New Jersey - One Big Green Acre?
Posted by Phil Morin on 31 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: Affordable Housing, Environmental Issues, Legislation
As 2007 winds down, there are many challenges for land use practitioners, property owners, developers and municipal government as a result of court decisions and new regulations. Here is one glimmer of hope that, at least in the affordable housing context, at least someone in the Governor’s Cabinet in Trenton and a few key leaders in the Legislature understand that the onerous environmental regulations promulgated over the last several years will need to be augmented to provide for realistic affordable housing development.
Doria: Eco-rules should not block affordable housing
DEP seeking limits on developable land
Tuesday, December 11, 2007BY TOM HESTER
Star-Ledger Staff
The state’s housing chief and a key legislator said yesterday tougher environmental protection standards should be altered to help bolster New Jersey’s affordable housing effort.
Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria told the Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee that while 1.3 million acres of land in the state remains undeveloped, standards proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection would limit any future housing development to 300,000.
“That’s a serious issue,” Doria said. “Will we have the land to provide housing? We have to look at environmental regulations that impact on housing. This is an inter-departmental responsibility.”
The housing-related DEP regulations include preventing construction within 300 feet of streams that feed reservoirs, upgrading quality standards for the waterway, and prohibiting the construction of sewer lines near pristine waterways or endangered species habitats.
Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Union), the Housing and Local Government Committee chairman, said state environmental officials and activists need to be brought into the affordable housing effort.
“There are people in the environmental community who want New Jersey to become one big green acre,” he said, referring to the state’s open space preservation program. “We all have to work together and they have to become major players in the development of housing.”
Elaine Makatura, a DEP spokeswoman, said Doria and other state officials should bring their concerns to the department before making it a public issue.
“For the DEP to be part of the equation and be part of the decision-making, they must work through the (DEP) commissioner’s office and come in and sit down and discuss it and work with staff to determine what role the DEP will play,” she said. “Developers are not happy with those kind of restrictions. Those restrictions were put in place (proposed) to protect environmental resources like water and habitat.”
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), a prime co-sponsor of a proposed 12-bill affordable housing reform package, said he intends to introduce the measures when the new Legislature convenes Jan. 8. Doria said he expects to offer housing plans on behalf of Gov. Jon Corzine’s administration in March.
Doria said he expects his proposals will include providing housing aid for working-class families. He said, for example, a family of four with an annual income of $80,000 would qualify for a form of affordable housing.
Roberts and Doria were part of a long line of officials and housing advocates who addressed the Housing and Local Government Committee. More than 130 people crowded the hearing room and state troopers had to clear the doorways and send spectators to an adjoining room where testimony was piped in.
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