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MERKT AND BIONDI: COAH TAKES ON THE ROLE OF THE GRINCH THIS CHRISTMAS
By bguhlMERKT AND BIONDI: COAH TAKES ON THE ROLE OF THE GRINCH THIS CHRISTMAS
Assemblymen Richard Merkt and Peter Biondi today blasted a decision by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) to reject requests to extend the December 31st deadline for towns to submit plans in compliance with the state’s new affordable housing mandates.
“On the eve of Christmas, COAH has donned its Grinch costume and dropped a lump of coal into the stockings of taxpayers throughout New Jersey,” said Merkt, R-Morris. “This is just more evidence that COAH is a tone-deaf bureaucracy that is irreparably broken and should be abolished.”
“The rules created by COAH will drive up property taxes, consume open space and forever change the character of the towns forced to comply with these new housing mandates,” said Biondi, R-Somerset and Morris. “This decision shows that COAH has absolutely no concern for these towns or for the taxpayers who will be affected by this decision.”
On Tuesday, DCA Commissioner Joseph Doria sent a letter to the League of Municipalities denying the request for an extension of the December 31, 2008 deadline.
In May 2008, COAH decreed that 115,000 more affordable housing units be built throughout the state, assigning arbitrary quotas for every town to meet. Since then, local officials have been searching for ways to comply with COAH’s mandate by the deadline.
Merkt and Biondi are the sponsors of legislation, A-3570, that seeks to abolish COAH and put an end to what they describe as a poorly thought-out, unworkable and costly affordable housing system.
“COAH is a bureaucracy run amuck and cannot be fixed by simply by drafting new regulations,” Merkt said. “We must get rid of it now, before it does any more harm to the people of our state.”
“COAH has imposed impossible regulations and excessive costs on towns and taxpayers,” Biondi said. “Towns across New Jersey have found it impossible to comply with these new mandates and since COAH isn’t willing to be flexible, the only way to effectively solve this problem is to abolish COAH.”
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