COAH adjusts housing rules

by Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
   New amendments to the Council on Affordable Housing’s third-round rules will go into a 60-day comment period on Oct. 20.
   The new rules, which are designed to more than double the number of proposed affordable housing units in the state from 52,000 to 115,000 in the next 10 years, are strongly opposed by local officials and municipal governments throughout the state who say the added housing could increase the population so much that it would lower residents’ quality of life and strain schools, while placing the burden for paying for the units on taxpayers.
   Among the new amendments to the COAH rules were incentives for placing units near mass transit and the ability for townships to produce vacant land studies to counter the ones done by COAH.
   The amendments will go into the comment period with their publication in the NJ Register, and can be voted on by the COAH board after the 60-day comment period concludes.
   The state League of Municipalities in July filed a notice of appeal with the Appellate Division of Superior Court challenging the validity of the new rules. So far, 237 towns in the state have joined the effort, including South Brunswick.
   Michael Cerra, a senior legislative analyst with the league, said he expects briefs to be filed in January, and oral arguments could begin as early as spring 2009.
   Mayor Frank Gambatese said the litigation is likely unavoidable.
   ”I think that they are going to have to go ahead with this lawsuit,” Mayor Gambatese said. “Especially when you consider the impact paying for all this could have on the average homeowner.”
   Mayor Gambatese said that the town submitted a plan to comply with the third-round obligation as it currently stands to COAH in April, which would require the building of about 1,200 new units in town.
   He said the number of units tied to commercial development is too high and that the cost of creating these units will be a burden to taxpayers if the cost is paid by the town, or stop development if it is required to be paid by businesses.
   ”We aren’t against affordable housing, but the number of units they want is very burdensome,” he said. “You are either not going to be able to get development, or you are not going to be able to keep taxes at a reasonable level.” Mr. Cerra said the league is most concerned with the vacant land survey done by COAH. The survey gauged the amount of developable land in each town and was used in calculating each town’s obligation.
   Mr. Cerra said COAH’s survey overestimated the amount of land by counting backyards, parks, protected open space and cemeteries as available and developable. He said that the new amendment, which allows towns to produce their own land survey, will only continue to drive up costs to taxpayers.