Regional Plan Association was very excited to see the passage of a slate of housing bills signed into law earlier this week. As we wrote earlier this year, A4/S50 and other bills provide a variety of tools for municipalities, developers, residents, and other stakeholders that will facilitate the creation of much-needed affordable housing in New Jersey.
More than 300,000 of our residents are extremely low-income renters, and three-quarters are severely cost-burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing costs. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that New Jersey is short more than 200,000 housing units.
These laws will help ensure that we tackle this housing gap by creating one of the strongest affordable housing frameworks in the country. Briefly, the housing package includes
A4/S50 - Reforms municipal responsibilities concerning provision of affordable housing; abolishes COAH; appropriates $16 million.
A1495/S1484 - Exempts receipts from sales of materials, supplies, and services for certain affordable housing projects from sales and use tax.
A2267/S1415 - Requires HMFA to establish affordable housing insurance pilot program; appropriates $5 million.
A2296/S2309 - Permits municipality to authorize municipal clerk to submit certain written statements concerning affordable housing.
A3337/S2312 - Allows projects supported by State or municipal affordable housing trust fund to be exempt from property tax and to instead contribute to municipal services by making payments in lieu of taxation.
A3365/S1422 - Allows taxpayers to utilize alternative method of depreciation of certain expenditures in connection with construction of new affordable housing developments.
RPA applauds the enactment of these bills, and hopes to see similar progress this legislative session on reducing parking minimums by transit via S2974/A3043 and allowing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) statewide via S2347/1106.
