Modified COAH Ordinance Handed Off to Council

Mayor Keith Killion has , and he'll have more time to let his anger bubble–Village Planner Blais Brancheau's drafting of an affordable housing ordinance will be officially be in the council's lap, the planning board voted Tuesday night.

Brancheau, working for the planning board, had been that creates two new zones in Ridgewood, the AH-2 and AH-3 divided along Broad Street. The AH-2 zone, stationed south of LeRoy Place, has been designated residential while parcels north of LeRoy Place (AH-3) could mix affordable housing and commercial enterprise.

At the planning board meeting, Brancheau reported that a new plan could demarcate one mixed-use zone as opposed to two separate zones with different permissions. There was at least one objector to the AH-2 section being zoned for just residential; the property owner wanted a small office built on a vacant lot.

The board unanimously passed a motion to submit the COAH ordinance with a modification to add mixed use to the southern and northern portion of Broad Street.

The Council on Affordable Housing recently had a state appellate court throw out a new set of agency guidelines and ordered a full rewrite, according to a late February Star Ledger article.

Since that time, Republicans and Democrats have been in gridlock over a number of COAH-related legislative issues. Christie wants the agency abolished and there have been fractures over a 2.5 percent tax that would be levied on development to be siphoned toward affordable housing. Although the agency may be leveled, regulations will remain.

Brancheau earlier reported that COAH mandates could prospectively force over 700 affordable housing units in Ridgewood, something entirely infeasible given the village's density unless it decided to erect "skyscrapers," he said.