Some Bergen County Towns Continue Pushback Against Affordable Housing Mandates

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Bergen County towns have hotly debated how to meet state requirements to build affordable housing that have their roots in a 1980s court case.

They’re currently focusing on "fourth round" obligations applying to the years 2025-2035.

Some Bergen County towns have introduced plans for senior housing or other affordable housing, while others challenged the laws all the way to the Supreme Court — and suffered a huge setback last week.

On Tuesday, Justice Samuel Alito struck down a request for an emergency injunction filed by town officials around the state to overturn the mandates.

Tuesday's ruling upheld the requirements set forth in the longstanding Mount Laurel Doctrine, a law that says every community in the Garden State must allow developers to build their "fair share" of affordable units for low- and moderate- income buyers.

Some mayors and town officials said that the current laws are unfair to suburban towns, while others argue that the rules will only hurt those they're meant to help.

Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali headed up a group of town officials who sued to change the mandates.

"I remain proud of how far our coalition has come, and what remains ahead," Ghassali said on social media last week, vowing to continue to fight.

"Our goal was never to fight affordable housing," he said. "Our goal is to stand up against high density development that enriches developers, inflates market rate prices, and pushes even more families out of reach of the very communities they want to call home. When most of the newly construed one-bedroom apartments have rents for $4,000 a month, that is not affordability. That is a system failing the people it claims to help."

But a representative for the Fair Share Housing Center in New Jersey said that towns should stop wasting taxpayer dollars litigating the mandates.

"Using taxpayer dollars to prolong this litigation has only hurt the towns pursuing it," said Joshua Bauers. "New Jersey's law gives towns broad flexibility to create affordable housing in ways that support workers, small businesses, and local economies."

Fair Share also accused Montvale, on Tuesday, of trying to allow a massive data center in place of affordable housing.

Some town officials in Bergen County said they didn't think the litigation against the mandates was worth the cost.

Glen Rock Mayor Kristine Morieko said in a statement, "Glen Rock was approached numerous times to join the lawsuit challenging New Jersey’s 2024 affordable housing amendments. ... We chose not to. We did include language in our resolutions that reserved our rights should this case be successful. From the outset, legal viability was a significant obstacle, and participation would have required approximately $20,000 in Glen Rock taxpayer funds (just to begin)."

"....Today, the emergency application was denied. That $20,000 remains in Glen Rock because we did our homework before writing the check. Every one of us wants to protect our town. I do too. But protecting Glen Rock requires careful planning, sound legal strategy, and a clear-eyed assessment of what will actually move the needle. That means choosing our battles wisely and investing our resources where they can make a real impact."

Meanwhile, in Franklin Lakes, officials will discuss plans this week for a company called SHG to build a residential development with 433 market-rate townhomes and 62 that will be affordable housing. Their application, which the Planning Board will discuss Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., is here.

Learn More About Your Town's Plan And Response

• Each municipality's housing plan can be viewed online at the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program website.
• The Supreme Court documents in "Borough of Montvale v. Davenport" are on the SCOTUS Blog here.

Patch Editor Jack Slocum contributed reporting to this story.