CASSELLA SAYS PROPOSED AFFORDABLE HOUSING REGULATIONS WILL SOUND THE DEATH KNELL FOR NEW JERSEY

BOROUGH OF EAST RUTHERFORD

CASSELLA SAYS PROPOSED AFFORDABLE HOUSING REGULATIONS WILL SOUND THE DEATH KNELL FOR NEW JERSEY

 Calls For Small Towns To Rally in Protest 

201  481-3025

EAST RUTHERFORD -- The recommended new regulations governing affordable housing in the state will be the “final nail in the coffin of New Jersey” if they become law, says East Rutherford Mayor James Cassella.

A draft report for the state Department of Community Affairs that recommends weakening environmental rules, overriding local zoning boards and allowing development to encroach on streams would be the death knell for the state, said the mayor of the South Bergen community. 

“This is surely a sign that the extremists have run amok in Trenton.  They are drunk with power and are being enabled by a DCA chief who wants to turn all of New Jersey into a carbon copy of overcrowded Hudson County, “says Cassella.

The mayor, whose town is facing its own struggle with the state’s affordable housing mandates, predicted that if small towns throughout the state don’t rally to fight the DCA, “we will be engulfed in a sea of overdevelopment. Open space will become extinct and the ability to self-govern will be obliterated by Trenton bureaucrats and single-minded activists.”

Borough Councilman Joel Brizzi called the report “frightening” for small governments and for middle class taxpayers. “There is obviously a significant move in Trenton to take away self government from the middle class people of this state. If you think the Exodus from New Jersey is bad now, I can’t imagine how fast people will be fleeing if housing activists have their way.”    

 New Jersey’s Council on Affordable Housing says that there is a need 115,666 affordable housing units more than doubling the previous estimate of 52,000 units. Some housing extremists are calling the use of eminent domain to condemn ‘underutilized” property to build low income housing.   

COAH is also proposing that one affordable unit be built for every 25 jobs.  The housing to jobs ratio formula is especially damaging to towns in South Bergen who are suffering the impact of the giant mega-mall -- Xanadu mega mall development.

Additionally today, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts will unveil an onerous package of Affordable Housing rule changes that Cassella said will further damage small towns and the environment. One proposal will disallow communities to reduce development in their town by paying for affordable housing construction in towns that truly need updated housing/

Apparently, the leaders in Trenton don’t want to put new housing where it is needed. They would rather destroy the environment we have worked hard to protect and put people in dangerous living conditions,” said Cassella.

A TAX ISSUE 

Cassella said residents are fed up with congestion, overdevelopment and high property taxes and it seems that the DCA -- under new director Joseph Doria of Bayonne -- “is on a mission to ruin what’s left of the state.”

“Governing a small town is difficult enough already as we are saddled with more and more absurd state mandates,” said Cassella.

"Now we have to contend with building high density housing in swamps and along streams and on landfills and we somehow have to provide services for these new residents. Where does Mr. Doria propose that we get the money to do that? How high does he want to see our property taxes go as he pursues his communist housing ideology?”

Cassella questioned the validity of the report – calling it a sop to the building industry.

“The builders are desperate to develop on any marginal land they can in New Jersey and Joe Doria appears to their enabler,"  Cassella.  

 SOCIAL ENGINEERING 

Cassella has long maintained that the state’s affordable housing mandates are deeply flawed social engineering.  He said the forced overdevelopment through the use of the so called builder’s remedy to meet housing quotas has been devastating to communities, causing unwanted demographic changes and increasing taxes for middle income taxpayers.

 After 25 years of COAH, the affordable housing goals have not been met and are likely to  continue meet resistance as the rules become more Draconian,: said Cassella. Maybe its time start over with policies and rules that make sense for the way people really live. accelerate the flight of the middle class and businesses from the state.

The mayor said the state’s affordable housing strategy undermines the hard work of people who fought to own a home without government intervention.  “The people in my town are not rich, but they worked hard – they worked two and three jobs and lived modestly to afford a home.  Why can’t others do the same thing?

Cassella pointed out the median household income in East Rutherford is just $54,900. The income limit for a family of four to qualify for affordable housing in Bergen County is $59,244 and for a family of five to qualify for moderate income assistance the income limit is almost $64,000.  Under Speaker Roberts’ proposal the maximum income will rise to $87,000 for a family of four.

 “According to the state’s formula a majority of residents East Rutherford should be living in subsidized housing,” said Cassella. “That’s just absurd when you think about it. Why doesn’t the state just give everyone a house and we can just turn over our paychecks to the state.”