CAPE MAY – The city has accepted the state Department of Community Affairs calculation of its present and future affordable housing obligations. The present obligation is 46 units; the prospective need is 48 units.

The city will now be required to follow up the acceptance of these numbers by the City Council Jan. 22 with a fair-share housing plan that incorporates the obligations and describes how the city will work toward the goal.

By March 15 the city must adopt ordinances that will facilitate the implementation of the fair-share plan.

At the same meeting at which the council accepted the obligations, Mayor Zach Mullock used his annual State of the City address to underscore its need for more housing affordable to those who work in the city but cannot afford to live there.

“It will not be easy and it will not be cheap,” Mullock said, but it must be a city priority.

All municipalities in the state are required to accept or attempt to modify their proposed affordable housing obligation numbers by Feb. 3. The numbers can be challenged by interested parties until Feb. 28.

The housing obligation numbers are for the fourth round of what has become known as the Mount Laurel process, referring to a landmark state Supreme Court case from the 1970s on affordable housing.

On Thursday, Jan. 2, a Mercer County Superior Court judge denied a request from 26 municipalities to put the affordable housing process on hold while a lawsuit challenging the new law that outlines the process plays out. While the decision did away with the immediate threat to implementing the new law, the lawsuit challenging the law remains active.

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