Hardyston council talks affordable housing

HARDYSTON — The Hardyston Township Council voted on Wednesday, May 27, to join a municipal consortium, the first step in ensuring the the township meets its affordable housing obligations.

Joining the consortium also assures the township protects itself from affordable housing proceedings and challenges. The council will consider a formal shared service agreement at a later date.

Deputy Manager and Township Planner Carrine Piccolo-Kauffer said the township is contemplating filing a declaratory judgement with the New Jersey Supreme Court to seek approval of the township's housing element and Fair Share Plan to protect itself from a builder's lawsuit.

The declaratory judgement process is being considered due a Supreme Court decision in April. The Council on Affordable Housing was removed of having the authority to endorse the rules and administer the New Jersey Fair Housing Act, and gave it to the court system.

Kauffer also said the township must file a declaratory judgement by July 8 to guarantee additional compliance.

Currently, there are no authorized court-official affordable housing requirement numbers that municipalities and the courts can rely on. Due to this issue, boroughs will probably need to rely on outside specialists to determine what their fair share of the affordable housing obligations should be. In order to be prepared, at least 100 municipalities throughout the state are working together to go into a joint agreement with Dr. Robert Burchell from Rutgers University to establish public fair share housing numbers.

Burchell will be hired as an expert witness for those municipalities that are joining the groups. The cost to each municipality is likely to reach up to $2,000. Due to the possible cost, Burchell will produce an expert report in up to 90 days from being retained and establish his view of the proper way to determine each municipality’s affordable housing obligation.