Boro to challenge state's new housing mandates
COAH sets Eatontown's affordable housing quota at 490 units
BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer

EATONTOWN — The borough is expected to file an independent challenge to the state's new affordable housing mandates after learning that Eatontown's quota has nearly quadrupled.

The council came to a unanimous decision at its Aug. 7 workshop meeting to issue the challenge against the state Council on Affordable Housing's (COAH) recently adopted round-three affordable housing regulations.

The council is expected to pass a formal resolution approving the challenge at its next public meeting on Aug. 20, and the challenge will be heard in the state appeals court, according to the borough's COAH attorney, Jeffrey R. Surenian, of the Wall Township-based Jeffrey R. Surenian and Associates.

"The appeal will be an independent challenge on behalf of the borough, challenging the numbers that have been assigned to Eatontown for its affordable housing component," Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo explained.

Surenian is also representing the New Jersey League of Municipalities (NJLM) in a separate case that is challenging the methodology by which COAH develops a town's affordable housing obligation under its new round-three regulations.

The regulations, which were adopted by COAH in June, call for the state to provide 115,000 units of affordable housing by 2018. The state's previous requirement was 52,000 units.

Eatontown, which is a member of the NJLM, has pledged $500 to help pay for legal fees for the organization's appeal.

According to Tarantolo, the borough's independent challenge will focus on the number of units that Eatontown was assigned as a result of COAH's new regulations.

Under previous COAH guidelines, the borough's affordable housing obligation was estimated at 92 units. That number nearly quadrupled to 490 affordable units after COAH passed its new regulations.

"We suspect that the data [that the 490 unit quota] was based on was incorrect," Tarantolo said. "We're challenging it and will provide information that clearly identifies that the data used was incorrect."

During the Aug. 7 meeting, Surenian explained that the information COAH used to establish Eatontown's affordable housing requirement was flawed.

According to Surenian, COAH has said that the borough has 436 acres of developable land, which could be used to construct affordable housing units within Eatontown.

Surenian explained that further study of the 436 acres showed that they are in fact already developed, or are parts of land that are already developed.

When establishing the number of developable acres available in Eatontown, COAH officials failed to take into account property lines, Tarantolo added.

As a result, the agency declared land that is currently part of the borough's open space inventory, private residence's front yards and backyards, schoolyards and highway medians as developable land.

"By having our own case, we are able to present the facts about Eatontown," Surenian said. "It has always struck me that Eatontown demonstrates what went wrong with the Mount Laurel Doctrine."

Surenian went on to state that COAH's affordable housing requirements are obligations that are imposed on communities under the premise that they have excluded low- and moderate-income households.

"Your doors have been open to people of all incomes," Surenian told the council.

COAH was created in 1983 as a result of a series of state Supreme Court rulings known as the Mount Laurel Decisions.

The agency establishes a municipality's affordable housing requirements based on the town's wealth, available land, employment opportunities and fiscal capacity.

COAH's new regulations are the result of a state Supreme Court ruling, which stated that its previous regulations were "insufficient" in addressing the state's affordable housing needs.

As a result of the recent court decision, Surenian said that COAH "came up with a new mouse trap that at the end of the day makes no sense."

Since its creation, COAH has adopted three series of regulations aimed at creating affordable housing throughout the state.

Round-one regulations focused on creating reasonable opportunities for affordable housing through the municipal zoning ordinances.

The agency's second-round regulations focused primarily on the rehabilitation of existing housing stock.

COAH's round-thee regulations call for enhancements to the agency's previously established growth share element.

The growth share element requires that as a municipality grows, its affordable housing obligation must grow with it.

Under COAH's previous regulations, Eatontown was required to provide one unit of affordable housing for every eight units of market-value housing developed within the borough.

Under the agency's new regulations, Eatontown must instead provide one unit of affordable housing for every four units of market-value housing developed within the borough.

COAH's new regulations also call for one unit of affordable housing to be developed for every 16 jobs created in the borough. Previous regulations called for one unit of affordable housing to be built for every 25 jobs created in the borough.