STONE HARBOR – The Borough Council has accepted the affordable housing obligation calculated for the borough by the state Department of Community Affairs. The 10-year obligation, from 2025 to 2034, is 26 living units.

The housing obligation, for the fourth round of what has become known as the Mount Laurel process, was approved at the council’s Jan. 21 meeting in the face of a Feb. 3 deadline.

Council member Jennifer Gensemer said at the meeting that the council was acting “under the heel of the state,” referencing the state statute signed into law in March that would remove the protection against builder’s remedy lawsuits from municipalities that failed to either accept the fourth-round obligation as calculated by DCA or offer their own municipal obligation number based on the criteria in the statute.

Gensemer said the borough would continue to fight the obligation even though the council passed the confirming resolution in order to preserve the borough’s protections. A builder’s remedy lawsuit is one in which a developer can challenge zoning regulations and density limits for a proposed affordable housing project.

The four-page resolution is essentially the borough’s attempt to have it both ways. It confirms the DCA obligation prior to the state deadline while stating at length that the borough reserves the right to continue to challenge the obligation. It keeps open a path of resistance if the new state statute amending the Fair Housing Act fails legal or legislative challenges.

On Thursday, Jan. 2, a Mercer County Superior Court judge denied a request from 26 municipalities to put the amended state affordable housing process on hold while a lawsuit challenging the new law 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.