Last Thursday, the Assembly Oversight, Reform, and Federal Relations Committee advanced A-3877, which proposes to establish certain state funding preferences for municipalities that enhance opportunities to develop housing. This legislation passed both chambers last session and was pocket vetoed last session by former Governor Murphy.
The League, along with the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, has long argued against proposals which preempt local zoning, and override local master plans, redevelopment proposals, and municipal housing plans. This legislation advances an incentive-based approach. For this to be most effective, this legislation needs an appropriation.
Amendments to the bill in the last session, which are reflected in the current version, removed all references to “State aid” and replaced it “financial assistance competitively awarded by the State” and clarified that the bill places no new mandates and requirements on municipalities. In addition to State aid, the bill does not apply to programs administered by the Department of Community Affairs in support of shared services, programs that allow multiple municipalities to join a single application for competitively awarded financial assistance, and programs where other entities in addition to municipalities may apply, as well as the Main Street New Jersey Program.
We would like to thank Assembly Speaker Coughlin and the other sponsors for positively addressing so many of our concerns in this legislation regarding local discretion, the process, potentially impacted funding programs, and providing broader opportunities for municipal consideration.
We hope that this approach can serve as a model going forward for partnering between the State and local governments. Importantly, this bill is permissive for municipalities and does not seek to preempt local zoning, land use, and municipal objectives.
The legislation stands at 2nd reading in the Assembly. S-2960. The Senate counterpart has not yet been considered in the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee.
Contacts: Mike Cerra, Executive Director, 609-695-3481 x. 120, mcerra@njlm.org or Paul Penna, Director of Government Affairs, 609-695-3481 x. 110, ppenna@njlm.org