##VIDEO ID:l-ym6GPtJ7w## welcome everybody I'm mayor Donna giglia and um we have to be honest it's so nice to see all of you here we would love to see at our Township committees this type of um people showing up in these numbers so I'm really happy to see you all here so I am going to open up tonight just very shortly because we want to get you with our experts um we wanted to present this in our efforts to be more TR in being transparent and our Township committee wanting to hear from the public on all the issues that affect Mars Township so we all know that when it comes to affordable housing it can be expensive to live and work in New Jersey the average cost of owning or renting a home here is higher than almost any other state in the country affordable housing though is one of the most challenging issues we face it is highly complex and politically fraud as part of our ongoing effort in providing this transparent governance and helping us educate our residents on the very topics that affect you we are offering an overview of affordable housing the issues the new law and how to address this topic right here in Mars Township so I'd like to introduce To You Paul Phillips who's our Municipal planner his partner Elizabeth leey and our planning board and affordable housing attorney Steve Warner and turn this over there will be time at the end for questions turn my mic on can you hear me okay okay the uh thank you mayor and thank you for all that you and the governing body do for our Township I'd like to welcome everyone here this evening thank you for coming out uh as the mayor mentioned my name is Steve Warner I've been privileged to be the planning board attorney and affordable housing attorney for Mars Township for several years now and joined by our planners Paul Phillips and Liz Laney um what we'd like to accomplish this evening uh is a few things one to provide you with a brief overview of what affordable housing and the Mount Laurel Doctrine is what it means and how it's evolved over uh the last just about 50 years now uh and also to provide some cont text uh so uh everyone can better understand how the township has remained compliant fully compliant through the first three rounds of affordable housing uh and uh intends to certainly remain fully compliant through the fourth round and Beyond uh also we'll discuss what the new state law on affordable housing requires of us and every other municipality uh just about in the state of New Jersey uh and also what compliance strategies uh we might be able to expect to employ to ensure we remain compliant through the fourth round and remain our uh uh retain excuse me our immunity from Builders remedy lawsuits which I'll talk about in a moment uh so let's get started and if we have a PowerPoint up by hope shortly relatively shortly there we go okay New Jersey's new affordable housing law and how it may emphasize may affect the township uh so next slide uh in 1975 as I mentioned almost 50 years ago now how time flies the New Jersey Supreme Court in ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in the uh did we yeah there we are uh in the case of Southern Burlington n ACP versus Mount Laurel Township hence the name Mount Laurel Doctrine uh this decision known as Mount Laurel 1 held that local zoning laws that excluded lowincome families referred to as exclusionary zoning violated the New Jersey state constitution there's several types of potential exclusionary zoning one example uh uh is requiring extremely large minimum lot sizes throughout out all residential uh uh zones in a municipality would have the effect of prohibiting affordable housing uh the Mount Laurel one decision required that all municipalities must plan zone for and take affirmative action to provide realistic opportunities for their fair share of the Region's need for affordable housing hence the phrase fair share so what exactly is affordable housing next slide please a dwelling is Affordable uh to a moderate or low or very low income household uh so it's affordable if that household earns not more than a certain limit income limit uh and moderate income housing constitutes affordable housing and the limit there is as high as 80% of the regional median income so you're talking about a very sizable percentage of our population our neighbors and ourselves the uh and and affordable housing is broken down into very low low and moderate income households and certain minimum percentages are required uh for compliance next slide please what constitutes very low low and moderate income in Mars Township and our region and you could see hopefully you can see the numbers there I just want to highlight a few uh because I think a lot of us may think of a affable housing as uh requiring income limits lower perhaps much lower than they actually require so moderate income households 80% of the median a household average uh for example for a oneperson household an individual could make more than $72,000 and still qualify for affordable housing $72,000 a year that is uh uh for a four person household uh the heads of the household can earn uh as much as $103,000 per year and still qualify for affordable housing so I think it's safe to say affordable housing includes what we sometimes refer to as Workforce housing housing that allows young adults to come to or remain in Mars Township seniors on fixed income our teachers our police officers our fire and other emergency service providers uh as I said our neighbors many of us uh qualify and can Avail ourselves of affordable housing housing next slide and you may be surprised perhaps at uh the range of rents and sale prices for affordable housing what qualifies significant amounts are required to be paid uh for rents and sale prices notwithstanding the fact that the housing is Affordable uh one-bedroom rents can range as high as over $1,000 a month uh sale prices for a one-bedroom townhouse uh affordable housing unit can run as high is over $150,000 and for three bedrooms as you can see almost $1,500 per month in rental uh could be required for an affordable unit a three-bedroom uh uh affordable unit and well over $200,000 for a three-bedroom townhouse so affordable housing renters and owners are paying significant amounts for their housing notwithstanding that it is affordable housing next slide please so from 1975 to 1983 I remember those years well the um but I'm not going to tell you what I was doing I'm going to tell you what was happening uh with affordable housing between those years uh the uh after the Mount Laurel one decision in 1975 basically affordable housing was handled in an ad hoc litigation method throughout the state uh because as important as the Mount Laurel one decision was in proclaiming as and rightfully so that exclusionary zoning is unconstitutional there weren't any there was no teeth in the doctrine uh and there was not State legislation behind that judicial doctrine uh and there was not an administrative process to monitor compliance and ensure compliance to enforce that Doctrine so in 1983 the Supreme Court had the opportunity and availed itself of the opportunity to resolve those problems uh and in what has become known as the Mount Laurel 2 decision the Supreme Court reaffirmed that municipalities have a constitutional obligation to provide realistic opportunities for the construction of municipality's fair share of low and moderate income housing and the Mount Laurel 2 decision created Avenues to ensure compliance not the least of which which is the way a lawyer says the most of which uh is the Builder's remedy lawsuit which I'll speak about in a minute the court also invited the legislature to draft legislation to implement the doctrine candidly that happens often but what's rare is the legislature took the Supreme Court up on its offer this time which I'll speak about in a moment uh and the legislature and I'll speak about it right now the legislature accepted the invitation and enacted the fair housing act in 1985 and that act established the Council on affordable housing COA an organization that did exist uh uh and that uh COA uh uh utilized an administrative process whereby municipalities submitted their affordable housing or Fair Share Plans to COA for review and ultimately substantial uh certification uh indicating compliance with each municipality's affordable housing obligation next slide so what is a builder remedy lawsuit essentially it's a lawsuit where a developer who wishes to develop what may be considered particularly high density residential housing on a particular site in a municipal ality uh challenges uh does so through a lawsuit and challenges and uh and establishes a that a municipality is not in compliance with its fair share obligation and if that developer is successful in doing so if the municipality is not in compliance does not have immunity from Builders remedy lawsuits that developer will be able to develop uh highdensity residential housing uh at a density level that that developer wishes no matter how much uh it exceeds the density requirements of our zoning ordinances and in a location where that d uh where that developer so desires irrespective of what our zoning requirements provide for so in essence as a Township we lose something that is vital to us uh because in New Jersey we're a home rule state we all know that uh and uh one of the most critical if not the most critical thing that we have as a municipality is the ability to control what is built where and to what extent the location and the density for housing uh so suffice to say it's at least my opinion and I know it's shared by my colleagues to my right um it's always in the municipality's best interest to avoid Builders remedy lawsuits and as I said our Township has remained compliant for uh B uh uh almost 40 years now uh through the uh first three rounds in excess of 40 years actually yeah for the through the first three rounds uh uh of uh the Mount Laurel Doctrine uh and and uh Fair affordable housing obligations uh I'm going to skip next slide but I think I'm going to skip it because I already mentioned the fair housing act and COA so we're going to go one more slide thank you um so you've heard uh first round second round third round we're going into the fourth round what does that mean it's not a boxing match per se some might argue with me I don't know but there you go so some some may be immediately to my right uh so much for the colleagues but uh but uh the uh um but we did have COA quote unquote first uh second and third round uh and the way it worked was post the Fair Housing Act and the creation of of Co handling uh the Mount Laurel Doctrine and affordable housing obligations for all municipalities through an administrative process uh we made it through two rounds uh I don't know if we were Champions but we made it through two rounds and that is the first uh uh round was six years from 87 to 1993 second round six years from 94 to 99 through 99 I should say uh and there were rules established and municipalities uh such as ours remain compliant by obtaining substantive certification through COA through that administrative process lo and behold 1999 things changed a bit uh and they changed a bit for a while because COA went through several iterations uh of affordable housing rules utilizing different methodologies and the like and they wound their way as they always do through the court slowly up and down right uh through the Supreme Court some pellet Division and the court struck those rules down in whole or in part uh so we had about 16 years 1999 to 2015 of effectively no monitoring and no compliance and little if any creation of affordable housing uh 16 years more than if my math is correct two rounds uh and in 2015 finally the court the Supreme Court in Mount Laurel 4 uh reluctantly very reluctantly I remember the last paragraph of the decision spoke just how reluctant they were in doing so but they took on the obligation again away from COA finding it to be moraband was the term the court used