STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator JOHN F. MCKEON
District 27 (Essex and Passaic)
Senator BOB SMITH
District 17 (Middlesex and Somerset)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senators Turner and Schepisi
SYNOPSIS
Excludes environmentally sensitive and flood-prone land from designation as vacant or available for purposes of affordable housing construction.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act preventing affordable housing construction on certain environmentally sensitive land and amending P.L.1995, c.231.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.1995, c.231 (C.52:27D-310.1) is amended to read as follows:
1. When computing a municipal adjustment regarding available land resources as part of the determination of a municipality's fair share of affordable housing, the Council on Affordable Housing shall exclude from designating as vacant land:
(a) any land that is owned by a local government entity that as of January 1, 1997, has adopted, prior to the institution of a lawsuit seeking a builder's remedy or prior to the filing of a petition for substantive certification of a housing element and fair share plan, a resolution authorizing an execution of agreement that the land be utilized for a public purpose other than housing;
(b) any land listed on a master plan of a municipality as being dedicated, by easement or otherwise, for purposes of conservation, park lands or open space and which is owned, leased, licensed, or in any manner operated by a county, municipality or tax-exempt, nonprofit organization including a local board of education, or by more than one municipality by joint agreement pursuant to P.L.1964, c.185 (C.40:61-35.1 et seq.), for so long as the entity maintains such ownership, lease, license, or operational control of such land;
(c) any vacant contiguous parcels of land in private ownership of a size which would accommodate fewer than five housing units if current standards of the council were applied pertaining to housing density;
(d) historic and architecturally important sites listed on the State Register of Historic Places or National Register of Historic Places prior to the submission of the petition of substantive certification;
(e) agricultural lands when the development rights to these lands have been purchased or restricted by covenant;
(f) sites designated for active recreation that are designated for recreational purposes in the municipal master plan; and
(g) environmentally sensitive or flood-prone lands where development is prohibited or substantially constrained by environmental laws, including, but not limited to, R.S.12:5-1 et seq., P.L.1970, c.272 (C.13:9A-1 et seq.), P.L.1987, c.156 (C.13:9B-1 et seq.), P.L.1973, c.185 (13:19-1 et seq.), or P.L.1962, c.19 (58:16A-50 et seq.), or by any State or federal agency.
No municipality shall be required to utilize for affordable housing purposes land that is excluded from being designated as vacant land.
(cf: P.L.2008, c.46, s.39)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would require environmentally sensitive or flood-prone lands, where development is prohibited or substantially constrained by environmental laws or by any State or federal agency, to be excluded from counting as available land for the construction of affordable housing as a part of the fair share affordable housing obligation of a municipality, established pursuant to the "Fair Housing Act," P.L.1985, c.222 (C.52:27D-301 et al.). Currently, State statutes only establish this requirement if development is prohibited on the land by a State or federal agency.