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Affordable Housing Update from Mayor Dalina

Affordable Housing Update from Mayor Dalina: Monroe Successfully Negotiates Reduction in Round Four Obligation Builders Association Challenge Withdrawn

As a result of sound planning, open space acquisitions, farmland preservation, and improvements in state-wide affordable housing legislation, Monroe Township is in a very positive position for our Round Four (2025-2035) constitutional obligation to allow for affordable housing.

We were able to successfully lower our overall obligation with one of the largest reductions statewide from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ (NJDCA) recommended unit count. The Township is now putting forth a plan to meet its obligation, utilizing all available tools in state law, which equates to only 253 new total units (both affordable and market rate), as compared to more than 4,300 court ordered units in the prior round.

As you may remember, the 2024 affordable housing legislation established the framework for all municipalities to calculate their Round Four affordable housing obligations (2025-2035). Nearly 400 municipalities engaged in this same process.

In compliance with this new program, Monroe Township’s affordable housing planner calculated Monroe’s “prospective need” – the number of affordable units needed to fulfill our constitutional obligation.

That calculation came to 378 affordable units, dramatically lower than the 751 recommended by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (NJDCA). On January 29, the Township Council formally adopted our planner’s calculation.

In February, we shared that the New Jersey Builders Association and Fair Share Housing Center (a non-profit housing advocacy group) each filed challenges to our calculation. The Builders Association failed to conduct their own analysis and simply repeated DCA’s recommendation, seeking 751 units for Monroe. All parties were ordered to mediation with a retired judge overseeing the process.

I am pleased to report that the Builders Association have since withdrawn their challenge. I’ve publicly spoken about their disingenuous efforts to overbuild as much housing as possible which would’ve placed an undue burden on our community.

I’m also proud to share that the Township reached a fair and reasonable settlement with Fair Share Housing Center, agreeing on a prospective need of 460 units. This is much closer to our original calculation, and substantially below the NJDCA’s 751 recommendation and the 1,133 units ordered in Round Three (2015-2025).

Importantly, this number – 460 – is simply Monroe’s starting point for implementing a plan to meet our constitutional obligation. We have since worked to reduce our actual obligation for new

affordable units to 95 (of which 30 are senior units), with a negotiation for an additional 158 market rate units, for a total of 253 new units for Round Four.

The Township accomplished this by:

  • Utilizing 115 statutory bonus credits to bring our obligation from 460 to 345
  • Counting 250 existing affordable units that were not able to be counted in prior rounds
  • Requiring an inclusionary project to provide 30% affordable housing units to limit the number of market rate units. (65 affordable housing units and 158 market rate units)
  • Planning to construct a100% municipally sponsored affordable housing project (similar to Veterans Housing) to further reduce potential market rate units

Our legal obligation is to put the necessary zoning in place to allow the opportunity for inclusionary developments to be built. As we’ve seen in past rounds, however, actual construction is market-driven and often takes much longer than the timeframes of any Round.

Speaking of previous rounds – and in the best interest of the Township – my professionals and I are engaged in negotiations to reduce the number of market rate residential units from Round 3 that have not yet been built, without impacting our affordable housing obligation.

And in further good news, the Township has come to an agreement regarding the property at the corner of Butcher Road and North Disbrow Hill Road that will prevent the construction of a warehouse, allow for a public park, provide significant preserved open space and zone the parcel for residential development to help satisfy our Round 4 affordable housing obligation.

I take our affordable housing obligation very seriously and I confidently stand behind this revised proposal that effectively fulfills our constitutional obligation with as little impact as possible on our schools and infrastructure. If challenged as part of the required legal process, I will fight with every resource available in support of this plan.

We will continue to provide updates on our affordable housing compliance plans and share progress on our efforts over the coming months.