligation "down very low," Pannucci said.

The borough had to pass a resolution for this fourth-round obligation by Jan. 31 "or risk losing our immunity," he said.

"The resolution the council just passed recognized the numbers given to us by the state but also states that when we do submit our amended and final numbers this year, our actual realistic development will be zero to one unit," Pannucci said. "Because of this, Point Boro will be in a very good position and up having to build zero to one unit instead of the almost 100 the State came up with."

All towns are constitutionally mandated to provide their "fair share" of affordable housing for the region, under the Mount Laurel Doctrine, which dates back to 1975.

Towns had until Jan. 31 to approve the DCA quotas or submit their own calculations, and have until June 1 to come up with plans to meet the quotas. In most cases towns meet the obligations by requiring developers to include low- and moderate-income units in their real estate development proposals.

Low-income households are defined as those with earnings at or below 50 percent of county median family income. Moderate-income households earn between 50 and 80 percent of the median family income, according to DCA.

In Ocean County, the median household income is $85,464, according to Census Reporter, an independent organization that collates the U.S. Census Bureau information.