Bill Text: NJ A4145 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Excludes environmentally sensitive and flood-prone land from designation as vacant or available for purposes of affordable housing construction.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-04-04 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Housing Committee [A4145 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4145-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman YVONNE LOPEZ
District 19 (Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Excludes environmentally sensitive and flood-prone land from designation as vacant or available for purposes of affordable housing construction.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act preventing affordable housing construction on certain environmentally sensitive land and amending P.L.1995, c.231.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.1995, c.231 (C.52:27D-310.1) is amended to read as follows:
1. When computing a municipal adjustment regarding available land resources as part of the determination of a municipality's fair share of affordable housing, the [Council on Affordable Housing] following shall [exclude] be excluded from [designating] designation as vacant land:
(a) any land that is owned by a local government entity that as of January 1, 1997, has adopted, prior to the institution of a lawsuit seeking a builder's remedy or prior to the filing of a petition for substantive certification of a housing element and fair share plan, a resolution authorizing an execution of agreement that the land be utilized for a public purpose other than housing;
(b) any land listed on a master plan of a municipality as being dedicated, by easement or otherwise, for purposes of conservation, park lands or open space and which is owned, leased, licensed, or in any manner operated by a county, municipality or tax-exempt, nonprofit organization including a local board of education, or by more than one municipality by joint agreement pursuant to P.L.1964, c.185 (C.40:61-35.1 et seq.), for so long as the entity maintains such ownership, lease, license, or operational control of such land;
(c) any vacant contiguous parcels of land in private ownership of a size which would accommodate fewer than five housing units [if current standards of the council were applied] based on appropriate standards pertaining to housing density;
(d) historic and architecturally important sites listed on the State Register of Historic Places or National Register of Historic Places prior to the submission of the petition of substantive certification;
(e) agricultural lands when the development rights to these lands have been purchased or restricted by covenant;
(f) sites designated for active recreation that are designated for recreational purposes in the municipal master plan; and
(g) environmentally sensitive lands where development is [prohibited] regulated by any State or federal agency, including, but not limited to, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, established pursuant to section 4 of P.L.2004, c.120 (C.13:20-4), for lands in the Highlands Preservation Area, and lands in the Highlands Planning Area for Highlands-conforming municipalities, or regulated pursuant to the "Flood Hazard Area Control Act," P.L.1962, c.19 (C.58:16A-50 et seq.) or the "Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act," P.L.1987, c.156 (C.13:9B-1 et seq.).
No municipality shall be required to utilize for affordable housing purposes land that is excluded from being designated as vacant land.
(cf: P.L.2008, c.46, s.39)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires certain environmentally sensitive, flood-prone land, regulated by any State or federal agency, to be excluded from counting as available land for the construction of affordable housing as a part of the fair share affordable housing obligation of a municipality, established pursuant to the "Fair Housing Act," P.L.1985, c.222 (C.52:27D-301 et al.). Currently, State statutes only establish this requirement if development is prohibited on the land by a State or federal agency.
Specifically, this bill requires land to be excluded from counting as available for the construction of affordable housing if the land is regulated by a State or federal agency, including, but not limited to:
· the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council if the land is either in the Highlands Preservation Area, or, as long as the municipality has conformed to the Highlands regional master plan, if the land is in the Highlands Planning Area;
· land regulated pursuant to the "Flood Hazard Area Control Act," P.L.1962, c.19 (C.58:16A-50 et seq.); or
· land regulated pursuant to the "Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act," P.L.1987, c.156 (C.13:9B-1 et seq.).
The bill also makes technical amendments to replace references to an inactive agency, the Council on Affordable Housing.
This bill takes effect immediately upon enactment.
