COAH

[James]

Sylvia B. Pressler- Democrat

Marie White Bell- Democrat

Timothy Q. Karcher- no affiliation found

Victor R. McDonald- Republican

Rita E. Papale- Democrat

Ryan J. Peene- Republican

Jack Tarditi-Democrat

Janet L. Whitman- Was active in the league, but no affiliation was found to either party.

If party politics prevail this might be trouble. Marie Bell is very outspoken from what I've seen so she'll likely be an ardent supporter of Roberts and COAH. Hopefully as the former mayor of summit Ms. Whitman will be an advocate.

[Atlanticville]

Mayors seek change to affordable housing law
Tarantolo: 1985 law should reflect current housing issues in towns
BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer
Sept 18 2008

At least a dozen mayors in the state have joined forces to seek reform to the state affordable housing law, which currently calls for "unrealistic" demands in towns throughout New Jersey, including Eatontown.

The group of mayors met last week as part of the Mayors' Housing Policy Committee, which was established by the New Jersey League of Municipalities (NJLM) and tasked with identifying areas of the state affordable housing law that needs reform.

The committee will make recommendations to the state Legislature on what changes they feel should be made to the New Jersey Fair Housing Act of 1985 in order to make it more consistent with current housing issues facing towns across the state, according to Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo.

"The thrust of the mayors' meeting was that we ought to look at the original law and start to address some of the current contradictions to the law," Tarantolo said.

One such contradiction that Tarantolo said negatively impacts Eatontown is that the law currently calls for any building constructed prior to 1980 be prohibited from counting toward a town's affordable housing quota.

The state's Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), which operates under the terms of the Fair Housing Act, requires that Eatontown provide 490 units of affordable housing by 2014.

According to Tarantolo, Eatontown has 18 apartment complexes and three trailer parks that were built before 1980 and should be applied towards the borough's affordable housing quota, but are disqualified under current law.

If the units were deemed as affordable housing, Eatontown would have approximately 2,600 units of affordable housing, Tarantolo said.

"So the legal team that is going to be working with this committee essentially has identified that several facets of the 1985 law are going to be challenged and that's a good thing," Tarantolo said.

"We have always said that Eatontown is not exclusionary in our zoning," he said, adding, "We are in fact inclusionary. More than 50 percent of our residents live in apartments, which is affordable housing, yet we get no credit for that."

Tarantolo has called Eatontown's affordable housing mandate "unrealistic" and "impossible," explaining that the borough is already 97 percent developed and would not be able to build more affordable housing.

Established in 1985 by the Fair Housing Act, COAH was formed in order to address a series of state Supreme Court rulings, known as the Mount Laurel Decisions. COAH is a quasi-judicial agency tasked with determining and enforcing affordable housing requirements for state municipalities.

Since its inception, COAH has passed a series of updated affordable housing regulations, with its most recent updated Round III guidelines approved in June. It is the updated regulations that directly contradict multiple components of the 1985 Fair Housing Act, according to Tarantolo.

"It has been determined, based on legal review, that a lot of the content of the 1985 law has contradictions as it relates to what is happening today," Tarantolo said.

Michael Cerra, one of the League of Municipality's Senior Legislative Analysts said, "The end game, we would hope, is that we could proactively seek some short term tweaks to the law and some long term reform."

According to Cerra, the Mayors' Committee hopes to eventually develop a policy proposal based on potential changes to the Fair Housing Act, and then bring it to the state Legislature.

"Through the next couple of weeks and months we want to develop a proactive agenda to improve the Fair Housing Act," Cerra said.

He added that the Mayors' Housing Policy Committee is unrelated to the NJLM's legal appeal of COAH's approved Round III guidelines.

Filed in July, the League is seeking to challenge what they call the "flawed methodology" that COAH uses to determine a municipality's affordable housing quota.

When determining a municipality's housing requirement, COAH looks at the town's wealth, available land, employment opportunities and fiscal capacity. In its challenge, the NJLM points to multiple errors in the data COAH uses to determine affordable housing requirements under its Round III guidelines.

COAH's Round III regulations create unjustified and unsupportable adjustments to the first- and second-round numbers, which result in unachievable obligations for many municipalities, according to the League.

At a Sept. 10 Eatontown Council meeting, Tarantolo said that COAH used an aerial survey of Eatontown to determine the amount of developable land each municipality has. That survey, as well as other changes to the agency's guidelines, resulted in an increase from the borough's previously determined affordable housing obligation of 92 units to 490 units.

Yet, according to the NJLM, much of the land that COAH determined to be available for development is either preserved for open space or owned by private residents.
Contact Daniel Howley at
dhowley@gmews.com.

http://atlanticville.gmnews.com/news/2008/0918/front_page/003.html

[Asbury Park Press]

Lawmakers: Wall to fight its 700-unit affordable-housing mandate
By Charles Webster • COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU • September 18, 2008

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Buzz up!


WALL — Local state legislators told about 250 residents Tuesday that they intend to fight a state mandate that requires Wall to build nearly 700 affordable housing units within the next 10 years.

