STONE HARBOR – The Borough Council has endorsed its new fourth-round affordable housing fair-share plan, under which it had accepted the state’s calculation that the borough has an obligation to provide 26 units from 2025 to 2035.

But Stone Harbor has a vacant land analysis that shows there isn’t sufficient free land for housing development – there simply is no land available for sizable development. That analysis frees the borough of its need to create the 26 units in its new obligation.

The sudden appearance of available land for development would trigger the borough’s fourth-round obligation; obligations that cannot be met in various rounds do not disappear. They remain in an unmet need category where Stone Harbor has accumulated a total of 266 affordable housing units waiting to be triggered when and if land becomes available.

State law requires the fourth-round fair-share plan that the council endorsed June 17. In January Stone Harbor accepted the obligation of 26 units for the fourth round as calculated by the state Department of Community Affairs.

During the third round of obligations, a major housing subdivision developed when the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary sold a portion of their Stone Harbor retreat house property, Villa Maria by the Sea, in favor of a smaller retreat house and 13 residential lots.

That decision by the sisters created sufficient buildable land to trigger the borough’s third-round obligation, and the borough needed to produce three affordable housing units, an obligation it solved through purchase of a multifamily home on Third Avenue for $1.6 million.

As the borough’s affordable housing attorney, Nancy Holm, explained it, the new obligation of 26 units for the fourth round will effectively be at zero unless some similar action to the retreat house decision occurs.

The state deadline for municipal endorsement of a fair-share plan is June 30. Third-party objections to the plan can be filed by Aug. 31, but none is expected given the constraint on the available land.

New legislation signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy in March 2024 revamped the process for management of municipal affordable housing obligations.

New Jersey is one of the few states that has declared the provision of affordable housing a constitutional obligation and not one deriving from statute. That means that without the appearance of tens of thousands of affordable housing units, the process is not likely to end, since it is not a matter of changing a law.

Other states have laws and policies on the issue, but a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling in 1975 has created a constitutional framework for addressing affordable housing in the Garden State.

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