A good idea gone wrong


The builders’ remedy which allows developers to build four units of market-priced housing for every low- and moderate income one will go down in New Jersey history books as one of the most ridiculous remedies ever conceived.

There’s growing pressure to do something about the mess that the Mount Laurel affordable housing court order has produced, and what’s currently happening in Roosevelt is a perfect example of that good idea gone very wrong.

The big developer, US Home, which Roosevelt Mayor Michael Hamilton likens to the borough’s Goliath, has taken advantage of the tiny community’s belated effort to file a fair-share housing plan to sue it for exclusionary zoning.

The developer was really on the ball, waiting until the borough acted to submit its plan to the state Council On Affordable Housing for review.

Roosevelt’s timing wasn’t very clever, acting as it did shortly after pulling the rug out from under US Home’s plan to almost double the borough’s housing stock. But it might not have made a difference.

One of the most annoying things about the whole sorry mess is the type of housing that developers these days pass off as affordable housing.

Not all, but some developers get away with squeezing units into the smallest possible spaces. In some of the so-called affordable units, living rooms are not much bigger than walk-in closets and in some cases, bedrooms are no more than lofts.

It’s not just towns and taxpayers who are getting ripped off. It’s also the people who are in dire need of affordable housing.