Montclair Planning Board Tweaks Affordable Housing Blueprint

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Some tweaks are being made to Montclair’s affordable housing plan, including the removal of the town’s only African American-owned funeral home.

Earlier this week, the Montclair Planning Board voted to approve an amended plan that removes a reference to Martin’s Home for Service, among other changes. The move came after public pushback over the funeral home’s inclusion, Montclair Local reported.

The board held a public hearing for the amendment on Monday, voting 5-1 to approve. Watch the video below, or view it online here.

The board previously voted in favor of the town’s municipal housing proposal in May. The deadline to adopt the plan and send it to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs was June 30.

Montclair’s plan is available for inspection in the offices of the township clerk and the department of planning and community development. It can be viewed online here.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

State officials recently released the affordable housing quotas that New Jersey towns and cities will have to meet over the next 10 years, including Montclair. Read More: Montclair Gets Its New Affordable Housing Numbers From State

The calculations include numbers for “present need” (existing housing units deemed substandard/deficient and in need of repair), and “prospective need” (the number of new units that will be needed based on population trends).

Here are the totals for Montclair:

• Present Need – 132
• Prospective Need – zero

The Montclair Town Council accepted these numbers in a resolution at their Jan. 7 meeting.

Towns and cities don’t have to create the housing themselves, but must ensure that the threshold is met – often by requiring a certain percentage of affordable housing units as part of local real estate development projects. Other ways to meet the quota include using credits from previous rounds, creating 100-percent affordable housing projects, preserving existing affordable homes, or creating accessory dwelling units.

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