New Jersey is in a housing crisis. The cost of rent and homeownership are out of reach for many residents, driven by supply constraints and zoning restrictions, and exacerbated by the rush for the suburbs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, New Jersey residents have consistently flagged a high cost of living, housing affordability, and homelessness as some of the top threats to the region.
While the housing crisis is multi-faceted and will require multiple strategies to address, one approach that has been taking hold across the country and the state is the legalization of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).
ADUs are smaller, independent living units that are either attached to or detached from a single-family home. They create new housing options within the context of existing neighborhoods and present an unobtrusive, homeowner-driven approach to increasing housing supply.
Expanding housing options by legalizing ADUs has a number of benefits: they allow younger and older people to live in smaller homes that meet their space and budget needs; enable families at a range of incomes to afford homes in places that are close to their jobs; help multi-generational families stay together; and enable homeowners to generate passive income to help pay the bills. This one simple zoning policy can help create inclusive communities where a diversity of people can live, work, raise a family, and age in place.
ADUs also benefit municipalities as well as their residents. Increasing density where housing already exists reduces per-unit infrastructure expenses for utility and transportation capital projects, generates income from permitting, and increases the property tax per square foot that the local government collects.
Who benefits from ADUs?
ADUs allow older adults to age in place and help multi-generational families stay together.
Evan Carter. This video was funded through a grant from The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation.
Due to their many benefits, ADUs are growing in popularity. States like California, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and most recently Connecticut have legalized ADUs statewide. RPA’s most recent Metro Area Issues Survey showed that 65% of New Jerseyans supported legalizing ADUs, but New Jersey does not yet have a law enabling their creation statewide. There is one short section of Municipal Land Use Law that allows persons 62 and older to rent a room or rooms in their single-family home to a single tenant but that statute is very limited and cannot produce the long term housing options our communities need.
In the absence of a state law, a patchwork of ordinances have been enacted and repealed over the past few decades. Several towns, such as Avon by the Sea featured in the video above, once allowed ADUs, but ultimately repealed their enabling ordinance. Existing units were grandfathered in, but construction of any new units was banned. At the state level, the first round of Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) rules enacted in 1994 under the Fair Share Housing Act encouraged municipalities to enable and financially incentivize the creation of ADUs as one strategy to meet a portion of their affordable housing obligation. However, by 2010 that component was deemed unsuccessfulas it required that the ADU be deed-restricted in the affordable housing program for ten years, which deterred homeowners from participating.
Currently, very few municipalities have flexible ADU ordinances. Maplewood, Princeton, Bradley Beach, and East Orange each allow for new construction, but their requirements and restrictions vary greatly, presenting different levels of difficulty for interested homeowners as illustrated by the chart below.
Comparing ADU Ordinances Across Municipalities in NJ
ADU requirements and restrictions vary greatly, presenting different levels of difficulty for interested homeowners.
*Note: At the time of publication in December 2022, several communities including South Orange, Montclair, and Newark had draft ordinances that had not yet been adopted. In 2023, both South Orange and Montclair adopted ADU ordinances.
Uniformly legalizing the creation of ADUs statewide would create predictability and consistency, which is necessary to ensure the efficacy of this creative housing tool. A statewide law would also create an economy of scale that would lower the cost of construction.
The good news is that the State Legislature has begun to take action. Housing champions Senator Troy Singleton and Assemblymembers Mukherji and Timberlake have each introduced legislation, and RPA has organized a group of business, industry, housing, and aging-advocate stakeholders working to help refine and pass a policy in the coming year. Senator Singleton’s bill, S345, has passed the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee, and is expected to be amended and advanced to the lower chamber by early 2023.
We are encouraged by this progress and hope New Jersey keeps on this trajectory toward more inclusive and more affordable communities for all.
From local to state, there’s a right-size for all
The New Jersey Statewide Age Friendly Collaborative’s Local Accelerator Group and RPA hosted a webinar to share how local efforts are leading to expanded ADU options across the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area, featuring Maplewood Mayor, Dean Dafis.
Regional Plan Association. This work was funded in part through a grant from The Henry and Marilyn Taub Foundation.
