October, 2010
Dear Resident:
Without question, one of the most challenging problems we have faced since taking office in January of 2008 has been dealing with Marlboro’s affordable housing obligations. From the inception of my administration, we were confronted with a daunting affordable housing obligation mandated by COAH and the State of New Jersey, which required that we allow 1,700 affordable homes to be built in Marlboro (way more than we could possibly burden).
Our strategy has always been to comply with the law, yet balance that obligation with our desire to limit any new housing in town (affordable or otherwise). This strategy has led us to propose 100% affordable housing projects on “environmentally challenged” sites (the philosophy being to turn a negative into a positive). Under past administrations Marlboro was overdeveloped by opportunistic developers while public officials either turned a blind eye or opened their hand in favor of corruption. Despite many promises of affordable housing these assurances were all too often empty ones and instead we witnessed a glut of market houses without their affordable counterparts following nearby. My administration (and many of you) believe that Marlboro is overbuilt and notwithstanding our obligation to allow for affordable housing, we need to consider our needs to preserve open space, our existing infrastructure, the quality of life for our existing residents, school overcrowding, stabilization of taxes and other environmental concerns before allowing any housing (affordable or otherwise) to be constructed within our community.
After submitting our affordable housing plan to COAH on December 31, 2008, we were met with 14 objectors, most of which were builders who only wanted to continue to profit at the expense of our open space. After going through an extensive mediation process with each of the 14 objectors, we decided to resubmit a plan in order to properly reflect a more realistic number of affordable houses to be built in our community.
On September 8, 2010, responding to the objections of the builders and housing advocates, a COAH task force dismissed Marlboro from its “jurisdiction” issuing an opinion which we believe was arbitrary and capricious. Despite our efforts to submit an affordable housing plan which would have allowed hundreds of affordable houses to be built, COAH, the developers and the housing advocates, wanted a number that was too much for us to bear. Subsequently, on September 23, COAH stayed its decision at Marlboro’s request pending our appeal of its September 8 decision. This stay, in my opinion, is a good development for our town for several reasons. First, new legislation is anticipated to be introduced in the coming days which will help all towns better understand and achieve their affordable housing obligations. Second, the recent feeding frenzy of builders’ remedy suits will hopefully come to an end since more litigation will not foster more affordable housing. Finally, this stay may help Marlboro and COAH to forge an understanding as to what will make Marlboro constitutionally compliant.
The fact is our affordable housing system needs to balance the need to provide affordable housing with our compelling need to preserve open space, improve environmentally sensitive areas, while at all times taking into account the quality of life for existing residents. However, I also feel that our affordable housing laws have to account for something which many of us have never faced in our lifetime and something that our affordable housing laws did not have to account for when they were written; dire economic circumstances on both a statewide and national level. There is no way around it, our present economic circumstances have to be factored into our affordable housing laws.
We will continue to monitor proposed legislation pertaining to affordable housing and we will move forward. I have spoken to Governor Christie directly on our affordable housing concerns. It seems that everyone is in agreement and I am hopeful the legislation will become law before the end of this year that will make the achievement of affordable obligations fair and reasonable to municipalities which are struggling mightily to make ends meet. The importance of Marlboro’s affordable housing obligations cannot be overlooked but neither can any adverse impacts caused by this process, overdevelopment, irrational planning and development, nor the welfare of our community and residents.
Please call me should you have any questions on this or any other issue.
Very truly yours,
Jonathan L. Hornik
Mayor of Marlboro
