AVALON –– Conflict with the latest Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) regulations united town leaders, developers, realtors and residents to a full house meeting at Borough Hall here Dec. 29 to air concerns to First District legislators.

Gripes included development fees, the quantities of affordable units towns have been asked to achieve and a lack of available land on which to create affordable housing.

Not including replacement units, a total of 103,908 affordable housing units are required statewide (See list of affordable unit requirements by town.)

Sen. Jeff Van Drew, Assemblyman Nelson Albano (both D-1st), Executive Director of the Assembly Majority Office William Caruso and Kate McDonald of the Assembly General Council attended the public meeting to listen to concerns.

Van Drew said struggling municipalities could work individually with the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to potentially have their affordable unit requirements reduced.

Municipalities are no longer able to transfer their affordable housing obligations to other communities through Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs).

Van Drew told municipal leaders from Cape May, Atlantic and Cumberland counties that he, Albano and Assemblyman Matthew Milam (D-1st) are actively fighting a retroactive 2.5 percent non-residential development fee on new or improved construction.

The fee also applies to partial constructions and one town representative said the fee would hurt the “engines of the economy for New Jersey to stay competitive with other states.”

“What does commercial building have to do with affordable housing?” Larry Berman, owner of a plumbing business asked. “The state of New Jersey is my competition and had I known, I wouldn’t have (started a business here.)”

Vicki Clark, executive director of the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, noted that most tourism-related jobs are low income and she said towns are asked to build affordable housing units where public transportation and job opportunities do not exist.

A consultant proposed that South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization be used as a new regionalized affordable housing partnership, similar to the abolished RCAs.

Stone Harbor Mayor Suzanne Walters said, “RCAs worked.” The borough was able to send the hoi polloi to mainland communities.

Upper Township Mayor Richard Palombo said the township spent $150,000 to defend a builders’ remedy lawsuit.
Many towns reluctantly adopted the state-mandated development fees, which will be used to satisfy their affordable housing obligations.

Stone Harbor approved a local ordinance, adhering to the state format, to hold funds locally for the benefit of borough taxpayers through a housing trust fund, which may be used for COAH-approved grant or revolving loan pro-grams to address its fair share obligation.

The ordinance states that one-third of the affordability assistance portion of development fees are to be used for households earning less than the borough’s median income, which is $51,471.

Cape May Mayor Edward Mahaney, Jr. said his city has spent $35,000 to stay ahead of changing COAH regulations. He said the obligations have stalled major projects and hurt tourism.

“I will go to jail before I let 899 units go into my town,” Wildwood Mayor Ernest Troiano, Jr. said. He said affordable housing would have a negative impact on the community.

Vineland Councilman and Planning Board member Doug Albrecht said 12 percent of his constituents are below poverty level and the state’s requirement that affordable housing remain so for years will add to deteriorating neighborhoods and hinder owners’ ability to get their investment out of a property.

Avalon Mayor Martin Pagliughi said the COAH regulations should not be “one-size fits all.”

Municipalities were required to meet a Dec. 31 deadline to come into compliance with the latest COAH regulations or potentially leave themselves open to builders’ remedy lawsuits.

About 250 state municipalities have pledged to join a lawsuit filed on behalf of the New Jersey League of Municipalities. The league sent a letter to Gov. Jon Corzine (D) asking to extend that deadline noting that the third round of obligations were amended with changes effective Oct. 20, 2008. The governor did not implement an extension.

The following is a list of how many affordable housing units each Cape May County town is required to create in order to come into compliance with the Council on Affordable Housing’s latest regulations, according to the Department of Community Affairs. Numbers reflect a total between the rehabilitation share and projected growth share for each town.

• Avalon: 0

• Cape May: 14

• Cape May Point: 1

• Dennis Township: 33

• Lower Township: 91

• Middle Township: 181

• North Wildwood: 39

• Ocean City: 190

• Sea Isle City: 38

• Stone Harbor: 0

• Upper Township: 76

• West Cape May: 11

• West Wildwood: 3

• Wildwood: 134

• Wildwood Crest: 18

• Woodbine: 34

FACTS ABOUT COAH:

•The 1985 Fair Housing Act, which created the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), stemmed from a state Supreme Court decision in favor of Mount Laurel residents who sued the township based on the principle that a municipality cannot use its zoning powers to keep lower income people out of town.

• New Jersey is the only state with a COAH.

• COAH is not welfare housing, it is intended for low to moderate-income residents.

• According to the New Jersey Housing Resource Center’s Web site, “COAH works directly with municipalities to develop plans for providing affordable housing in New Jersey. Municipal plans can include a variety of types of for-sale and rental affordable housing.”

Examples are group homes, accessory apartments, and affordable units in the same development as market rate units, age-restricted housing. All occupants of COAH-credited units must be income-eligible based on COAH’s regional income limits.

• The Department of Community Affairs Web site explains the mission statement of COAH, which is “to facilitate the production of sound, affordable housing for low or moderate income households by providing the most effective processing to municipalities, housing providers, nonprofit and for profit developers to address a constitu-tional obligation within the framework of sound, comprehensive planning.

• Municipalities are required to bond if there is a shortfall in required COAH funding.

• The DCA Web site explains that under growth share, one unit among every five housing units must be affordable; one affordable unit must be provided for every 16 jobs created in a municipality, measured by new commercial development. If no market rate housing or commercial development occurs in a municipality, then it does not need to build affordable units.

For more information on COAH visit: www.state.nj.us/njhrc/consumers/assistan/coah.html