Amid economic downturn, mayoral backlash, Lesniak anticipates COAH finetuning

Unlike Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan, Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik doesn’t want Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) obligations scrapped.

But like a lot of other mayors who found it hard to generate a party mood at the League of Municipalities conference in the face of a deadline at the end of this month to submit finished plans in concert with the new rules, the mayor does want lawmakers to review COAH – and at the very least make some exceptions.

Specifically, Hornik wants Gov. Jon Corzine and the Legislature to consider amending the new regs so years-long, painstaking work Marlboro officials undertook to transfer some of the Monmouth County town’s affordable housing stock to Trenton won’t be rendered invalid.  

“Marlboro and the City of Trenton had contracted in July of 2004 to enter into a 332 unit Regional Contribution Agreement (RCA),” Hornik wrote today in a letter to the governor, a version of which he also dispatched to members of the Legislature. “Marlboro has previously submitted petitions to COAH which included this RCA and both municipalities have relied on this agreement for years.  

“To ask municipalities which have relied on such agreements for years to simply make alternate plans is not the answer,” the mayor added. “An opportunity should be afforded to lawmakers to explore the sudden and severe affects of (the law) on municipalities (like Marlboro) which are attempting to meet their Mount Laurel obligations.”  

For his part, state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) doesn’t need another gander at the new COAH regs to be convinced that the 2.5 percent fee on non-residential development to pay for affordable housing will do anything other than slow economic development. 

“It’s a very dangerous scheme, which is not going to produce affordable housing and will produce the unintended consequences of freezing housing by serving as a major tax increase for property tax payers in this state,” said Kyrillos, reiterating his argument from earlier this year when he voted “no” on the new regs designed to encourage affordable housing construction across the state and not merely in lower income neighborhoods and cities.

“My preference would be an outright freeze or radical surgery, and I’m happy Sen. Lesniak is of a similar mind in taking steps to blow this thing up before we go down a very dangerous path,” Kyrillos added.

State Sen. Steve Oroho (R-Sussex) agrees with Lonegan that lawmakers need to sink COAH in a downcast  economy.

“Don’t put patch works on regulations,” Oroho said. “Make New Jersey more affordable. We’re all for affordable housing, but  I think with all of the regulations, we’re adding more and more to the cost of doing business and so they’re just leaving. I told governor to suspend COAH.”

The Senate sponsor of the new COAH regs, state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union) said he anticipates an overhaul by the middle of this month. 

“If we let the COAH regs stand as is, we won’t have any economic recovery,” Lesniak said. “We will have new legislation before we break (for the Christmas holiday).”