uh and said we're going to handle this ourselves in the Judiciary again but uh immediately invited the legislature as as they had done in 1983 to come up with legislation to take it out of their hands as soon as possible uh well uh that was 2015 so we're just about 10 years later wasn't quite as quick as it was back in uh uh 1983 but the legislature has has enacted legislation um but for that third round it was all handled in the courts uh we of course were in litigation uh and uh it was a 26e thirdd round uh several times the magnitude of the first two rounds combined uh and and uh and we were able to resolve uh uh uh our litigation through a settlement process which uh my colleagues will get into more in a moment next slide before I get this is the suspense building can you tell before I get into the fourth round legislation I just wanted to uh briefly talk about one aspect of our third round obligation the rest will be handled uh by Liz and Paul um but uh uh this particular obligation resulted from a separate litigation separate from our declaratory judgment action that we and and and and 350 other municipalities had to bring to get compliance with the third round uh many may know and recall that uh there was a litigation involving the Red Bulls uh and I won't get into all the details anywhere near all the details with respect to that litigation but uh in Broad Strokes uh we had amended our a general development plan and provided for uh Zoning for the Red Bulls to bring their state-of-the-art facility to approximately 81 acres in the center if you will of the uh former Honeywell headquarters uh site uh and lo and behold uh even though there was uh already a residential and affordable component for that entire tract uh in and uh the Colombia uh development is is part and parcel of that um uh fair share housing Corporation decided to allege that we should now have an additional obligation uh uh for affordable housing for the Red Bulls tract um we disagreed we vigorously disputed that we even moved for dismissal of the case uh at the outset on the pleadings uh however for variety of reasons one of which was there was a similar case that where they did the similar took a similar approach in Madison and were not successful in disposing of the case on the pleadings so it would have been a a long litigation uh it would have been a costly litigation uh and frankly uh by the time we won the Red Bulls opportunity would have come and gone uh uh so uh and there was no guarantee of winning so uh the decision was made and rightfully so to resolve that case by way of settlement and the settlement provides for a 50 unit 100% affordable development on county-owned property located behind and adjacent to existing supportive and affordable housing developments on catch Road near the intersection of Hanover Avenue uh and uh also adjacent other County buildings um as you may know with a 100 100% affordable housing for every unit you get credit at least for one unit there's bonus credits uh which my colleagues will talk about in a minute um uh and so 50 units is 50 units whereas uh the lawsuit that was brought by fair share housing center against our Township and the Red Bulls and the property owner uh uh uh uh at the former Honeywell site uh they sought to increase Our obligation by 200 not 50 200 affordable units which generally would be about two excuse me over a thousand total units because for the most part uh affordable housing is done by way of inclusionary developments a mix of affordable and market rate devel uh units and the Market rates are usually 5 to one uh to the affordable units so I hope I didn't explain that too badly but the bottom line is we faced more than a thousand units we settled for 50 units uh in a location uh uh uh that made sense with the county uh and I and we thank the county for stepping up and committing to provide the land no uh effectively no charge to the township so that we had site control control and ownership to be able to make that project go forward that the status of that project is uh pending it's in process um we continue to pursue the financing with a pro prospective 100% affordable developer uh in in accordance with the settlement agreement with fair share and that is that one component um now going to switch gears and go to the next slide please uh and talk finally about the new legislation in March the governor uh signed into law the fourth round and Beyond it's not just for the fourth round uh uh uh legislation uh the goal of which was to streamline the process uh it's it's essentially a combination of administrative and judicial in court and I'll explain in a moment uh the Department of Community Affairs DCA will provide initial guidance numbers uh pursuing into a formula a methodology that was derived from a court case uh involving Princeton and West Windsor in 2018 that methodology is in the statute uh they'll provide the numbers and there is a new affordable housing dispute resolution program mediation through the court uh the uh uh uh the program judges are indeed judges former uh Mount Laurel judges uh almost exclusively uh and uh they will handle that any disputes with respect to the number that each town uh is assigned and ultimately uh uh uh takes as its own by way of binding resolution uh and any disputes as to how each uh municipality plans to address its affordable housing obligation for this next round the fourth round a 10-year round from 2025 to 2035 um municipalities risk losing immunity from exclusionary zoning lawsuits Builders remedy lawsuits if we do not meet each and every deadline throughout the process it is deadline driven I'll go through that in a moment uh the uh the new law gets rid of COA formally uh and uh utilizes as I stated a methodology that was derived from the courts with DCA oversight and bonus credits which Paul and Liz will talk about more in a moment uh next slide this is sort of the meet there it is of the uh statute um a deadline driven uh by October 20th of this year uh DCA is required to publish uh the municipal obligations for every municipality in the state derived from that methodology that came from that Princeton and West Windsor litigation it is a complicated methodology uh and uh I guess it's so complicated uh uh the statute came out in March uh DCA was given until October 20th that's less than a month away we don't have any numbers yet uh nor do we have any rules yet which are also due uh by October 20th so quite a bit is supposed to happen uh in the next less than one month and uh we'll see if if it does and what it is um the uh the bill incentivizes municipalities to participate in the process by continuing the immunity from litigation by developers that they have from the third round and we do have that immunity uh as long as we participate in the process um when that number comes out in October by October 20th or thereafter uh pursuant to the statute by January 31 2ou of of this coming year uh we have to as a Township adopt by resolution binding resolution what our fair share number is uh there may be little if any wiggle room so to speak to calculate a number different from what comes out of DCA because if they utilize the methodology correctly one would assume that the methodology ology that's in the statute that's the required methodology if that's the number that gets spit out so to speak where's the wiggle room to change it but they haven't uh at least shown us their work if they've done their work yet and certainly we'll be looking at that and I'll defer to our planners uh to address that further but as of January 31 we will have our number uh as everybody says and uh within one month if any one wishes to challenge that number be it fair share housing center a developer Etc uh they have to do so because if they don't uh come March 1st the day after February 28 2025 if nobody's challenged that number that number is presumed to be valid uh that is our number uh and it is presumably at that point unchallengeable um if there is a challenge uh the uh dispute resolution program has one month to settle the challenge uh of that number that's not just for us that's for roughly 350 400 municipalities uh the um the key date after that is June 30th 2025 uh and that's an interesting date because the fourth round starts July 1 2025 see how interesting June 30 20 25 is uh the fourth round has not yet started but by June 30 the day before the fourth round starts every municipality must adopt a housing element and fair share plan demonstrating how it will satisfy its number its affordable housing obligation over the course of the next 10 years uh it's somewhat like a prepackaged for lack of a better phrase uh uh plan uh so you start the fourth round with here's how we're going to finish the fourth round and you go from there um the uh after June 30th and the planning board with the governing body will adopt uh an endorse a housing element fair share plan that will satisfy that obligation if there is a challenge at that point uh by fair share housing center Andor uh uh developers who don't like that if they're not provided for they're disgruntled by that program that plan uh then they can bring a challenge they're not limited to one month to do it uh they get a whole two months to challenge that plan uh August 31 2025 is the deadline for challenging Municipal obligations um but what's noteworthy among other things is that someone cannot simply challenge the uh H uh our plan and say I've got a better plan or my development proposal is better than the one you you selected uh uh in this part of your plan they actually have to show how our plan is not viable not compliant uh in order to uh uh put us in a position so to speak where we're vulnerable to a a builder's remedy suit and vulnerable to a claim that their plan is better than other plans and should be implemented instead of what we propose um after August 31 if the uh uh the program the afford uh the affordable housing dispute resolution program cannot resolve any such disputes then uh uh the municipalities have until December 31 to address the challenges and until March 15 to adopt uh a revised housing element fair share plan and change zoning accordingly um uh uh unless uh if as I said the program cannot resolve it through Med mediation then uh the municipalities including our Township if we were in this position could be put uh the challenge would be brought uh before a county level uh Mount Laurel judge or housing judge uh and those judges remain to be selected so it's mediation it's uh well it's it's setting the number and the plan first if it's challenged it's mediation second uh and if mediation doesn't work it's litigation 3D uh that's generally how it's Set uh in addition to the housing element fair share plan addressing how we're going to satisfy Our obligation by June 30 2025 we also have to have draft ordinances prepared to implement zoning ordinances to implement that plan so again it really is a uh get everything done before the round start fourth round starts and then we'll see who challenges you challenges your plan and what happens to it so I've taken probably as usual more than my allotted time so I thank you for bearing with me uh there will be questions and uh and there will be answers uh after we all finish but I'm going to turn it over now uh uh to my more succinct colleagues to my right are planners Liz and Paul okay thank you Steve um what I'd like to do tonight is actually talk about sort of everything that Steve talked about but how it really impacts more Township on a local level what the obligations have been up until this point what the township has accomplished with regard to affordable housing and how might the um Township address its future forr obligation which as Steve indicated is for the next 10 years the 2025 to the 2035 so uh next slide please this slide looks an awful lot like the three of us oh then we okay so the slide after this please okay so I just starting with the basics you know what is a municipal fair