MONTVALE—Mayor Michael Ghassali said the coalition of 17 towns challenging the next round of the state’s affordable housing law will hold a press conference on Monday, Sept. 9, at noon to reveal details about their lawsuit.
He said the Zoom-only press conference will “inform everyone about the litigation that we will be pursuing that challenges the Fourth Round affordable housing law.”
Before Friday, Ghassali said the legal challenge would likely focus on including the now 62 “urban aid” towns exempt from affordable obligations. He claimed doing so would lessen the obligations on other towns that previously provided affordable housing over three prior rounds of affordable obligations.
He said the legal complaint being filed by the coalition will be explained by its lead attorney, a member of King Moench & Collins LLP of Morris Plains.
The press event will include “the formal roll-out of our municipal coalition, Local Leaders for Responsible Planning, and the filing of our complaint,” the mayor emailed about 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6.
He said the press conference would also “recognize all of the municipalities that have adopted resolutions to join our effort. Those municipalities that are part of the coalition will be receiving a separate email prior to the conference call with talking points and more detail ahead of the filing.”
As of Sept. 5, Ghassali claimed the following towns had signed on with resolutions of support: Bergen County: Allendale, Hillsdale, Montvale, Old Tappan, Oradell, River Vale, Washington Township, Westwood, and Wyckoff; Essex County: Millburn; Morris County: Denville, Florham Park, Montville, and Wharton; Passaic County: Totowa; Salem County: Mannington; Union County: Clark.
Ghassali has said many more towns have expressed interest in the legal challenge but have not passed resolutions to provide $20,000 in funds to back the effort. Ghassali emailed all 565 New Jersey municipalities in early July to seek support.
The mayor added in his email, “We will have a limited window [30 days] to add more municipalities to the complaint after we file on Monday.” He said the Zoom link would be provided only to media and elected officials before Monday’s press conference.
In a letter to the editor in the Sept. 9 Pascack Press, Township of Washington Mayor Peter Calamari said of his council’s support, in part: “When our municipalities were formed, they had a plan of growth in mind. Those plans are outlined in their Master Plans, and they are required to be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. It was never anticipated that our local zoning laws would be forcibly overturned, and we would have to add hundreds of residential units to sites that were not zoned or anticipated for residential purposes. This puts undo demands on every municipal service including adding hundreds of students into our school systems.
He said, “Again, this is not meant as opposition to Fair Share Housing. It is simply an effort to ensure that each municipality contributes their fair share, and not exploit nor override our individual towns’ residential requirements to the breaking point.”