AVALON – In January the borough accepted the state’s fourth round affordable housing calculation, which stated that Avalon has an obligation for 31 affordable housing units for the period 2025 to 2034. The calculations, by the Department of Community Affairs, kicked off a process that also requires the updating of a Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, a statement of how the municipality will meet the obligation. This plan must be adopted and filed by June 30.

Avalon adopted three ordinances in 2018 during the state’s third round on affordable housing that governed its implementation of its first affordable housing plan. These ordinances provide for an affordable housing overlay in the B-1 zoning district, the borough’s primary business district.

The borough’s responsibility was to provide a reasonable opportunity for the development of such housing if a developer sought to create it. Assistant Business Administrator James Waldron said at a January council meeting that since the adoption of the 2018 ordinances, “no applications have been made by any developer to develop affordable housing.”

Avalon expects to be able to work the new fourth-round obligations into the existing housing plan from 2018 with what Waldron described at a council meeting May 28 as minor amendments to the existing ordinances. The borough expects to meet its deadline of adoption by June 30.

The affordable housing process was spelled out in legislation that Gov. Phil Murphy signed in March 2024. The legislation reformed the then-existing process for the future of the Mount Laurel Doctrine, New Jersey’s constitutional requirement that every town must provide its fair share of affordable housing.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.