By Frank Mustac, Contributor
In the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling on affordable housing last month, the ongoing case involving five Mercer County towns is likely to continue into spring., During the Pennington Borough Council meeting on Feb. 6, Borough Planner Michael Bolan told officials that a final determination has been pushed back., “The trial was going to last at least until the beginning of March. Now it’s going to last at least until May,” he said., The five municipalities engaged in the litigation, which started in early January, are Hopewell Township, Princeton, East Windsor, West Windsor and Robbinsville., Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson’s anticipated ruling in the case will determine the number, or fair share, of housing units for low- and moderate-income buyers each town must make available to meet its constitutional obligation., Although Pennington is not part of the lawsuit, any decision from the court will also apply to how Pennington must calculate its fair share obligation, Mr. Bolan said., In addition to the longer wait for a determination, Judge Jacobson has split the trial into two parts., One part of the trial will be dedicated to determining the prospective need for affordable housing for the years 2015-25, while a second portion of the litigation will be devoted to determining present need., Under a state Supreme Court decision handed down on Jan. 18, New Jersey towns are now required to calculate present need using a formula that takes into account a “gap period” from 1999 to 2015, when the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) had no such regulations were in place., The Supreme Court said that need for affordable housing during the gap period “could be entered into a different category of present need,” Mr. Bolan said. “They (Supreme Court) gave some direction to the lower courts as to how to define the households that were generated during the period from 1999 to 2015.”, Describing the next steps Pennington would have to take, Mr. Bolan said that he was unsure if the borough should “do anything until we know what our fair share obligation is.”, “We’re in a very good position to complete a housing plan,” he said. “We prepared all the background information, which is the demographics and the housing characteristics of the municipality.”, Joseph Lawver, the Borough Council President, said more discussions on affordable housing could take place in the near future when “something is actually actionable.”
