WALL TOWNSHIP — At Wednesday’s Wall Township Committee meeting, the mayor announced that the township has received a 60-day extension to submit official affordable housing plans for the fourth round obligations of the Mt. Laurel Doctrine after being involved in litigation with the Fair Share Housing Center.
“We are involved in a couple pieces of litigation against Fair Share Housing Center,” Mayor Tim Clayton said. “The first is we’re part of a 29 town lawsuit against Fair Share Housing and trying to make it more palatable for the township.”
Mayor Clayton said a decision had come out the day of the committee meeting this week, one that allows the township to strengthen their legal case by refining oral arguments and continue advocating for fair affordable housing plans that fit Wall Township. The mayor also said that the township filed a motion with the Monmouth County Superior Court seeking an extension for affordable housing plans submission, which was successful and resulted in a 60-day extension.
“Not many towns have received an extension, however, we, Wall Township, which have been burdened with the most affordable housings in Monmouth County for the fourth round, which is really a burden to our community, on our infrastructure, on our law enforcement, EMS, the public works and every school system,” the mayor said. “It’s just too much to push on our town. They did give us a 60-day extension, which lets us take step back, review our plans and see what’s best for the town and see if there’s other options out there. So we’re not committed anyone or anything, and it just gives us more opportunity to try to build a more fair housing for our community. So that’s a couple good things on that. I don’t think density housing is ever good, that’s a personal opinion, I do not think it is, but that was just couple of the wins that that benefited us this week.”
The township also received clarifications on the directive from Fair Share Housing Center that allows for only drafts of zoning ordinance changes being needed by June 30, not final zoning ordinance changes.
“With this, they basically came out and said no, we can propose a draft for this,” the mayor said, “which helps us a lot, now we can put on or take off some of these people that want to build density housing here.”
The fourth round of affordable housing obligations is the most recent set of standards established by the Fair Housing Act and the Mount Laurel Doctrine, that requires municipalities to provide affordable housing in areas that need to support it, according to the New Jersey League of Municipalities. The fourth round spans 2025 to 2035, and requires that towns provide their “fair share” of affordable housing.
“This is being forced upon us by the state, so we’re trying to make it more community-friendly instead of just putting them somewhere because we have to reach a deadline, so that’s very helpful for us going forward,” the mayor said Wednesday.
At a special meeting back on Jan. 29, the township committee passed a resolution explaining that the township’s affordable housing planner, Kendra Lelie of Kyle + McManus Associates, had provided new developable land calculations for the township, after she deemed that land that the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) had previously included in calculations was “overinclusive.”
Correcting the land capacity allocation factor resulted in a reduction of Wall’s fourth round prospective need, or new construction obligation, from 744 units to 492 units, according to the planner. The township still accepted the DCA’s “present need” numbers — or rehabilitation obligations of current affordable housing — as 224 units. These new numbers do require approval by the courts.
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