But the best way to fix New Jersey's controversial affordable-housing regulations was very much up for debate at a second hearing on the issue yesterday.
State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D., Union), a primary sponsor of the move to eliminate COAH, said the Senate Economic Growth Committee was expected to vote on the proposal March 8.
Lesniak repeatedly stressed that the bill - generally supported by municipal officials and opposed by affordable-housing organizations - falls short of New Jersey's affordable-housing needs.
He said COAH, which oversees the constitutional obligation of New Jersey's 566 towns to provide low- and moderate-income housing, had failed to produce such housing and that his bill would replace it with a market-driven system.
His proposal would also largely return authority over such decisions to the towns. Under diminished state oversight transferred to the State Planning Commission, municipalities would determine whether they were providing enough affordable housing.
Lawmakers are still trying to determine what that "inclusionary" standard should be. Towns that fall short would require developers to set aside 20 percent of their residential units for affordable housing.
"We think it's better left to the local level rather than dictated by the state, and we encourage the state's role to be a partner providing guidance and assistance rather than a rigid set of rules," Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, a supporter of the bill, told the panel yesterday.
Staci Berger, director of policy and advocacy for the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, said the market "has not built an adequate variety and supply of places to live to meet the needs of the state's residents."
Berger, who opposes the bill, says each town should be required to make 10 percent of its housing affordable. Those with less would develop a plan to meet that requirement over time.
She suggested a system that instead of requiring towns to file plans with the state, as they do now, would have the state regularly review municipalities' progress and protect them from builder's-remedy lawsuits as long as they met progress goals.
Opponents of abolishing the council said New Jersey - still one of the most expensive states in which to live - had led the nation in providing affordable housing.
"We do certainly agree that COAH has not been as effective as we would have liked at building affordable for those we serve. . . . but we do feel that its presence has resulted in more affordable housing than might otherwise have been built," testified Joyce Campbell, associate executive director of external affairs for Catholic Charities.
The council was created by the Fair Housing Act approved in 1985, to enforce Supreme Court decisions that cities and towns were obligated to provide their fair share of affordable housing for the region.
The New Jersey League of Municipalities and a number of municipalities are challenging the panel's most recent mandates legally: revised rules issued in 2008 that called for 115,000 new affordable-housing units to be built statewide by 2018.
"The third round of COAH rules [has] been so complex, and widely resisted - and I frankly thought they were an absolute disaster - that the opportunity to revise the program is welcomed," said Shuey Horowitz, an affordable-housing advocate in Somerset County.
But the state still needs a solid plan for taking care of low- and moderate-income families, she said.
A continuing point of contention is the return of Regional Contribution Agreements, which once allowed wealthier municipalities to pay poorer ones to build their share of affordable housing. The current bill would revive deals that were in the works at the time of a 2008 law banning the agreements.
Supporters, including a representative of Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer, said yesterday that RCAs were a source of money for building affordable housing and helped bring needed housing to urban centers.
Those against the measure, however, said it would concentrate poverty in inner cities and worsen racial and socioeconomic segregation.
They want affordable housing spread evenly throughout communities.
Still others called for language in the bill that would further protect the environment, which Lesniak said after the hearing would be added.
at 856-779-3220 or mrao@phillynews.com.
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