STATE OF NEW JERSEY
218th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2018 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman PARKER SPACE
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
Assemblyman HAROLD J. WIRTHS
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
SYNOPSIS
Exempts contaminated and industrially-zoned sites from affordable housing rules.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning affordable housing and supplementing P.L.1985, c.222 (C.52:27D-301 et al.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Notwithstanding any regulation of the Council on Affordable Housing to the contrary, no fair share obligation shall result from and no fees by municipalities shall be permitted to be charged to a developer pursuant to the “Fair Housing Act,” P.L.1985, c.222 (C.52:27D-301 et al.), upon the construction of facilities on land that has been designated as a contaminated site by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection or that is zoned for industrial use.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would prohibit the Council on Affordable Housing to the calculate fair share affordable housing obligation for a municipality on the basis of any development of contaminated sites or industrial sites within its borders. In addition, the bill directs that a municipality shall not charge fees to a developer pursuant to the “Fair Housing Act,” P.L.1985, c.222 (C.52:27D-301 et al.), upon the developer’s remediation of a contaminated site or application for development of an industrially-zoned site.
Developers and others expend significant resources to turn land which has been contaminated with toxins into useful, developable land. In addition, the development of a certain amount of land within a municipality for industry is not only desirable, but necessary to support the residential housing in the community. Under the council’s formula for the fair share housing obligation, promulgated pursuant to the “Fair Housing Act,” a municipality could be faced with an increase of its affordable housing obligation upon a contaminated remediation, or upon the development of any industrially zoned land. In addition, the developer of the such land may be charged fees by the municipality if all of the land will not be used for affordable housing construction. This results in a great disincentive to remediate contaminated and for industry to locate to a municipality. Some experts estimate that New Jersey is quickly running out of developable land, and therefore incentives to remediate contaminated land should be provided, rather than policies which serve as disincentives to such remediation. The economic necessity of attracting business and industry to New Jersey speaks for itself. Since industrial zones are permitted under current land use statutes, development of such zones should not be discouraged.