WESTWOOD—As the borough approaches the next round of state-mandated affordable housing obligations, officials are working to balance compliance with thoughtful land use planning.
According to council land use liaison Lauren Letizia, Mayor Raymond Arroyo has established an Affordable Housing Task Force to guide Westwood through the process. The task force includes the Planning Board chair and vice chair, the borough planner, Letizia as the mayor’s Planning Board appointee, and the borough’s deputy administrator.
The borough’s next steps follow the Jan. 31 deadline for municipalities to respond to affordable housing obligations set by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA). Westwood’s council voted to accept DCA’s so-called aspirational affordable housing obligation, a decision that will influence zoning and development plans in the coming months.
Letizia told Pascack Press on Feb. 25 that “There has been some coverage in the local paper as to what this means, and we have been getting some questions from the public. So, I want to provide a brief overview of what the acceptance of these numbers means for Westwood.”
She said while Westwood remains involved alongside Montvale and other municipalities [as plaintiffs Local Leaders for Responsible Planning in what observers are calling The Montvale case] challenging aspects of the state’s affordable housing mandates, the borough was required to either accept or formally object to its assigned numbers.
“As the mayor explained in his February report to the council, … as written, the law exempts some towns (“Qualified Urban Aid Communities”) from accommodating any new (“prospective need”) affordable units and shifts that obligation unto the rest of the towns, artificially inflating our numbers.
“While the attorneys for the Montvale case will ultimately turn to the federal courts, Westwood was obliged to either accept or formally object to the numbers that were provided by the DCA. The only thing a municipality could object to, per the recent amendments to the law, was the actual number, not the method of arriving at that number, which was codified through recent amendments to the statute.
“We could not challenge the formula for how the ‘prospective need’ and ‘current need’ numbers were calculated. That multi-part formula which considered things like our overall economic growth as compared to our region and available vacant land could not be challenged.
“For the late January deadline, we could disagree with the numbers themselves — for example suggesting that DCA miscalculated the acreage of vacant land or the calculation of our tax ratables, but our planners found that the math was accurate.
“While the Montvale lawsuit points to our substantial issues with the method, as far as the Jan 31 deadline was concerned, we could not let that pass without submitting our number or we would have essentially lost our current immunity (valid until July 2025) from developers wishing to build high density multiple dwellings in areas the borough had deemed inappropriate, as well as our standing in future negotiations.
“Between now and June 30, we essentially have to compile our own planning documents to make a compelling argument for Westwood’s ‘realistic (actual vs. ‘aspirational’) development potential” and create overlay zones to indicate where such development could take place.
“To put that into perspective, during the last round the court agreed that our realistic development potential (RDP) was just one. Westwood is a fully developed community so there was only space to build one more affordable unit. But we still had to amend our zoning to allow for almost 400 affordable units if a developer wanted to acquire properties and build in these areas.
“Westwood did see several modest and appropriately scaled developments during the last decade and added six units to its affordable balance sheet, despite the lack of developable land in that same time 10-year period.
“We now have until June 30, 2025, to establish our RDP and create overlay zones where affordable housing can be built to comply with the upcoming fourth round of obligations.
“Mayor Arroyo has tasked us to establish a timeline and identify areas in the Borough that could realistically support redevelopment for Affordable Housing. The economic realities of relying on the private sector to build Affordable Housing means that developers get a ‘density bonus.’ Typically, ONE affordable unit will only be built only if alongside FOUR market-rate or luxury units (often referred to as the 80/20 rule).
“While the intricacies of what types of affordable housing can and should be built and what the municipality receives credit for are numerous (for example limits on how many one bedroom, senior housing, or differently-abled housing units can be counted towards compliance), the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Task Force is exploring creative options that have the potential to work well with the existing size, scale and confines of Westwood’s established physical environment. We recognize the intrinsic value of open space, light, and air that defines our suburban community, and the very real value of permeable coverage. These features enhance public health, wellness, safety, and flood mitigation. We also recognize the need for affordable housing and will continue to fully comply with our legal obligations – while continuing to support common sense judicial and legislative changes to improve NJ’s Affordable Housing Act.”