Messenger News Service
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 22, 2024
MOUNT LAUREL- The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs has announced the fourth round of affordable housing requirements for every municipality in New Jersey, releasing a report to the public late last week.
According to the report, Mount Laurel Township will be tasked with making sure 431 affordable housing units are built within the Township. Since the housing needs to be inclusionary, it means 2,155 housing units must be built so that twenty percent of the units are affordable.
In early rounds of affordable housing, municipalities could pay other communities to build the units with the paying municipality getting credit. Also, municipalities could cluster their affordable housing. Both of those options have now been eliminated and are no longer considered. To comply, municipalities must include any affordable housing within a market rate housing development, with 20 percent of the units designated as affordable.
Mount Laurel officials have not commented on the new report nor contacted any state officials in order to question the new requirements.
“It seems as though the Democrats that control Mount Laurel government are happy with the fourth round housing numbers,” said former mayor Richard Van Noord. “Our leaders should be speaking out and yelling from the rooftops. We have no room. There is no place to put all these units. Residents of Mount Laurel are already livid over the space that has been taken for the first three rounds. It seems as though the Mount Laurel Democrats may have to use open space to fulfill the requirements,” said Van Noord.
“These numbers are devastating for Mount Laurel”, said Debbie Sarcone, a Mount Laurel resident, realtor and candidate for Township Council. “We need leaders who will speak out against this, and the current council has been silent. My running mates, Trish Barlow, Bob Reillo, and myself vow to fight the use of open space for more housing. We cannot let the New Jersey state democrats, along with local democrats, destroy our quality of life.”
The new report can be accessed at www.nj.gov/dca/dlps/4th_Round_Numbers.shtml
Comments