Avalon Council Gets Update on COAH Litigation, Municipal Budget Introduced

AVALON – The public at the Feb. 22 Avalon Borough Council meeting heard Assistant Business Administrator James Waldron do his best to briefly explain the current state of the borough’s litigation regarding fair housing regulations. 
The borough has joined with a group of municipalities in an attempt to set its fair housing plan.
As Waldron explained, in 2015 a state Supreme Court ruling declared the state’s affordable housing process dysfunctional. It removed the executive branch Council on Affordable Housing (COHA) from jurisdiction over low and moderate-income housing.
The ruling effectively put the issue back under the courts.
Municipalities were given the right, Waldron said, to file declaratory judgment plans. 
In Atlantic and Cape May counties, 30 communities did so. These cases have been administratively consolidated, but Superior Court Judge Nelson Johnson has said he would hear each case separately on its merits.
This ruling came 40 years after the court’s first decision which established what has been termed the “Mount Laurel Doctrine” which dealt with the responsibilities of municipalities to provide their “fair share” of affordable housing without resorting to the use of zoning rules to block such developments.
A second Mount Laurel ruling then established a “builder’s remedy” option which comes into play if municipalities do not comply. 
Under that remedy, a community could be forced to allow more housing at greater densities.
The long period in which the state’s affordable housing rules were not functioning properly became an issue last month. That was when the Supreme Court ruled that municipalities were responsible for meeting the needs that accumulated during a 16 year “gap period.”
This ruling, along with the 2015 ruling that turned elements of enforcement over to the trial courts, has created uncertainty with respect to plans already submitted and awaiting judgment.
Complicating matters further, a temporary immunity given to towns that had filed for declaratory judgment, as did Avalon, has been extended in the past but now needs a new extension. Avalon’s immunity runs out March 31 if no further extension is granted. 
Waldron believes one will be forthcoming.
To continue the complications for the borough, the time delay and intervening rulings mean that many of Avalon’s reports have to be reviewed and recalculated due to changing circumstances over time.
The borough has retained its planning experts to modify the reports.
From the perspective of a shore community like Avalon, the dismantling of COHA and the intervening efforts by the courts to set requirements have brought approval of their fair housing plans to a standstill.
Some low-income housing advocates argue that shore municipalities have allowed a large number of demolitions and new construction while ignoring their responsibilities to low-income housing.
What prompted Waldron’s discussion with the council was a resolution on the business agenda to increase by $3,000 the amount the borough is paying in its shared litigation with other municipalities seeking its judgment and approval of a plan. “
No one could afford to fight this on their own,” Waldron told the council.
The legal action seeks to continue the municipality’s immunity from lawsuits while the borough awaits review from the court on its affordable housing plan.
Waldron also reported that a bill has been introduced in Trenton to address the matter through legislation, but few expect a legislative solution any time soon.
It would be a complex piece of legislation given the many years of legal challenges.
COHA was created to allow municipalities to avoid trial courts on issues of affordable housing. It did not properly serve that purpose and is no longer available.
With the matter back in the courts, it is not likely the controversy will end anytime soon.
What was unusual in this discussion was that it represented a rare time when these issues were discussed in public. The $3,000 addition to the legal costs involved was approved by the council.
The next steps will involve continued legal action and borough efforts to review and revise the reports and plans that have sat while the world around them changed.
Budget Introduced
Avalon formally introduced in 2017 budget. The $32.6-million budget has three components: a municipal operating budget of $27 million, a $6.7 million water and sewer utility budget, and a $1.5 million beach utility budget.
Numbers are rounded for ease of understanding:
The amount to be raised by taxation is $16.95 million. The former municipal tax levy was $.227 per $100 of valuation.
The borough’s library tax is $2.7 million. The municipality is not a member of the County Library system, instead funding its own library.
New ratables added $87 million to the borough’s total worth.
Council President Nancy Hudanich praised the budget and assured residents that it would ensure appropriate and customary services in the borough.
She invited the public to view the budget details which are available at the Clerk’s Office and on the borough’s website.
The budget is also available on the Herald’s website here.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 22 in Borough Hall.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.