The Hopewell Township Committee certified a fourth-round affordable housing obligation of 348 units for the township’s fair share of affordable units.
The 348 units is the (future need) of affordable housing units for the next 10 years from 2025 to 2035, which is a reduction from the 543 units estimated by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (NJDCA).
The Township Committee, which approved the resolution on Jan. 27 confirming its fourth-round obligations, was under a Jan. 31 deadline to pass a binding resolution that formally accepts the township’s affordable housing obligations for the fourth-round presently and for the next 10 years.
Municipalities across the state also had to meet the same deadline.
Additionally, in addition to the resolution, municipalities have until June 30 to adopt a housing element and fair share plan to provide a realistic opportunity to satisfying the obligations.
NJDCA estimated the township’s present fair share housing obligation or current need to be eight affordable units, and the prospective (future) need to be 543 units over the next 10 years.
“Those are suggested units from NJDCA, and they admitted there were errors in their data, and they fully expected towns to look at all of the data and make sure it was correct, and we certify our number,” Mayor Courtney Peters-Manning said.
“Thanks to Mr. Mark Kataryniak (township’s affordable housing engineer) and our township planner Frank Banisch, they went through our town parcel by parcel to make sure the data was accurate when put into the formula to create our need.”
With the estimates from NJDCA are non-binding and the township finds inaccuracies in the data, the township has to demonstrate that a lower number for their affordable housing fair share is justified under the Fair Housing Act.
The township’s parcel review identified 287.5 acres of available land compared to the NJDCA estimate of 781.2 acres that could be developed. The land capacity factor was a key part used in NJDCA calculations, which measures available land for development, according to the township.
“Hopewell Township is almost 60 square miles, so there is a lot of land in the township, but not all of the land and not most of that land is developable,” Peters-Manning said. “So, it is either preserved, open space, or farmland or recreation or it already has buildings on it, or it has significant environmental constraints.”
“The land capacity factor because we are so big was the biggest factor in Hopewell Township that created our number. After fixing the errors, our number went down from 543 units 348 units.”
Meeting the deadlines of Jan. 31 for certifying the number of affordable units and a June 30 deadline this summer to certify a housing element and fair share plan allows the control over the planning and zoning on affordable housing to remain with the township.
These are the results of a new framework of the Fair Housing Act of New Jersey for municipalities to meet their affordable housing obligations by streamlining compliance and reducing litigation-related delays to construction of new affordable housing, according to the amended law, which Gov. Phil Murphy signed in March 2024.
“When we meet these deadlines, we keep our immunity from a Builder’s Remedy lawsuit,” Peters-Manning added. “A Builder’s Remedy lawsuit would take the control over local planning and zoning away from the township. So, it is very important that we keep that immunity.”
After the governing body certified the affordable housing numbers on Jan. 27, township attorney Steve Goodell, from firm Parker McCay, was tasked with filing the number in court on Jan. 29.
The township’s affordable housing numbers can be challenged by any interested party. Any challenges have to be resolved by March 31.
“We know our number is extraordinarily defensible, so we hope there won’t be any challenges,” the mayor said. “If there are we will be prepared to defend the data that we used to come up with our number.”
