MONTVALE—An attorney for 16 municipalities, including Montvale, suing Gov. Phil Murphy to restart the Council on Affordable Housing said they expect arguments to be filed by January 2023 before the Superior Court judge hearing the civil case.
A court decision is likely within months of all legal briefs being filed, said the attorney.
This lawsuit could have a big impact on affordable housing needs. A decision in the towns’ favor might force Murphy to reestablish the council, although state attorneys could still appeal the ruling. The State League of Municipalities, a municipal advocacy organization based in Trenton, favors that COAH be reestablished.
Montvale is the only Pascack Valley town taking part in the action. The other 15 towns signed on are Sayreville, Beach Haven, Bordentown, Chatham, Cranford, East Hanover, Egg Harbor, Fairfield, Freehold, Hillsborough, Jackson Township, Mahwah, Readington, Warren, and West Caldwell.
Recently, Mayor Michael Ghassali told Pascack Press that nearly 10% of local housing stock, or 385 units, constitutes affordable housing. This includes a 185-unit luxury apartment complex under construction on seven acres on the former Sony site, which includes 37 affordable units.
Ghassali noted the borough has plans to acquire a 28.4-acre parcel at 127 Summit Ave. that was once targeted for up to 170 senior “active adult” apartments. He said the parcel’s acquisition would prevent it from being developed in the future.
In neighboring Park Ridge, 30 acres of the former Sony office park are slated for a 448-unit rental complex with 64 affordable units.
The 16 towns are suing Murphy, alleging that he has not fulfilled his constitutional obligation to appoint new members to COAH, a state agency that was ruled ineffective and “moribund” by the state Supreme Court in 2015, after failing for 16 years to determine affordable “fair share” housing obligations for New Jersey towns.
In 1985, the state’s Fair Housing Act created COAH to help mediate and allocate a “fair share” of affordable housing obligations to the state’s municipalities.
Prior to the Fair Housing Act, the courts were determining affordable obligations and COAH removed that obligation from the courts.
In 2015, however, the state Supreme Court ruled that state Superior Courts would administer the Fair Housing Act, and work with towns to determine their fair share of affordable housing.
Jeffrey Surenian, an attorney representing the towns suing Murphy, said the state of New Jersey “finally provided the documents that the case manager requested” and the case manager issued a briefing schedule.
The council had been mired in squabbles and legal disagreements for 16 years following the first two rounds of affordable obligations that ended in 1999.
Surenian told Pascack Press that a legal brief explaining the rationale to force Murphy to reappoint COAH members was due to Superior Court Judge Carmen Messano by Dec. 12.
Following that, a brief from the state outlining its position is due by Jan. 11, 2023. A response brief from Surenian to the state’s argument is due by Jan. 25.
He said that the civil case was filed in the appellate division and will be decided by the judge following the submittal of all briefs. Surenian said he did not expect the judge’s decision to take too long, likely sometime in February or March 2023.
Pascack Press reached out to Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit housing advocacy organization, to find out its view on reestablishing COAH before the fourth round of affordable housing obligations begins in July 2025.
Fair Share attorneys have served as advocates for low-income housing in hundreds of affordable housing settlements statewide since 2015.
Fair Share spokesperson Alex Staropoli told us, “The lawsuit to reinstate COAH is nothing more than an attempt by these towns to avoid their affordable housing obligations. COAH was a defunct agency that for 15 years let towns sit on paper plans that did nothing to advance affordable housing.”
Staropoli added: “Towns that want to go back to that system want to keep low-income families and people of color out of their borders. The current system is working: Towns are building more affordable housing now than ever before. Attempts to go backwards are misguided and disingenuous,” she said.
Staropoli pointed out that some towns who have joined the lawsuit to reinstate COAH “didn’t meet their obligations until they were sued, or at all.”
Montvale’s affordable settlement was approved locally in 2017 and court-approved in early 2018.
Staropoli noted five of the towns suing to reinstate COAH had submitted Third Round Fair Share Housing plans to COAH before the agency was declared “moribund” in 2015, including Montvale.
She added, “Towns that want to avoid their affordable housing obligations want to maintain New Jersey’s residential segregation.”
During a state Assembly hearing Sept. 15 on post-2025 affordable housing obligations, James Williams, Fair Share’s director of racial justice policy, said, “New Jersey is currently developing more affordable housing than at any point in decades. This rate of development is directly tied to Mount Laurel enforcement.”
Williams noted, “To go back to a dysfunctional system would be a mistake, and flies in the face of racial and social justice. Now, more than ever, New Jersey needs to accelerate affordable housing, not go back to a system riddled with politics and bureaucracy. New Jerseyans deserve more.”
Staropoli said, “Through the current court process, Fair Share Housing Center has settled more than 340 affordable housing cases with towns throughout the state. Even in the last time COAH was functioning — which was over two decades ago — it only approved plans for 121 towns in six years, leaving most of New Jersey’s municipalities in a regulatory limbo where few, if any, affordable homes were built.”
Questions about how COAH might operate once constituted are not addressed in the lawsuit, which was filed in early September in Superior Court, Appellate Division.
Other ideas from the September 15 hearing on affordable housing options included creating a state housing bank that could receive monetary contributions from towns in lieu of affordable housing obligations, and a grant process to get funds for building affordable homes; rehabilitation of low-income housing in urban areas; credits for affordable mobile homes; expanded senior citizen housing, and transparency about what state funding is available to help towns build affordable housing.