share obligation and it's really comprised of three components um the first is What's called the present need or Rehabilitation obligation this is rarely talked about it's rarely litigated it's rarely fought over um but it's basically existing affordable units that are in the township or it's not about creating new units it's about rehabilitating and upgrading units that are maybe considered substandard but are occupied by low and moderate income households um so an obligation is given to each municipality to address this Rehabilitation obligation in each round um just to note oftentimes at least half of the obligation is covered by the county because the county gets HUD funding to actually assist homeowners in you know making major renovations to their homes if they were maybe otherwise would not be able to afford those Renovations um so the next is the prior round obligations and so this is all of the other three rounds of affordable housing that Steve discussed so everything some you know the obligations starting from 1987 through uh 2025 and so um you know this is you know we'll talk about this in a second but this is just everything up until essentially today or really actually I guess July 1st or June 30th 2025 July 1st 2025 um and then the third component is the perspective need the perspective obligation that's the next 10 years the 2025 to 2035 and um you know that that's really where I think most of our Focus will be what most of the um planning is going to be working on towards addressing so uh next slide please okay so I'm sure nobody can read that because I I can't read it um from here but it is you know how is um the township addressed its previous obligations it had an obligation um for the first two rounds that's 1987 to 1999 of 293 units the township was able to address it through a number a variety of ways there are a number of affordable hous projects in the township um there were group homes and assist Supportive Housing that that was able to be used to meet it um and there also were bonuses that the COA rules permit permitted and I will discuss you know shortly will continue to permit um that were able to be utilized to meet this obligation and actually the township came into the third round with over a 100 unit Surplus so 116 unit Sur Surplus um now the third round obligation I'm going to just relieve the Red Bull's litigation out of this and pretend like it never happened up because um just because it it it complicates it a little bit um but essentially Morris had an obligation of 400 units for the third round I'm going to talk about in a minute how the 400 units came to be because it actually could have been much worse um but it was an obligation to um address 400 units and so the township was able to address this through the Surplus the 116 Surplus credits there bonus credits that were used they're 100% um affordable housing projects through the County Housing Authority and Homeless Solutions uh and then there were components of larger market rate you know larger projects that had a market rate component and an affordable housing component like on the former honey well site or the former Colgate site um which I know have new names but I don't know what they are um but that's how you know how I remember them anyway um and at this point the numbers on that table will show you that about 80% of the units are actually complete and occupied um for what is uh was proposed and what was approved by the court to address this obligation uh next slide please so what will the fourth round obligation be um that's the big question right for Morris and really every just about every other municipality in the state and as Steve has said DCA is going to be issuing numbers uh October 20th so you know less than a month away um one thing to note per the legislation the numbers are not binding um so there's an opportunity for the township to challenge you have a 100 days and there are things like the holidays in between but the one thing I think we have to to and and as Steve uh mentioned by January 31st the township the governing body has to adopt a resolution sort of saying yes this is our number this is this is what we believe our number to be and when I say our number I'm really talking again about the 2025 to 2035 because the previous to that numbers have already been litigated and hashed out and accepted um so it's really you know what we will say and and agree is our 2025 to 2035 number um so the next slide please so how does DCA come up with a number and and honestly it's complicated it's very complicated I people claim to understand it and I mostly don't believe them but it it it is it it was in the third round there were two lengthy court cases be by experts who are you know experts on this disagreeing over which data sets you supposed to use you know how you're supposed to interpret this data but I think as Steve mentioned that per those court cases particularly the one in merer County um and then per the legislation the the new affordable housing law the methodology question has I think we think been mostly who knows put to rest it's baked into the statute into the statute um so just to give a very broad overview because honestly that's all I am capable of getting which is that they essentially use census data and they use um tax assessment data and they average three capacity allocation factors and this is all in the new law and so there's income Capa uh income capacity and that's sort of looking at the median income of a municipality versus the median incomes of other municipalities in their region um the non-residential valuation factor which is essentially um the difference in uh the assessed valuation of non-residential properties over between I guess 1999 and 2025 and essentially what it's trying to do is if there is a big assessment meaning a lot of non-residential development was produced that is I think the rationale is that means that jobs were created you know that these have become job centers and the idea is to move House housing towards where people are working um and then the final allocation factor is um developable land and that's again you know what your developable land is within the context of your region um you know compared to your region with the idea of course being that municipalities that have more developable land can accommodate more affordable housing um so again as I said Steve and I both would agree I think that you are able to challenge the numbers but it would be potentially full hearty to challenge the methodology I think at this point it would be very difficult and potentially lengthy um you know however thankfully there is a process um which the township can use and which the township has used in the previous rounds to reduce the obligation and that's called a vacant land adjustment um so if you could go to the next slide please so what is a vacant land adjustment it it's basically a process it's undertaken by the municipality um you essentially have to demonstrate to the court or to DCA or whoever it is who's looking over your work that there's not enough vacant land you know that you've given us an obligation there's no way we can accommodate that um and so essentially you you look through you know you we do it through tax records you look at all the vacant properties and then you start to look at well what's on those environment you know what what are those properties and oftentimes a good portion of them are environmentally constrained meaning they're Wetlands they're steep slopes there's a reason nobody's built on them you know up until this point you can exclude those Parcels you can or not the entire parcel you can exclude the acreage on those Parcels um from your developable land inventory you can also exclude partials that are too small to accommodate units you know if you have a 02 Acres you don't have to include it it's it's they do allow for a certain reasonableness in that regard um and there's some parks and open space and historic resources that can be excluded essentially you sum up you know you get the the total of the Acres that you believe is developable um you have to assign what we call a density or how many acres um how many dwelling units per acre can be you know accommodated per the law it has been at least six dwelling units per acre oftentimes it has been required that we go even much higher than that um you then get a number which is essentially how many housing units can be accommodated in your to town and then you take 20% of that 20% of that is your affordable housing obligation because the idea is that 20% of your market rate units should be set aside for affordable and so of this developable land that can be accommodated so let's say we say a 100 units can be accommodated in moris Township totally making that up 20% or 20 units must be affordable so what a vacant land adjustment allows you to do is if it gets approved by whoever is reviewing it that essentially becomes your obligation that essentially becomes your obligation for what the units that you really have to plan for provide a realistic opportunity for zone for and and really sort of prove that these units are going to be built um if I may we we call that the real realistic development potential or r DP so if you've heard the term RDP that's what that means that those are the units that have to be actually constructed and satisfied if I'm not mistaken that's right so next slide please um so of course you you know towns can't get away with it completely so you have an R so you have an RDP as Steve just mentioned but whatever your initial obligation was you have to sort of address add the difference between your RDP and your initial obligation so again if you had 100 units 20 or have to be affordable you have to somehow you can't ignore the 80 units that you were supposed to uh have have built or were assigned what they call this that the 80 units is called the unmet need and it's a little less stringent uh in terms of um producing the unmet or addressing the unmet need uh it's often sort of it was in well in the third round anyway it was fine to sort of say listen we're going to provide some overlay zoning over here and we're going to in Institute a mandatory set aside which means any project of five or more units will uh have to have an affordable housing set asde and the idea is listen we can't plan for these units but we'll put in place mechanisms so that if residential development does occur it will produce affordable housing units and so that's sort of our nod where we know we have this bigger obligation and we will try to accommodate it if we can I always like if I may I always like to think of it as active and passive a little bit I don't know if that makes sense or not but that's just the way I think about it and you have to address your RDP in a more active fashion it's a sort of a harder number perhaps in the unmet need could be a more passive fashion it's a perhaps softer number that's the second Interruption I get three please I have a I haven't interrupted I noticed that I anyway um in any EV just just to give you a sense in in the third round um fair share housing center assigned Morris a obligation of 767 units and of course we all thought well that's way too much you know we can't accommodate it so did a vacant land adjustment and we got it down to 400 units but of course you know the court or fair share housing center said well what are you going to do for that difference the 300 and whatever 367 units between the 400 and the 767 and so we did prepare overlay zoning that on some I think commercial sites industrial industrial sites we instituted a mandatory set aside so any development that does have you know over five units would have to provide some affordable housing uh and that was enough to satisfy our unmet need um so uh next slide please so I'll just go really quickly through what happens when we get the obligation and what has to go into um the plan as you can see on this slide um 25% of all of the units that we're