COAH Requirements Met by Crest

WILDWOOD CREST – Despite rain and snow driven by a Nor’easter, Wildwood Crest Borough Commissioners hosted a large turnout for the public hearing on enforcing N.J. State Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) requirements. 
Based on the New Jersey Fair Housing Act of 1985, otherwise known as the “Mt. Laurel Doctrine,” the borough was obligated to develop a plan to “provide a realistic opportunity” for affordable housing to be constructed in the Crest or risk the possibility that the state would intervene to impose its plan that includes a “builder’s remedy” that disregards local zoning regulations.
In effect, under the builder’s remedy, the municipality would lose all control over the “size, density, height and character of the development.”
Faced with that possibility, the borough hired CME Consultants and Michael Jedzeniak, an attorney with specific experience in this area, to help develop that plan.
According to a statement from Linda Weber of CME Associates, the borough chose to submit its plan to Superior Court in 2015. Those plans were approved by the court in January of this year. The plan will remain effective until 2025.
The key provisions of the plan, including the enabling ordinances that will implement the plan, are:
The Plan
Based on the settlement with the court, the Crest’s obligation between now and 2025 is to rehabilitate a maximum 20 substandard housing units currently occupied by low- and moderate-income households, as defined by state household income limits.
Those limits include a family of four with an income of $24,600 (considered very low income), and $37,500 for that family of four (considered low income), with a moderate income level for a family of four set at $60,000.
The court settlement also requires that the borough accommodate its obligation for 305 low and moderate income housing units. According to Jedzeniak, the borough is not affirmatively required to build these 305 units. The borough can satisfy this COAH requirement by providing zoning regulations that would meet the state income standards; no pro-active construction of units is required, according to Jedzeniak.
The zoning changes will provide the “opportunity for affordable housing” necessary to satisfy the court.
CME further noted that the current median income for a family of four in the Crest is $72,979 which “means that there are likely residents in the borough today that would be income eligible for affordable housing units.”
CME noted that these residents are likely teachers, police officers, and others.
CME proposes that the borough will satisfy the requirements of this approved plan by creating a new “overlay” zone on top of the existing B-1 commercial zone that will allow up to a four-story new housing unit if it includes at least one affordable housing unit per four regularly priced units.
The requirements can also be met by creating “an inclusionary zone” that will mandate that one new affordable housing unit is included in any new building of five or more housing units (20 percent).
Both of these zones will accomplish the targets set by the court settlement about any new construction.
The borough passed ordinances March 21 that will create both these zones to comply with COAH standards.
Funding Rehab Standards
A third ordinance approved by the borough establishes fees on new construction that will fund the rehab work that would be required under the plan. A 1.5 percent fee, based on the assessed value of the new residential construction, and/or a 2.5 percent fee based on the assessed value of the commercial construction will be assessed. These fees will go into a special fund to finance the borough’s compliance with the COAH standards; according to borough commissioners, no taxpayer money will be used to complete the rehabs because the fund will cover those costs.
Copies of the ordinances and a letter from CME Associates that explains the COAH agreement will be available on the municipal website and at the municipal building.
To contact Jim McCarty, email jmccarty@cmcherald.com.