"I'm not opposed to subsidized housing, but not under this mandate," said Assemblyman David Rible, R-Monmouth, who along with his fellow 11th District state legislators attended a public forum on the issue at town hall.

The township is being told by the state's Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) to have a plan in place by the end of the year — a plan to build a minimum of 667 affordable housing units before 2018.

Under a new COAH formula used to determine the affordable housing requirements for each town, one new affordable housing unit would get built for every four new market-rate units they project would be built in the municipality. Under that formula, Wall could expect to see about 3,335 new housing units built before 2018, if the township allows developers to build.

Township and state officials say that big an increase in residential units will mean an even bigger jump in population and a much bigger demand by residents for services, including more police, fire and emergency personnel, additional classroom space, increased traffic on Wall roads and an increased need for all township services.

But those 3,335 new housing units will only get built if the township relies on the developers' remedy to create the 667 affordable housing units. Wall officials say there is an alternative, but it will cost taxpayers at least $20 million in new taxes over the next 10 years. The money would help the township build only the 667 units the state is mandating be built — a mandate for which the state has not provided any money.

The costs to taxpayers to build about 115,000 affordable housing units across the state is estimated to cost as much as $19 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years, state Sen. Sean Kean, R-Monmouth, told the nearly 250 people in attendance Tuesday night.

"Ultimately this is about property taxes, not about affordable housing — this is a subsidy," Kean said.

"Places like Newark and Camden easily have 50,000 housing units that need to be rehabilitated," Kean said. He argues there are plenty of urban areas with worthy sites for rehabilitation that would easily fill the affordable housing needs of the state.

Kean has introduced a bill (S-2069) in the state Senate aimed at defining a "realistic opportunity for low-income housing" by setting criteria for residential density levels, minimum lot sizes and other zoning changes.

"This is a quality-of-life issue," said Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini, R-Monmouth, who introduced an identical bill in the Assembly along with her district colleague, David Rible.

The state legislators vowed to fight the COAH mandates before closing out the meeting.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/NEWS01/809180491/1004

[Guest]

[James]

Wayne will never oppose this or listen to us. He's job in the assembly and in the private sector are dependent on the jobs COAH legislation creates. He's one that we have to vote out of office. My personal view is Union officials or employees should not be able to hold elected office because of the implications it represents and questions it raises regarding conflicts of interest.

[Daily Record]

Study finds 'brain gain' as residents leave, come to NJ
By LISA G. RYAN • GANNETT STATE BUREAU • September 18, 2008

Buzz up! New Jersey is gaining highly educated, high-income workers in their peak employment years, but losing lower-income residents who aren't working and find it too expensive to live in the state, according to a Princeton University study that researched New Jersey's migration trends this decade.


The report's data indicates the state is retaining and attracting college graduates and people with advanced college degrees. Also, the number of "half-millionaires," or households making at least $500,000 a year, has grown from 26,000 in 2002 to 44,000 in 2006 despite a higher income tax rate that took effect in 2004 for the state's top earners.

"There's a good story in here in that the state is faring more favorably than some would have residents believe," said Richard Keevey, director of the Policy Research Institute for the Region at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. "New Jersey is a good place to raise a family and a good place to make money."

While more people left the state (1.05 million) than moved in (900,000) between 2000 and 2006, the data suggests the out-migration is a symptom of prosperity, not economic decline, because most of the people staying behind or relocating to New Jersey are educated, skilled workers who are paying more in state income taxes, Keevey said.

The positive news, however, is laced with information of a more troubling nature, said Keevey, who was the state's budget director for former Govs. Thomas Kean Sr. and James Florio.

The study shows poorer people, particularly residents in the bottom 20 percent of income distribution, who don't have a college degree and often don't have a job make up most of the estimated 70,000 New Jerseyans leaving the state annually. They migrate to states where housing is less expensive, property and sales taxes are lower and the overall cost of living is cheaper, according to the study. Their destinations also have higher crime rates, lower school quality and higher infant and child mortality rates.

"The report shows we need to get better housing and cheaper housing for people to stay in New Jersey," Keevey said.

The New Jersey Office of Economic Growth, part of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's office, commissioned the study last spring a few months after Rutgers University's Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy released a report suggesting New Jersey's declining population growth is bad for the state's economy and budget health, Keevey said.

The Princeton study's co-authors, sociology professor Douglas Massey and graduate students Cristobal Young and Charles Varner, used U.S. Census Bureau data and individual income tax data from the state Division of Taxation to research migration patterns.

"It is better to understand New Jersey's net out-migration as removing labor supply (creating job vacancies and reducing the number of unemployed), as well as increasing the supply of available housing, helping to bring down the high price of houses and rents," the report states. "The fact that out-migrants continue earning income in other states is not a loss for New Jersey — if their jobs did not migrate, the positions they vacated can be filled by someone else. In fact, out-migrants are helping to raise wages, lower unemployment, and reduce the cost of housing for those who work (or look for work) in New Jersey."

Corzine welcomed the Princeton study's findings, saying it shows New Jerseyans aren't fleeing the state at the accelerated rates that he said some "pundits" claim.