going to use to address Our obligation have to be rental units so you can't do all ownership and they half of that 25% have to be for families so you can't and by by that I mean it can't be all special needs housing which is considered rental housing and it can't be all seniors um which is you know something sometimes people wish you could um a minimum of 50% of the units used to meet your obligation have to be for families so again that can't you can't just do all seniors you can't do all spe excuse me special needs housing you have to at least provide some housing for for families um there's a maximum of 30% of the units you're using to address your obligation can be reserved for seniors it may not seem like a lot it's actually an increase from what has been the previous rounds which was 25% so 30% can be reserved for seniors there's also a minimum that 133% of the units that you're using have to be affordable to very lowincome households so what is a very low income household it's a household that's making 30% or less of the area median income which um Steve showed a while ago um so the you know it becomes a little bit like a a game you know you have to make sure that you've done all of these things you've you've provided the minimum amount of rentals you haven't Max maxed out on your seniors you know you provided your very low income you you provided for families um so next slide please so the next few slides I'm just going to sort of address some of the compliance strategies that have been used in Morris Township in the past and we may use them we don't know yet um but including starting with inclusionary zoning so this is something that maybe you saw at Honeywell or the former honey well in the former Colgate site where you have essentially it's a a market rate development with a percentage that is set aside for affordable um this could be for families it can be seniors it can even be special needs I've seen that uh it can be rental it can be ownership the one positive or you know among the positives of inclusionary zoning is it's undertaken by private developers so it it is not as you know the contribution from the municipalities standpoint may not be as as great as some of the other mechanisms um there's 100% affordable housing then that's something again um that has been done here and that means the set aside is 100% you know there's no market rate units um it's typically oh and actually I should say both of these are typically done through resoning or Redevelopment plans to allow this type of development um again 100% affordable can be for just about every um group and Rental or ownership often though with 100% affordable it's usually undertaken by a nonprofit but there's often some cooperation or contribution from the excuse me from the municipality in terms of you know maybe land or or some help or money from the um affordable housing trust fund that can be used to sort of help Finance the project project um next slide please so supportive and special needs um this is typically group homes you already have uh several within the townships oftentimes people don't even realize that there are group homes within their Community but you can use group homes um to address your obligation um they count as rental units and they're credited by the bedroom rather than you know so it's some uh group has five bedrooms it's not one credit it's five um then the next one is transitional housing this is new for this round and essentially my understanding is it was used basically to address homelessness problem uh and it's it's transitional housing it for people who are perhaps recently homeless um you have to provide Supportive Services on site it's not a shelter though because the minimum stay is at least six months so it's not sort of transient types of housing where people are coming and you know staying a week and then leaving it it has to be a minimum stay of six months uh next slide please accessory Apartments um this is something you know this is people have Apartments over their garage or they have um a guest house even or or something like that it seems like it would be very easy way to provide a lot of housing the problem is or what has been an obstru I shouldn't say it's a problem but what has sometimes impeded it uh production of these units is they must be deed restricted so the person has to be living in it has to be of low and moderate income and it has to be what they call affirmatively marketed which means that you can't just say well my it's my my mother and she's low income I want her to live here and that counts it has to be well we went out to the whole region and advertised this unit and you know we essentially weren't being too selective I guess is one way of putting it um so there are accessory apartment programs that we we've worked in communities that have done them they haven't always been as successful as as you would think there's also by law a a minimum um municial contribution um Market to afford affordable this is another one I've actually we've talked about it but I've never really seen it um so far but that's essentially when um you know somebody usually the municipality purchases units and that uh market rate units and then it sells them or rents them to low and moderate income households and so that typically requires some contribution from the municipality uh next slide please so assisted living and you have them here um per the state law you every assisted living facility has to require or has to provide of all the beds in the assisted living facility 10% have to be for recipients of Medicaid waivers and those recipients um count those beds count because the unit of credit is the bed so if the Medicaid the number of Medicaid beds count as affordable housing credits um and they're counted as uh senior credits so they go towards you know when I said the maximum 30% of seniors so it it would become under that 30% umbrella um the next is extension of affordability controls um this is again this is when um affordable units the the deed restricting the units to being affordable if it it they usually have expiration dates if that expiration date is occurring during the round you know between 2025 and 2035 there's um an opportunity potentially to extend that affordability control on the different units and for every affordability unit that you extend you get a level of credit uh next slide please you know if I could use my third and last Interruption real quick yes the the uh Drive Paul crazy and that's not the only reason I do it but it's one of them they the the the the uh the term Municipal contribution was mentioned a few times and Ju Just to be clear uh if and when our Township has to make a contribution uh for 100% affordable housing project or or what have you uh uh the uh those monies come from our affordable housing trust fund and the monies for the affordable housing Trust fund come from residential and non-residential developers who get approvals from our land use boards and in order to develop that significant fees have to be paid and that money is not only received hence not tax dollars from our residents uh but not only received by us but it has to be used it's hot and burning you have to spend it so so uh I want everyone to understand that that's where uh the municipal contribution comes from also I will say that uh there's o other funding sources grants low-income housing tax credits and the like to help reduce any potential necessary Municipal contribution and the township uh and I know I'm not objective uh but the township does a phenomenal job in all aspects of affordable housing including maximizing that affordable housing trust fund and utilizing it appropriately and by Township I mean governing body and our administrators so I I think three I I actually I think I got a little plug and maybe a bonus credit myself on that third one but uh I'm looking around but I'm done thank you okay I'll try to be done by eight um I was done by 7:30 plus plus all the interruptions anyway so so the the bonus credits I just want to go through that really quickly is that um you can address a portion of your obligation through bonus credits which is great I you know it it it's helpful and so just again I think I mentioned this already but for the 400 unit obligation we have for the third round 100 25% of that 400 was actually just bonus credits so it's not actually new additional units it's it's bonus credits the one unfortunate thing is all I think almost all of them were rental bonuses and this new law has done away with rental bonuses so that's unfortunate um but if next slide please we got bored um oh we all right so you can still get a one for one bonus and by that I mean for every unit you get a a bonus for special needs housing for Market to affordables um and for 100% affordable uh Housing Development you get half which means you know you get the unit and then a half a credit for everything listed there which is part you know partnering with nonprofits um see I can't even read it this yeah senior senior thank you um sites within a half a mile Transit um senior units Redevelopment of commercial sites um excess very low as I said you have the 133% you have to provide for very low income if you provide 15% you get um some bonus excess three bedroom units that's a whole another story but essentially there is state law which requires in aordable housing developments a certain bedroom distribution and some portion of them have to be three bedrooms so let's say you were had to provide 10 three bedrooms and you provide 12 you get some bonus credits for those two that you provide provided in excess of what you're needed to um and then you would also get bonus credit from the extension of affordability controls um and at that point at this point I know we' we've bombarded you with a lot of information um but I think we would like to open up for question I have an just an audience question since I've been St home and that was great and comprehensive but show of hands who's head is spinning after that it's really all I'm going to say is that did a great job and it's it's really hard not to go through all the particulars but it's very complex the rules have changed where're uncharted waters a little bit going forward because not everything in the law is clear and it still has to kind of play itself out but I think what's really important here is that stepen Liz kind of went through the history the new legislation the fact that we have been a complying municipality through all the rounds and we fully intend to be a complying municipality in in the next round are we ready for questions yeah the way we'll do questions is we'd ask you just I will come around with the microphone to you we limited just one question and then we have all of you in here and then we have another 50 or so people on Zoom so we'll just go from person to person with that sir U thank you I am Alan mcalpin five Armstrong Road um the question really is where are you going to put these uh multifam units are you going to co-mingle them with uh single family zoning or are you going to have a separate area that is primarily dedicated to multifam units the neighbors um and uh with whom I live are very interested in in consistency that is to say that single family um zoning remains just that and that uh multifam zoning is unto itself something someplace else otherwise you have a tremendous amount of architectural dislocations or a better word architectural mess thank you I'll take a shot so there's no oniz fits all here and the driving force that I think will answer your question uh is the vacant land analysis when we do the vacant land analysis we will look at uh the sites that are available meet all the thresholds that Liz uh set forth um and we will see whether or not they're are there significant acreage on these vacant sites after deducting for environmentally sensitive areas in other words do they qualify as a site that really needs to be counted towards your uh realistic development