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Independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett Thursday unveiled what he describes as a comprehensive plan for overhauling New Jersey’s affordable housing policies to prevent sprawl and to more closely align the goals with the objectives of the state master plan.
In unveiling his housing policy, Daggett said affordable housing needs to be located in centers and along transit corridors with ready access to jobs, transportation and recreation opportunities. He said the creation of affordable housing units should not conflict with other state policies, such as smart growth, open space preservation and infrastructure investment.
Daggett's housing policy recommends restoring so-called Regional Contribution Agreements, a practice where towns satisfied their affordable housing obligations by paying urban communities to build housing units, on the condition it results in new housing units in the urban area.“These agreements can fuel urban reinvestment and allow opportunities for affordable housing to be built in mass transit served suburban communities,’’ Daggett said. “RCAs for new units should be permitted statewide.’’
The Corzine administration in 2008 banned the practice of wealthy suburban towns unloading their affordable housing requirements on poorer urban centers.
‘’After 35 years, the landmark Mt. Laurel doctrine requiring municipalities to provide a fair share of affordable housing remains valid, but conditions are very different today,’’ Daggett said in Trenton. “It is time to develop affordable strategies that can be seamlessly woven into the fabric of State Plan (the master plan) policies and promote, rather than undermine, its goals.’’
Daggett's plan would mandate that once fair share housing obligations are met, a town's zoning could not be overridden by court decisions, as happened to Easthampton in Burlington County last month.
He said too often, the state’s current affordable housing regulations are driven by false assumptions and fail to account for new population trends. The state Council on Affordable Housing projects 52,000 new jobs will be created every year when, in fact, 65,700 jobs have been lost in New Jersey in the last five years, Daggett said.
To ascertain the real housing needs, Daggett said he would convene a Housing Policy Task Force, comprised of all hous ing stakeholders, to gather facts and accurate, updated data on housing trends, foreclosures in New Jersey, and other information needed to address the needs of workforce housing.
The plan also proposes that government should take advantage of current declining housing values to increase the supply of affordable housing before the next housing market upswing. Such market-driven strategies could include conversions of single-family homes to two-family homes. Single family conversions make more efficient use of existing housing resources and public infrastructure.
In addition, the plan recognizes the increasingly important role passenger rail would play in achieving smart growth goals. Daggett's plan proposes New Jersey invest in improving and expanding passenger rail service along existing commuter lines and reactivating lines that were discontinued during the time when the sprawl trend took hold.
— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
