Promoting economic growth in New Jersey by creating homes that are affordable to the workforce and friendly to the environment
The Smart Housing Incentive Act is intended to provide people who live and work in New Jersey with greater opportunities for homeownership and rental housing they can afford, especially near jobs and with access to transportation alternatives. This housing will be located and designed to use our natural resources wisely and respect the environment. By meeting the needs of our workforce, it will facilitate economic growth.
The act creates a voluntary state pilot program designed to overcome a key obstacles: local opposition to residential zoning. The program rewards municipalities that adopt as-of-right zoning for housing that is:
1) Well-located – in places where state and regional plans support significant growth, where wastewater can be provided and in an area either near transit, concentrated development, identified by a municipal plan as appropriate for higher density or containing a brownfield or greyfield site.
2) Walkable – compact development with minimum densities ranging from eight units/acre in suburban neighborhoods to 20 units/acre near transit to 50 units/acre in urban downtowns. Public sidewalks and roads must connect the development with surrounding neighborhoods.
3) Water- and energy- efficient – meeting standards for Energy Star and water conservation.
4) Mixed-income – including a mix of opportunities for low, moderate, middle, and upper-income households, thereby helping towns meet COAH requirements and address local housing needs.
The program fosters well-designed projects, by encouraging a mix of uses, authorizing municipalities to adopt design standards and reduced/shared parking requirements, and calling for tailored Residential Site Improvement Standards.
The program offers municipalities three types of incentives:
1) Planning and visioning grants,
2) Incentive payments for every net new unit in an approved Smart Housing Zone of $1,000 when zoning is adopted and $4,000 when construction is complete. Payments are limited to 500 units per municipality for five years.
3) Priority for other state programs that help local officials address the impacts of growth.
Municipalities can spend up to one-half of the incentive payments for any capital or operating expenditure reasonably related to providing services to additional residents. The remainder must be spent on “green investments” such as land preservation, park/public space improvements and energy efficiency measures.
The program would be administered by the Department of Community Affairs. The Department could require a municipality to return incentive funds under certain conditions.
The program can be launched as a revenue-neutral pilot program. Planning grants would be provided using funds from existing programs. A new state revolving fund would be created to pay incentives to municipalities. It would be replenished by developer fees of $4,000 for each net new middle and market-rate unit, and grants from the New Jersey Affordable Housing trust fund for net new low and moderate income units. It was inspired by successful programs operating in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
For more information or sign on as a supporter, call my office district office at (908) 561-5757, or send me an email at asmgreen@njleg.org.
1 comment:
Assemblymen Green:
This proposed act, whether presented as a supplement to A500 or as part of an overall new affordable housing bill package, is a sensible and flexible approach. It is predicatable, easy to administer for the municipality, has a guranteed and predictable funding mechanisim and most importantly has a realistic chance of reaching the goal of providing affordable housing. I received an advanced copy of this draft from Peter Kasbach, who made a presentation on another topic at the League meetings. I have circulated this draft widely and from what I have heard back I think most would get behind this type of thoughtful legislation, assuming there are no suprises in the full bill text, which there were in A500. The old regs. and A500 while laudable in its original intent, relied too much on a cookie cutter approach and was laced with too many unknowns. No discussions took place with the municipalities, at least not ours. It was just too unworkable, costly and confusing to administer and thrust upon the municiplaities much too quickly. Thank you for standing up at the League session and being so candid. Please help us do the right thing. We can't be punished anymore than we are already.
Stephen Moliver-Galloway Twp. Economic Development Committee Chairman
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