Opinion ID: 2365726
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Affirmative Action for Lower Income Housing

Text: Plaintiffs and supporting amici press for a judicial mandate that developing municipalities be required affirmatively to act for creation of additional lower income housing in more ways than by eliminating zoning restrictions militating against that objectives. Of the devices which have been suggested to this end, tax concessions and mandatory sponsorship of or membership in public housing projects must be summarily rejected. Tax concessions would unquestionably require enabling legislation and perhaps constitutional amendment. While we have described the sponsorship of public housing projects as a moral obligation of the municipality in certain specified circumstances, Mount Laurel, 67 N.J. at 192, we have no lawful basis for imposing such action as obligatory. It goes without saying, however, that the zoning in every developing municipality must erect no bar or impediment to the creation and administration of public housing projects in appropriate districts. See also id. at 211-212 (Pashman, J., concurring). We have hereinabove indicated that provision by zoning for density bonuses keyed to quantitative or bulk concessions by the builder ( e.g., added bedrooms) is both valid and mandatory where necessary to achieve sufficient suitable least-cost housing, but that we are not prepared presently to pass upon the validity of zoning for bonuses keyed to rental or sale price concessions. Various additional suggestions for encouraging the proliferation of lower cost housing on municipal initiative are set forth in the supplemental amicus brief of The Public Advocate but are not deemed to require comment here as none warrant mandatory imposition in any revised Madison ordinance. See also Mount Laurel, 67 N.J. 209-213 (Pashman, J., concurring).