potential uh at that point the sites will be looked at IND individually uh you don't municipality is not obligated even though it's part of the vacant land adjustment to actually have inclusionary zoning on those vacant sites but as was explained by both Steve and and Liz it's all a numbers game and if you don't need it there you still have the obligation so you got to meet it somewhere else so all these issues as to whether the site number one is suitable whether it's suitable any form of affordable housing let's and assume for the moment that it's inclusionary what could it realistically accommodate understanding that there may be uh contiguous single family homes uh what would be the appropriate density all these factors will be taken into account when the municipality actually gets its number does its vacant land adjustment and then tries to put together basic essentially a plan to meet the obligation and again that plan includes all the various mechanisms that Liz went through so there's no sort of one simple answer to the question uh but all of the properties that are part of the vacant land analysis will be evaluated to deter determine whether or not they're suitable and if so whether they're suitable at what kind of parameters meaning density buffers setbacks and so forth if I could add one thing for please correct me if I'm wrong but uh while at least in my opinion and I think I'm in the vast majority uh the way the Mount Laurel Doctrine is enforced Statewide and municipality wide doesn't have much to do with planning it has to do with numbers uh this Township our Township uh and particular kudos to our planners uh and I'm I'm not just trying to Curry favor after the three interruptions uh we continue to focus as best as we can within those constraints on sound planning uh so uh while that's not a specific answer to your concern um uh it's another way of saying we're going to do everything we can uh to make sure that the planning is sound not withstanding the fact that it's a numbers game and I hate that phrase and I just used it um because that's what's That's the Way Mount the mount Laur Doctrine is Oppo imposed uh at least uh thus far sir the v 69 independent way uh do the taxables from these units offset the cost of services from the the municipality that's beyond the realm of affordable housing certainly uh uh there are property taxes and I don't I've never Quantified the incremental additional municip services for affordable housing versus other housing and and the like but I might be able to help believe it or not I can help I I believe it we have a we have a fourth expert and that's our administr so each of the units has an assessed value to them such as your own homes if you're not in there so all of those assessed values go into a larger number that use every year to determine what our taxes are going to be and it's divided by that grand total number so yes they are you know contributing based on the assessed value of the unit just as you are contributing B on the base of what yours is valued at and so their taxes like yours goes towards the municipality the schools the county open space so they are contributing and it's again it's the same methodology it's based on the assessed value of the property okay I don't know if that answers it but that's the methodology I don't know about you but I always hope the value of my home here in the township is very high except four times a year uh Charlie Robinson 90 Constitution way I saw that there was a recent lawsuit filed by nine communities against the the new Act led by Montel yes um do you think it has any Merit and do you think it's going to delay any of this process um Paul's gonna answer the the let's just say that um our Township at least as of yet hasn't signed on to that litigation uh and uh our Township in my opinion always makes very wise decisions um so uh and by the way if there's any Merit to that litigation ultimately and if it Bears any fruit uh the uh that fruit will be borne by all municipalities including our Township but I wouldn't bet on it and I want hold my breath Joyce Marton from um Liberty greens I'm a new Resident to the area I've been in another town very close by that's putting putting up with the same laws and regulations and um don't you think there strength in numbers as far as other towns you know you you this is a serious matter and I'm just thinking if every municipality got involved maybe there would be some leeway or some changes in this law it it's again while Anything Can Happen uh nobody can guarantee just about anything uh the uh there was there was a Consortium in the third round um there have been other lawsuits I'm intimately familiar with them uh this is a statute now uh that the courts cannot change uh even the Supreme Court of the state of New Jersey even the Supreme the United Supreme Court uh so uh is there strength in numbers um you know I'm I'm sure that many municipalities are behind the effort um but ultimately uh I think policy is is uh I'm just a consultant and a resident um but I think it's uh I think it's uh best to be smart with utilizing the resources you have to affect you a uh a real outcome uh and uh and I'm confident that our Township my Township is doing that I just have one other to add on to that how can the residents of a town take advantage you know the seniors the young people coming out of college that fall into those Realms is it by County or do you have to put your name on a housing list Statewide I mean you know a lot of seniors would like to stay in their town and you know they probably do qualify but I don't know if they put their name on the list would they be able to stay in their town or would it be the next opening somewhere anywhere in the state of New Jersey well and I'm far from an expert on that practicality I know there are others here who could speak to it better but I don't believe frankly you can get a preference so to speak um because uh but but beyond that I can't offer much so I apologize but maybe others can there is it goes I by region um so I think we are in region two am I correct so it would be more of our this region which is a section of Northern New Jersey um would be part of that as to where you would be you know on the list for um getting the affordable housing right I just wanted to say so the region includes not only moris County but Essex County War County and un yeah right well I think yeah we're we're we're we're Southern Northern if you will but in any event it's a large when we say region it's not just Mor's Township in the immediate towns around it it's it's a much larger area and we have resources on the website please correct me from wrong Tim that you know where you can go to inquire correct correct we have a you know a number of different resources that are on our website whether it be four sale units and using the housing part in new New Jersey to facilitate that um and then we also have um on the rentals they're have the Colgate they have their own pza Associates that does that we have moris County Housing Authority Homeless Solutions that do rental so on our website are a number of different uh resources for finding housing whether it's to purchase or to rent thank you Ryan Gorman at Normandy Heights Road uh thank you first of all for remaining compliant for all of the rounds thank you for defaulting to that thank you for not joining the lawsuit thank you for complying in all respects and spirit as well and not wasting time and money on fighting something that really helps everyone so thank you very very much we appreciate it uh to the question about whether or not single family and multif family covers uh housing uh there's a lot of analysis out there basically large lot single family homes like mine do not cover our sewer and um and Road uh expenses on a cruel basis over time U multif family housing does um so I'm a drag but multif family housing actually contributes to the to the population I'm wondering as you're uh seeking to comply again and how you seek to comply again how do you get feedback from members of the township who maybe unlike the great group that's here tonight maybe isn't able to attend things like this um maybe some of the people who are benefiting from uh some of the affordable housing today or working two jobs taking care of families and whatnot not able to come out how how does the township go about getting feedback from those groups to understand how best to comply in a way that that meets the the Township's needs and desires well I just want to make the point that um we are in in an effort to try to get to everybody which as you can imagine does become harder but we know with this round coming up that we do want to try to so we the on the township committee want to try to make the effort to get to more residents find out families we're going to encourage more meetings where we do ask the public we want their opinion back um I have to be honest sometimes in a lot of the other things we do putting out surveys and all that we it's tough sometimes because the very people are trying to get to or the very people that could benefit are not they're not responding so we're going to make every effort we can and if anybody has any suggestions or again we're going to be setting up other meetings where we want to hear from the public as we move forward that's something that the committee wanted to really make sure that everybody understood because it's so complicated it's complicated to all the elected officials it's not easy I mean this is so we're just trying to be proactive having an initial meeting and then we're going to continue to do our best to educate everybody and help as many people as we can as we provide and do our commitment and and if I may an addition uh uh to what the township does Visa V uh uh over and above if you will as as you may know um the process itself uh has built in uh not only public meetings but public hearings throughout uh housing element and fair share plans are adopted uh uh before the planning board uh after public hearing a notice and opportunity to be heard and and questioning and public comment uh same with the adoption ultimately of zoning ordinances that would Implement such a plan so you have the built-in uh notice and and public uh uh uh input opportunities as well as any additional uh opportunities and Outreach that the township uh can effectuate but I think at this stage um it's best uh primarily in the hands frankly of of our planners to be able to as soon as we get these numbers and even before we're working on the B they're working I I can't take any credit they're working on the vacant land adjustment as we speak uh looking at the old one monitoring our current uh uh status Etc um but certainly once the numbers come in uh uh uh I think it's fair to say the vast majority of the initial work should be done by our planners uh and then uh you know move forward uh as a Township as to how best to effectuate satisfying our the obligation and and thank you uh obligation has a sometimes a negative connotation uh it's a rightful obligation obligations aren't necessarily bad things in fact I think often obligations are the best things they're the most important things for us to have but I apologize that wasn't the lawyer part of me that was the human being that's a different part do we know where the vacant or developer land is could you give us any ideas do you have like an inventory so we what we're doing right now St mentioned we we have a base of information that was prepared when we did the third round so literally as we're speaking because we're anticipating again the number we're going to get our number in October uh and the key thing for us is to basically address that RDP or realistic development potential so what we're doing now is we're updating that inventory because it's been the number of years since that plan was prepared and then once we have that inventory and apply all the uh factors that Liz went through we will then have some indication of