Dear NJ Governor and Legislators,

As voters in New Jersey who support both the true concept of Affordable Housing and the rural nature of our Garden State equally, we urge you to reconsider the current process for determining fair Affordable Housing numbers for all municipalities.

In requiring affordable housing, our State Constitution “does not require bad planning.  It does not require suburban spread.  It does not require rural municipalities to encourage large scale housing developments.  It does not require wasteful extension of roads and needless construction of sewer and water facilities for the out-migration of people from the cities and the suburbs.  There is nothing in our Constitution that says that we cannot satisfy our constitutional obligation to provide lower income housing and, at the same time, plan the future of the state intelligently.”

Those are the cautionary words of our own Supreme Court, providing guidance in implementing its initial Mt Laurel decision imposing the Affordable Housing requirement.  Southern Burlington County, et al. v. Township of Mount Laurel, et al., 92 N.J. 158, 238 (1983) (Mt Laurel II).  Yet, contrary to the Supreme Court’s valuable guidance, Affordable Housing is now being distorted and misused to accomplish precisely the opposite of what our Supreme Court intended: to encourage suburban spread, to require large scale housing developments in rural municipalities, and to require the wasteful extension of roads and needless construction of sewer and water facilities for the out-migration of people from the cities and the suburbs.

We now ask that our lawmakers establish a legal framework that will provide the required affordable housing while ensuring our State’s future development is planned intelligently, before it is too late.

We hope you will:

●Provide complete transparency with regards to how the required Affordable Housing numbers for each municipality are determined and provide proof that these numbers align with current waiting list/true need in each area.   Total transparency would include detailed information about the advocacy group Fair Share Housing and its financial and political supporters.

●Guarantee an avenue for all citizens/taxpayers to give input into the Affordable Housing process prior to the required number of units being finalized.  Currently, the interests of builders and developers are being considered, but not those of the individuals who currently reside in the areas. The taxpayers will be impacted financially by large scale building for years to come.

●Act to protect both current residents of municipalities and the intended beneficiaries of Affordable Housing from the current misuse of the Mt Laurel decision by developers. Their current ability to overturn local land use planning to build high-density sprawl at will harms the interests of both current residents and the people Mt. Laurel was intended to aid.

●Recognize the danger that overdevelopment of the state will have on future generations.  NJ voters have indicated time and again through Open Space referendums their desire to preserve the rural nature of our state.  The current proposed Affordable Housing numbers and the extraneous building that will accompany it, if allowed to go forward unchecked, will irrevocably destroy New Jersey’s remaining green space and make the whole state far more urban in nature.

We hope you will stand with the people of New Jersey and fight for the policies we need to protect our state from a massive overdevelopment onslaught.

Thank you.