Cranford Finds Temporary COAH Relief

Gov. Chris Christie signed an executive order Tuesday suspending all actions of the Council on Affordable Housing for 90 days, a move that calls into question whether a judge can eventually order that high-density housing complexes be built on Birchwood Avenue and at 555 South Ave.

"I'm very pleased that the governor took that action," Mayor Mark Smith said of the order, which sets up a task force that will report back to the governor in 90 days. "I think the five-person task force is a good group to look at the points most people have about COAH in the last several years."

Citing Cranford's lack of a Housing Element and Fair Share Plan—which was not submitted to COAH until after the lawsuits were filed—two developers filed "builder's remedy" lawsuits against the township seeking to build complexes at a higher density than most officials and many residents want. A special master in the case has already made a statement to the judge in favor of the developers, and the suits are scheduled to be heard together in mid April—although Christie's order may change that.

"There's so much uncertainty, it would seem to make sense to maybe pause and see where things settle out before the judge actually hears the case," Smith said. "We're continuing to prepare our defense, which is prudent to do, but if the judge says too much is going on and postpones this for 90 days, we would pause."

"Maybe a ruling would make clear that lawsuits that exist now wouldn't go anywhere," Smith added. "That would be the best case from Cranford's perspective. We're hoping for that, but we're not counting on it."

Affordable housing regulations in New Jersey stem from a series of state Supreme Court decisions in the 1970s and 1980s known as the Mt. Laurel decisions, which stated that municipalities had a constitutional obligation to enable opportunities for low-and moderate income housing. Those decisions led to the Fair Housing Act of 1985 and the establishment of COAH, which requires municipalities to file a Housing Element and Fair Share Plan in order to be shielded from builder's remedy lawsuits.

The governor's order calls the COAH procedures "excessively complex and unworkable, resulting in delays, inefficiencies, litigation and unreasonable costs to municipalities and the private sector without appreciable progress being made for our citizens."

"New thinking on statewide planning is necessary due to the failure of COAH to ensure that all constitutional obligations with respect to the provision of affordable housing are satisfied in a manner that is both fair and reasonable to the already burdened municipalities of our state," the order stated. "The statutory and regulatory mechanisms currently in place have proven to be an unduly burdensome and wholly ineffective means of meeting these goals."

The governor will appoint members of the task force, which will assess whether the FHA and COAH are meeting the obligations identified in the Mt. Laurel decisions.

State Sen. Ray Lesniak, a Democrat whose district covers parts of Union County and who is the prime sponsor of a Senate bill that would abolish COAH, said he expects his bill to pass the Senate and Assembly within the next 90 days.

"I look forward to briefing Governor Christie's COAH advisors on S-1, which I have been working on with Senator Bateman for over 6 months in consultation with the brightest and most productive market rate and affordable housing developers, municipal government leaders, planners and business executives in New Jersey," Lesniak said in a news release Tuesday.

But that bill would replace COAH with another state bureaucracy, according to Smith, who has read the entire bill and discussed its shortcomings with the governor's office.

"S-1 says municipalities should not have to bear the economic burden of providing affordable housing," Smith said. "Then it says that in order to make a project viable with affordable housing, municipalities have to give a density bonus. That brings infrastructure costs and school costs."

"S-1 as currently written is, in my mind, not a good thing despite some folks' belief that it would be the end of COAH," Smith added. "Some have called it COAH on steroids. I would not disagree with that."

With so many variables and so many interests at stake, the situation is fluid, Smith said. What the executive order makes clear, however, is that this is a high priority for Christie.

"He's not even in office a month, and he's made a statement with this executive order, that he intends to abide by his promise to deal with COAH," Smith said. "It's an indication of the seriousness of problems with COAH. "We'll hope for the best and have to wait and see what happens."