what our realistic development potential will be number one and what are the sites that are part of that realistic development potential and then from there we will determine which of the sites may or may not be appropriate for some type of affordable housing whether it be 100% affordable whether it be for inclusionary uh at what kind of densities and will weigh that in addition to all the other potential mechanisms that we have including the bonus credits so I think as Steve so aply said not only is it complicated I think Liz said it as well It ultimately will end up being a numbers game it's almost like a little chess game that has to be played to find out what is the sort of the most efficient and beneficial and appropriate way to meet the obligation given the resources meaning the land resources and all the different mechanisms that are available to us to meet that obligation can I just add something the one thing I'd like to just make clear is the vacant land adjustment is separate from how we plan to address RDP so if you were to look like the vacant land adjustment for the third round is appended to the third round housing element which I believe is still on the township website so you could take a look it's it's in the appendix let's just say there we have in there I don't know where youing live I don't know but the the the parcel next to you is vacant and we have it in the vacant land adjustment as contributing to Our obligation that doesn't mean that we're going to take that land and put un on it's sort of very very separate in a way one is a somewhat almost academic exercise and then the other is what happens on the ground I mean the short answer I think what Liz is saying is that some of the vacant lands that we have to utilize based on the the regulations to calculate our RDP we may not think they're actually appropriate not withstanding that they qualify we have to count it we may not think that they're appropriate for whatever reasons for some type of Housing and particularly inclusion Area Housing but if we make that decision we have to make up that number that's assigned to that site somewhere else so again it becomes a numbers game um my name is Scott Ross of Columbia Park um a lot of questions but just the one um I'm assuming maybe we can these slides will be available but other than that um I think you said that the requirement for round one was around 200 the second round was 400 and the third round was 400 or am I completely wrong and by the way I believe the uh the the presentation don't hold me to it will be on the website by tomorrow okay but the question was um I'm s the fourth the third round you said that you basically used credits for the entire amount required I'm curious as over the full time how many units have actually been made available no we we didn't use what happened what there was a the first two rounds the first 12 years I think we had an obligation of 293 units which we met okay this is going back from 87 to 99 but we also had a we had a credit we had a 116 Surplus units that we applied to the third round and remember that third round number based on the RDP was 400 units so we basically applied that 116 to be able to deduct that from the 400 but yes and we don't know what the fourth round obligation is the 400 was the third round obligation and um when you are able to see the PowerPoint you'll see there is this chart showing actually the units um there there are actual actual units that were created and I misspoke I think the power point point will be on the website tomorrow it takes longer uh to uh get the recording together of this entire evening but the PowerPoint uh will be on the website tomorrow and we we anticipate the presentation as a whole beginning of next week we have to send it to our media person to format it and then we'll get it up on the website be right back thank you hi I'm Karen I live in pedmont court down the street in the M States and I was wondering if you could uh um talk a little bit about not only our section but maybe other ones that are coming or are some of the buildings are over 30 years and some are about to approach 30 years and how you're going to work on that also there's we have a lot of question s for you as far as Fe on court is there somebody that we can contact for them did I make a sure well I'll let did you have something to say Tim if there's specific uh questions about peon Court I can certainly handle those um if you want to reach out to me tomorrow or whatever I can leave you my card yeah but I think she's referring to the extension of affil yeah extensions of affordability controls and that is one of the mechanisms and as I think well I'm sure several know the the uh so about a year ago uh now almost uh the the uh uh we made an effort a very concerted effort uh to address uh extensions of affordability controls that we're expiring particularly with respect to the more State uh uh uh complex and uh a a deck assessment issue uh at the same time and uh we had come up with what we thought was a very good and beneficial way to uh extend the affordability controls uh provide monies for uh to offset the assessment for the decks uh and uh to sort of resolve a couple perhaps of uh uh issues and concerns uh uh in one Fell Swoop as they say um all I'll say is that uh the township did everything it could uh to be a party to such an agreement uh and uh it required fair share housing center and the homeowners association also to come to the table and one of those two did and one of those two didn't uh not withstanding the Township's efforts so we were unable to AFF effectuate what we had hoped to do at that time the expectation now is that we're constrained in essence to do it in a more Global sense with all developments whose affordability uh uh controls deed restrictions are uh expiring is the wrong term but hitting have recently hit or will be hitting the 30-year Mark uh uh and we're going to do it in the context of the fourth round uh uh and uh globally if you will uh and uh uh you know exactly how we do it uh I can't say yet only because well for a very good reason I don't know just like none of us could say exactly how we're which mechanisms and and to what extent and how we're going to employ them to satisfy uh the overall obligation that our Township is going to have for the fourth round which we don't know what it is yet um so sorry it's a little early but uh but uh uh I'm proud of the township for being this early and and and providing this opportunity for everyone uh uh uh to know what's going on and know the status literally as of today and as we find out more and develop more uh it's going to be an ongoing process uh certainly for the next uh my math is bad that's why I let Paul and Liz do the numbers 10 months or so nine months see there you go thank you Cecil Kent I live at uh 22 Woodruff Road uh we have very large Lots in this particular Township the only reason I know some of my neighbors is because I walk my dogs um but you had referenced the fact that we have the vacant lot or vacant uh properties uh inventory that is there what and then Liz said something about we don't really use that as a first option what are the things that you will be using and we will be putting out as uh resolutions from the township Etc or ordinances what are the things that you will use to start to implement some number you know let's just say a thousand they give us a thousand now what will we just can we not say a thousand I wouldn't mind having some neighbors that are teachers or fire people or policemen or people who you know that' be kind of nice to have some some neighbors like that you know not all retired people who you know have to walk their dogs to meet their neighbors so what are some of the other things that you are anticipating utilizing to try to you know bring into compliance our Township yeah I mean certainly list and and went through a list of different compliance mechanisms but I I guess it starts with the vacant land adjustment to see what is realistic literally our realistic development potential and then think you can go through the list I think Liz went through the list of potential mechanisms and I think I mentioned and questions some of these again the key is once we get the number once we complete the vacant land adjustment then we're going to look at the vacant lands potentially available to qualify we're going to look at other mechanisms that are available to us in addition to inclusionary development uh and that would be the potential for 100% affordable would be the potential for extension of affordability controls we know there are rental that not no longer rental bonus but other bonus mechanisms and again like the third round we will do this mathematical exercise and and numbers game to determine what is the most appropriate way in the Township's best interest to meet the obligation I wish I could give you a more definitive answer as we sit here but the the fact of the matter quite can is we're we're not there yet and I think the point of this evening was to show you all the mechanisms that are available to the township again to to meet that obligation 100% affordable housing combinations of market rate with affordable housing that's what we call in the short term used is inclusionary development and and that inclusionary is a good word right and and and that's meant to put market rate and affordable together integrated that was a part of the goal not just to have affordable housing but to have integrated affordable housing in areas in which uh everyone can Avail themselves of the approp Municipal services and and other services Transit shopping Etc uh Supportive Housing special needs housing uh uh for those most in need uh perhaps um and then extensions of affordability controls to ensure that existing affordable housing remains affordable housing you know and there are there are as Liz laid out there are bonuses for being uh close to Transit there bonuses for doing redevelop again all these numbers and let's face it uh as a as a practical matter you know the you know multif family housing and probably the densest M multif family housing on a relative basis probably should be near Transit if there if there are opportunities and again we've got to weigh all these potential factors again once we have a sense of our number and our realistic development potential and that's where those it will be very difficult and complex exercise to do this and you you know we will as we did in the third round lay out all the possibilities and options with the administration to basically come up with a plan that makes the most sense for the township and those bonus credits for Transit oriented Redevelopment uh uh uh 100% affordable uh those are perhaps obviously in the statute to incentivize municipalities to uh utilize those mechanisms uh at least up to the maximum permitted uh caps uh as much as possible Julie winter 210 non Kimble um can you explain to me um if uh there's a rent affordable rental unit or a affordable house that was purchased do it remain affordable forever or does that expire or if it's sold or person moves out sure there there there are statutes and cases but from in a general sense uh deed restrictions were for 30 years under the new uh legislation uh I believe it's the rental uh the uh presumptive deed restriction is going to be for 40 years and for owner occupied uh uh will be still 30 years but but that is a period of time in which a uh the deed is recorded in the county clerk's office hence the term deed restricted uh and that unit is uh restricted for affordable housing uh for that period of time 30 years now 40 years for rental prospectively um the law is such that uh uh for the vast majority of units given when the certificates of occupancy were issued uh post let's say 1987 or so um that the deed restrictions don't effectively expire um unless and until the municipality releases the unit from affordability controls uh and uh uh so that there is a basis for the