COAH talk over coffee

By Matt Chiappardi, Staff Writer
   EAST WINDSOR — About 50 area businesspeople gathered at the Americana Diner on Route 130 on Thursday morning to hear Joseph Doria, commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, explain the history and workings of affordable housing regulations.
   Mr. Doria spent about 45 minutes explaining everything from the 1973 state Supreme Court decision that compelled municipalities in New Jersey to provide a certain amount of affordable housing units, to the new compliance rules the Council on Affordable Housing instituted in January. Those new rules raised the affordable housing requirements to one affordable unit for every five market-value units, as opposed to one for every eight.
   Mayor Janice Mironov gave a brief speech introducing Mr. Doria, and later did voice some disdain over the state Assembly’s recent vote to ban regional contribution agreements, which allow one municipality to trade its affordable housing requirements with another in exchange for cash.
   The Township Council recently voted to send $1.16 million to Long Branch to satisfy some of its COAH obligations. That action was taken one day after the Legislature passed the ban, and the deal is in limbo.