"We're seeing a "brain gain" of well educated and talented residents entering our labor pool," said Corzine in a prepared statement, noting the study illustrates that New Jersey's out-migration is a byproduct of prosperity and not tax policy. "At a time when the fundamentals of our national economy are faltering, this is positive news for New Jersey."

Mary E. Forsberg, a New Jersey Policy Perspective researcher who disputed the Rutgers study in a New York Times op-ed, applauded the Princeton report and said it confirmed what her organization has been saying all along — the median income of people who move to New Jersey is higher than that of those who leave.

"With that said, we don't want to live in a state where only wealthy people live," Forsberg said.

New Jersey Policy Perspective is pushing for legislation that would increase the state's minimum wage and provide more low-income residents with an earned income tax credit, Forsberg said.

New Jersey Future, another nonprofit group, is searching for ways to encourage local elected officials to provide more affordable housing in their towns. A 2006 Brookings Institution study the group commissioned found a lack of affordable housing dissuaded many businesses from moving into New Jersey, said Chris Sturm, the group's senior director of state policy.

"We need affordable housing for municipal employees, people who work in school districts, recent college grads," she said.

Even with the net loss of population in domestic migration, the population of New Jersey has been rising due to immigrants to the United States settling in the state.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/B3/20080918/NEWS0301/809180447/1123/NEWS02

[PolitickerNJ]

Release Date: Sep 18 2008
Kyrillos And Oroho: Corzine Uses Elitist Study To Justify Abysmal Record On Jobs And The Economy

Senators Joseph Kyrillos and Steve Oroho expressed shock that Governor Corzine is using a recent ivory tower study, that he commissioned, and paid for by taxpayers to make excuses for New Jersey's record high unemployment rate of 6.1%, high taxes on the middle class, and Corzine's own lack of an economic growth strategy. Yesterday, Corzine characterized a recent study as proving New Jersey is too prosperous for its own good and that its highest-in-the-nation taxes are not a cause for concern.

"Anyone in the real world knows that New Jersey's crushing taxes and its hostile business climate need to be reversed to deal with the reality that there are 14, 000 fewer private sector jobs today than just a few years ago," said Kyrillos. "The Governor should be citing yesterday's reported unemployment rate of 6.1% and telling us what he is going to do about it instead of pointing to a ivory tower study and declaring that high taxes are not a problem."

The study was written by the Policy Research Institute for the Region, a think tank run by a former state employee and liberal economic adviser to Governor Florio. It was paid for with the public's money through Governor Corzine's Office of Economic Growth. Authors documented that people are leaving New Jersey because it is unaffordable and noted high property taxes as a major contributing factor. They suggested that people leaving the state may be a good thing for New Jersey since their jobs will become available to someone else.

""We once again invite Governor Corzine to look at our Common Sense Plan For A More Affordable New Jersey which calls for more spending restraint, instead of tax increases, to make funding available for things like road construction and property tax relief so we can get our economy back on track and lessen the state's tax burden," said Oroho. "A report doesn't replace talking with people and we don't need a study to tell New Jerseyans what they already know – New Jersey is growing increasingly unaffordable forcing many people and businesses to leave the state. Frankly, how out of touch can the Governor be?"

http://www.politickernj.com/wmurray/23640/kyrillos-and-oroho-corzine-uses-elitist-study-justify-abysmal-record-jobs-and-economy

[Guest]

[Jersey Dad]

[Guest]

[Guest]

If lower income people are leaving and higher income people are coming, then why do we need COAH to increase the number of houses available? The lower income people aren't growing in number so why is there an increased need for housing? Less people, less housing need.

What the study fails to account for is that NJ is situated between PA and NY, so most people don't live and work in NJ. They live in NJ and work elsewhere.

[Cranbury Conservative]

With Carlstadt a community located in northern New Jersey with a population of 5900, we now have an example of just how detrimental a builder’s remedy can be…

“In 1996, Superior Court Judge Jonathan Harris granted a so- called builders remedy status to Tomu Corp., allowing the developer to build 840 units, including 140 units of affordable housing.”

From an environmental perspective Carlstadt risks having valuable wet lands destroyed and the impact of another 980 homes in Carlstadt would place a huge burden on the existing taxpayers due to the increased infrastructure, police and school costs which would be passed on to them.

To combat the Affordable Housing burden they have been given the Borough Council of Carlstadt passed a resolution…

“The Borough Council passed a resolution Thursday to take the case to the state Supreme Court. Lower courts have ruled that a development that includes affordable housing units should be allowed; the borough believes it would, among other issues, harm the wetlands.”

Every municipality which has a concern regarding COAH and Affordable Housing will need to keep an eye on this case in the coming months since it will have an impact on how municipalities proceed with their required COAH obligation.

http://cranburyconservative.blogspot.com/2008/09/carlstadts-affordable-housing-builders.html

[James]

The one thing Cranbury can't afford is a builder's remedy. A builder's remedy would cause such an extreme burden on Cranbury that we would literally be overwhelmed by the financial adverse implications.

[Guest]

[Guest]

[Jersey Dad]

Does anyone know how builders remedies work now that COAH is using growth share methodology? Do the market -rate units in the "remedy" generate an additional obligation, making the builder responsible for building 40 percent affordable housing?