municipality to uh require the the uh the uh units to remain deed restricted for affordable housing uh the municipality may also uh nevertheless uh utilize some affordable housing trust fund monies uh uh notwithstanding the ability to require it uh uh in order to provide quote unquote compensation uh in return for the extension of such affordability controls um also uh depending upon various factors but very broadly for the most part um if either units cannot be uh converted from affordable to market rate or if they are uh uh sought to be sold uh if they in the rare event that they can be sold for Market as opposed to aord able uh the recipient uh uh the owner selling would only get 5% of the quote unquote net profit on the sale and the municipality would get 95% you may have heard of a term called the 955 rule uh and that uh comes into play much more often than not based uh on mortgage documents that may have been entered into uh by the owner Andor the time in uh uh for which the certificate of occupancy uh was uh uh um issued I know sounds like sounds like a lawyer doesn't it but that's that's really what I was wondering your last uh sentence yeah thank you so that's sure sure sure good evening Junior Earl 20 gate house um thank you all first of all for extensive what's really creative work on this I'm sure that you're doing we as a resident we certainly appreciate that um I just wanted to go a little bit further it sounds like if you take the credits in line there's like 284 units or something right now and maybe those other 50 on the drawing board and I just wondered about that extension of affordability um now my head's spending more from what was just said but um I'm wondering how many of our current ones are at the 30-year period um and are subject to that potentially that need to have that extension to stay in the count I I don't have those numbers uh uh uh I was going to try to answer and and I but I have a guest and I know somebody who has them verbatim but but I I was going to try to answer the what I thought might have been the first question because there might have been some misunderstanding as to the current status and the numbers but uh effectively from the third round our total obligation was 767 units the RDP a you know putting aside the unmet need that can be addressed in a more I say passive way if you will that was addressed with overlay zones and like that 400 RDP uh uh uh was utilized uh uh basically rental uh bonuses of aund there were 100 credit bonuses utilized and I'm cheating because I'm looking at the chart you're all going to have tomorrow although I think it's actually in our housing helment fair share plan already on the website but you'll also have it again tomorrow um that that uh uh total 400 units for the third round was made up of a 100 bonus credits uh uh our planners were excellent in putting together what I call a matrix and maximizing all the bonuses and the minim minimum and maximum caps in the like uh and uh ultimately there were 300 units that I had to be satisfied some of which were satisfied I believe with Surplus credits from the first and second round uh so ultimately there was a smaller number of units that were actually uh uh required to be constructed uh and uh and by required I mean a fair share you know when we talk about a numbers game affordable housing is good it's needed uh every uh municipality should have affordable housing every municipality should have it including our Township should have it's fair share people can disagree what is a fair share um but pursuant to the regulations we're given we can afford ourselves of these bonus credits and the like uh so uh uh the vast majority of the projects that were slated to cover that couple of hundred or so units that needed to be satisfied and by way of construction in our third round the vast majority of them have already been constructed now we could be fully compliant with 50 out of a few hundred units actually having been constructed you're compliant if they're in your plan and many towns out there are fully compliant and they'll say oh we're just like Mars Township we're fully compliant well the vast majority of municipalities are not as fully compliant I'm sorry I'm not I'm more into being a resident and but then and being competitive but than our Township is because our Township is not only fully compliant with a plan that addresses uh realistically uh the satisfaction of Our obligation both from a realistic development potential and unmet need uh perspective but we've actually constructed I think the numberers close to if not 80% of those units and by the way the rest of them why haven't they been constructed yet through no fault of our townships um uh where we can't necessarily just build them all uh the um uh uh what was the movie if you build it they will come you know if you put it in your plan they will build it well not always um but hopefully they will and if and when ultimately they don't we'll have alternative in the fourth round are there any other question I got on the soap box there a little bit again hi my name's Linda Derne and I'm live in the Moore State and I apologize but um when you made the initial introductions of the people speaking um I know that Mr Warner is the attorney for the planning boards and the affordable housing board uh well almost I am the attorney for the planning board and I am the affordable housing Council for the township there is no affordable housing board so to speak in any municipality okay that was one of my questions on the on the other part of the question of two other presenters are planning board Township planners we Township planners okay so the township planter planners excuse me are employees of the township they're not uh volunteers it's not a volunteer board or not either and I work for a consulting firm that's been appointed by the as Township planners and as part of that role we've been charged with assisting the Township in in putting together its affordable housing and I also am a consultant per se as the planning board and the affordable housing attorney the the and uh but we have wonderful residents uh two of which are on the day this evening uh with us uh and others in the audience and elsewhere um who do volunteer uh their time and efforts uh days and nights uh uh uh to comprise our planning board and our Zoning Board of adjustment but we're a board and Municipal professionals uh uh uh for and I neglected to me because Tim had some actual numbers uh that came up earlier I apologize are you referring to the number of units that may be subject to the affordable controls extensions yes it's during this R next round it'll probably be approximately 175 units and those are the owner occupied units not the not the rental units yeah th those that would be the approx number of uh uh existing deed restricted affordable housing units that would meet if they hav an already would meet the 30y year mark during the course of the fourth round uh well that's actually a credit to attention because we started building affordable units back in 1988 um many many municipalities started in the last five or six years so um but you know they and some not yet and some not yeah some are still trying to figure out the third round number and you know we did it uh back in 2018 so any other questions from could you pass this down hi Mary V from Liberty greens I just wanted to know if you're only looking at vacant land what about existing structures or commercial buildings that might somehow um be available short answer is yes okay um and uh there's always the potential for uh Redevelopment and we do recognize as planners in our familiarity with the township very often uh buildings uh become have not been in acuse or occupy for some time and again depending upon the site the context they may be appropriate to provide affordable housing so that will be uh looked at as well when we basically consider all options is conducted Etc in this CL so I think the short answer is when we're doing our initial investigation of looking at potential sites we certainly be cognizant of issues with regard to impacts on neighbors whether the site is on a road that can handle traffic as opposed to being on a local Road uh all those factors in terms of um suitability of a potential site will come into play uh ultimately somewhere down the road if it becomes more of a reality in terms of a site uh then we may take a a little bit of a harder look at issues with regard to traffic and ultimately as you're probably aware if a site is actually selected goes into the plan and is reson uh if someone go goes forward to develop the site then they will ultimately have to provide a traffic analysis and study and expert testimony when they would appear before the planning board there would always almost always if not always be a land use board application process that many people are already familiar with um before anything comes to fruition you much yeah I'm uh Jim Brad wall drive just up the street uh I have a question about uh either an individual or a family that feels that they qualify or may qualify for affordable housing they may come from this area previously they may come from a different part of the country what is their Avenue can you walk us through how that individual who says well perhaps Mars Township perhaps these other towns would be suitable for our needs how does that how does that individual uh go about trying to secure affordable housing Tim Needs a spot up on the days no no no it's just useless information waiting to be pulled out no um the township has an administrative agent for the four sale units it's the Housing Partnership of New Jersey so if we have somebody that wishes to purchase a unit they meet with the people from the housing part ship of New Jersey they have to provide their financial data like such as tax returns and everything else how many people live in the household and then they will qualify them whether they're low or they're moderate and then they'll work with them if they do qualify with finding a unit in our area and facilitate the sale for that unit if it's a rental and they are like we have the seniors up in moris Muse that is conducted by the moris County Housing Authority it's a very similar process they would have to apply to the Morris County Housing Authority again provide their financial data they would then look at them to see if they do qualify if they do qualify try to find them housing whether it's in moris Township with the moris County Housing Authority it could be they have several places other places in Mars County um where they have available units uh those units are primarily available for seniors but then we also have Homeless Solutions that we work with and Habitat for Humanity and it's again it's the same process they meet with representatives from those agencies provide the financial data to see if they qualify if they do qualify then they find them as a unit that they would qualify whether it's a low or a moderate unit so they would start with this building right I am what's every municipality has to have what's called a municipal housing Lea on and and that is one of my roles and I can certainly provide you with that information but I would then if you're going to want to Pur a a unit then I would refer you to the Housing partnership in New Jersey to meet with their professionals to see if they qualify if it's a rental if it's seniors we'll go to Morris County Housing Authority if not we'll either go to P's Associates which manages the one over at the former Colgate site or Homeless Solutions that has several different ones like on Jean Street here in in Marsh Township I can help answer a little bit too because I'm a councilman shanon bur and I'm on a affordable housing subcommittee we have um I think one of the big things about affordable housing that people don't think about is that it's based to also put on income right so when you said the low medium and high a lot of people don't know don't know what