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Haines: Corzine DEP Chief Disputes Affordable Housing Land Estimate
By Andrew PrattSenator Phil Haines, a Republican member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, made the following comments after DEP Commissioner Mark N. Mauriello testified at a budget hearing today that vacant land analyses used to estimate how much affordable housing can be built were done without the input of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Mauriello said that estimates of open land "didn't really reflect what's on the ground" because they did not take into account land-use restrictions designed to protect environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands and flood plains.
"We've heard over and over again how the Council on Affordable Housing relied on a fatally flawed study to come up with its estimates of how much affordable housing can be built," Senator Haines said. "The DEP commissioner has confirmed again that COAH's demands for affordable housing construction are based on sloppily collected and inaccurate data.
"If environmental law was ignored when the Council on Affordable Housing did its study, then it is far from certain that the state has enough available land to build 115, 000 new housing units in 10 years at a reasonable cost," Senator Haines said.
"Governor Corzine needs to order the Department of Community Affairs and COAH to go to back to square one, and come up with reliable data on the amount of land available and the need for truly affordable housing in New Jersey."
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