that means what it is is that your your town has a range of of income it's each Town's different so like chattan Burrow's high level of affordable housing gets up to like $100,000 a year that's still affordable housing and so it's divided in it is in ch bur I am on the committee um no I think it's region yeah yeah and and coun you're you're not wrong the only I think mistake just for clarity might have been that it's not by municipality it's by region okay sorry I apologize on the reion but I think that's a very important thing for people to know about affordable housing because they think it's like a bunch of you know low-income people coming over communities it's not necessarily the case right and like with ours we had the ivy if you're familiar with the ivy um it was like a lottery we had like over 3,000 people apply for like 36 spots and they picked it based upon a lottery uh and that's how it got assigned so I mean there's various ways to do it um but I just I I think that's important that you know people really like oh there's it it can be done many different ways yeah and and please do uh one of the reasons we had those couple of PowerPoint slides that talked about what constitutes very low low and moderate income uh in Mars Township and our region uh and and and how much residents pay for affordable housing uh be it Rental or or or sale prices uh was in particular as I highlighted was was to show that uh I'm willing to bet the vast majority of people thought that it was a the incomes were lower uh and the amounts paid for rent were lower and the sale prices were lower uh uh Workforce housing as I said uh uh we're uh affordable housing is a significant portion of and those who qualify for affordable housing are a significant form of our significant uh amount of our population all right we going to go over to the zoom so if anybody we have two hands raised on Zoom so uh we'll take Brian Morgan hi can you hear me yes hi um yes so thanks I appreciate this presentation and thanks for the work today just a quick note when the town planners are begin speaking Us online we can't hear the first 15 to 30 seconds that they're speaking it's very very quiet so just a heads up we hear the attorney loud and clear so just want to make sure that was clear um so my question um was around uh the highlands uh nor Township is in the highlands planning area as opposed to the preservation area and I know mors Township hasn't adopted the Highlands Regional master plan but it's my understanding that there's a benefit for adopting that master plan that potentially applies beneficial credits against these against the obligations that you're talking about here uh with the understanding that it's going to give a commitment for greater land preservation um I was just wondering uh and I fully appreciate what other folks have said fully appreciate that again there is a greater benefit to fulfilling the housing requirements and I don't want to underestimate the general good that that would apply but I was just wondering if there's any serious consideration or investigation into the benefits of adopting adopting that Highlands master plan knowing it could be a big win for the township environment by preserving some of the open space and making the planning a bit less challenging the and I only quote part of it but I if essentially the question was should the township uh uh uh be uh because it's discretionary given that we're in the planning area not the preservation area uh become a Highlands uh uh conforming municipality with a Highlands V plan there are numerous arguable pros and cons to doing so uh the Township has considered it uh and at least as of yet has not made a determination that it would be uh beneficial for the township uh to to do so uh so that that's really where it stands yeah Brian and it's an ongoing conversation here in the township as you know and I know um on the part of sometimes there's frustration on that piece of it but there are we've had the discussion I think will continue to those discussions and I know for a while there when it first came up I don't I don't want to speak to the accuracy of if you're in does it benefit you as far as the affordable housing piece or not because I know there's been discussion on that but we will continue in the township here to have those discussions Mr O'Reilly now can you hear me yes yes Jim O'Reilly Liberty greens you said something I may have not gotten it straight I thought every municipality in New Jersey would be subject to the open I mean to the affordable housing process but you said something about 300 or so participating maybe I misinterpreted the context I I might be able to help a little bit there's 564 municipalities in the state of New Jersey only 564 municipalities in the state of New Jersey um the the uh uh the what the number I was referring to I think uh in the third round they ended up being approximately uh and they're still settling some third round uh uh uh cases but in the third round there uh fair share housing center has settled approximately 350 with 350 municipalities ities uh so that they have been assured of uh uh compliance with their third round obligations and at least for the time being immunity from Builder remedy suits out of the additional I'm not going to do the math couple of hundred uh the the um a number of those are uh is it AB not Abbot um Urban Aid thank you blanked Urban Aid municipalities that I guess for all intents and purposes do not have an affordable housing obligation or deemed Satisfied by virtue other than rehab so so that's a portion of the additional approximately 200 and then some frankly uh uh they're still uh uh they're still vulnerable I guess is perhaps one of the ways if not the best way to say it um and uh are uh either in the process of negotiating resolutions or not um or having those to roll the well yeah and and some municipalities are getting those resolutions imposed upon them uh and again to go back to one of the points I made at the outset uh home rule our Township uh we have control over the location of uh uses including uh residential uses including affordable as well as market rate residential uses we have control over over the regulations setbacks Etc coverage Etc uh and we have control over the location uh uh and uh it's something we would never want to lightly uh give up in my opinion so thank you sure thank you Mr O'Reilly we have one other hand raised I it say it's sha or Shay if you could provide us with your full name yes hello um right I live on M Road Street just wanted to know if you are able to answer this question um is there going to be any priority on Long residing residents here as opposed to a newcomer who just wants to uh live in the area needs the affordable housing or is that um is it just kind of open in a lottery by region yeah I think and again I why do I always say I'm not the expert and I'm the first one to jump in but but that that requires neither a a lawyer or a planner but a different professional I think to figure that out but the the the um uh but uh the law is such that there cannot be discrimination or preference uh which is another way of saying discrimination uh so you cannot give a priority or preference uh to to residents of the municipality um but beyond that the specifics others can get into more detail but the direct answer to the question is not because anybody might not want to it's because nobody can do that okay thank you thank you uh we have one last hand raised on Zoom Chris can you hear me yes right this is actually Terry Hina um I'm wondering a couple of questions and comments is the township being a little disingenuous um because they were actually sued twice back in the 1980s by fair housing and that's how the mo estate came into being and somewhere in the 20 2021 I think there also was a lawsuit brought by fair housing having to do with the Red Bull property because the township had not actually compiled its numbers correctly that's number one where you sued I I I I can answer number one uh uh uh this Township is not my Township is not disingenuous in my opinion uh number one but but uh number two to number one uh we did have a slide where I did explain in Fair detail uh the fact that in 2021 we had a litigation commenced by fair share housing Corporation with respect to the Red Bulls facility and and and the former Honeywell headquarters site and I explained how that was settled uh as far as the 1980s litigation my apologies for not mentioning that um frankly I wasn't involved at the time and I wasn't candidly aware of it um but certainly no one's being disingenuous in my opinion my other understanding is that there was a lawsuit brought um directly aimed at uh questioning whether or not a Township could unilaterally extend their 30-year restrictions and according to that lawsuit a Township could not unilaterally extend the 30-year restriction on their deeds that if you're referring to a case in Piscataway that decision only applies based upon when the certificates of occupancy were uh uh issued uh and there are other decisions more recent uh State beat writer REI t r and others uh that make clear that municipalities uh do uh have the authority to continue affordable housing deed restrictions beyond the 30-year period uh and that only the municipality can release same uh okay so suppose someone bought their unit 30 years ago no one told them the municipality had to release them um and they did their financial planning for 30 years on what they were going to do when their unit was going to go to market value now the township turns around to those 600 and some odd people who are due to sell theirs at market value saying oh no we're not going to allow you to do this we're going to keep you Inver we're not going to allow you to accumulate wealth like the rest of the township can because that's how you accumulate wealth is through the appr the by your by the ownership of property as it as it goes up every year so now you're saying you want to keep these people in Prof Pro poverty so that you don't have to build any more affordable housing in your in in your in your community in the meantime these people have been good citizens they paid their taxes Chris oh I mean I'm sorry Terry Terry um I would I I understand what you're trying to say I would disagree at this time that we the township anybody's trying to keep people in a situation that they couldn't do better um and happy to talk to you further about this more offline as it is nine o'clock and um happy to take your information excuse me but I have been sitting waiting patiently for all the people who were already there asking questions I think I think I I want it on the record that believe it's immoral and unethical and I was one of those people 30 years ago that I fought to get the Republicans out of power so that there would be transparency here in mois Township and we find out that the Democrats are just as bad if not worse than the Republicans in power Chris again it's nine o'clock and that's really what we allotted and I'd be happy to have a further discussion with you offline I think you'll have to probably have to talk to my attorney at this point we are going to close um the questions and we do appreciate those who were on Zoom we always take iners questions first but what I'd like to do at this time is first I'd like to very much thank our presenters again they did an incredible [Applause] job and also I'd like to um also thank Town Administrator Tim Quinn because he too has so much knowledge on this issue but more importantly I think we the township committee want to thank all of you for are coming out and we believe we are the furthest thing from being disingenuous especially in bringing this issue to you early enough so that we do get feedback and that that's our intent so we hope you all have a great night and we look forward to after the planners have done all their work and um we look forward to further discussions yes so thank you very much have a great night