Opinion ID: 1901249
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mount Laurel II

Text: Plaintiffs here are the same as in Mount Laurel I (Southern Burlington County N.A.A.C.P., Camden County C.O.R.E., Camden County N.A.A.C.P. and several individuals). They are, or represent, lower income persons seeking housing in Mount Laurel. They are joined by Davis Enterprises, a mobile home developer permitted, on remand after our original decision, to intervene as plaintiff. They attack Mount Laurel's amended zoning ordinance passed in response to Mount Laurel I, which invalidated those portions of the existing zoning ordinance inconsistent with it. The remand in that decision required adoption of an amended ordinance within 90 days (or as extended by the trial court) and allowed the plaintiffs to file a supplemental complaint 30 days after such adoption if they wished to challenge the amended ordinance. Mount Laurel I, 67 N.J. at 191. The amended ordinance was adopted on April 19, 1976, 13 months, rather than 90 days, after our opinion. The action now before us was filed shortly thereafter. After ruling that all developing municipalities were required, through their land use regulations, affirmatively to provide a realistic opportunity for lower income housing, we had held Mount Laurel's zoning ordinance invalid only to the extent and in the particulars set forth in this opinion. Mount Laurel I, 67 N.J. at 191. [46] Instead of attempting to amend those specific deficiencies, Mount Laurel simply added three new zones to meet its fair share obligation, presumably assuming that such action would conform to the underlying intent of our ruling. We find that the amended ordinance falls far short of what was required, that it neither corrects the particular deficiencies of the prior ordinance nor otherwise affirmatively provides a realistic opportunity for Mount Laurel's fair share of lower income housing. It is little more than a smoke screen that attempts to hide the Township's persistent intention to exclude housing for the poor. In our original decision we gave Mount Laurel the opportunity to amend its ordinance. Stating that [w]e trust it will do so in the spirit we have suggested ..., Mount Laurel I, 67 N.J. at 192, we declined to impose any judicial supervision over the municipality's efforts to comply. Our trust was ill placed. Therefore, to assure compliance with our mandate, all further proceedings to conform to today's decision shall be strictly supervised by the trial court, including not only any further litigation that may be required by this opinion, but all municipal action needed to conform to this and the trial court's judgment. The original Mount Laurel ordinance under trial court review in 1972 provided for several zones: an industrial zone (about 30 percent of the land  although there is some dispute about that), a retail business zone (1.2 percent of the land), and five residential zones that included approximately 10,000 of the Township's 14,000 acres. Four of those five residential zones allowed only detached single family residences, the requirements being such as would prevent low and moderate income families from buying them. The fifth residential zone was the only one allowing multi-family housing, but it consisted of only 200 of the 10,000 residential acres, was designed for single-ownership development of the entire zone, was limited to senior citizens, and contained restrictions and requirements that again brought the price or rental beyond the means of low and moderate income retirees. Additionally, Mount Laurel had approved four planned unit developments (PUDs) pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:55-54 to -67 (subsequently repealed by the Municipal Land Use Law), [47] which, when completed, would provide for approximately 10,000 units by the year 2000. While allowing multi-family housing, these PUDs (which were carved out of the industrial and three residential zones) were similarly too expensive for lower income families. The resolutions authorizing them noted that they would attract a highly educated and trained population base ..., Mount Laurel I, 67 N.J. at 168, and it was clear that only persons of medium and upper income [were] sought as residents. Id. at 167. This Court's conclusion that no low or moderate income housing could be built in Mount Laurel was based on numerous restrictions and cost-generating provisions contained in its land use regulations as well as on the total absence (except for the PUDs and the senior citizen housing) of any provision for multi-family housing. Those restrictions included large lot zoning (or more accurately, the absence of small lot zoning), limitations on multi-bedroom homes and units, penalties for a large number of children per unit, contribution requirements for multi-family units, excessive minimums for frontages, setbacks, front yards, and home sizes, overall density maximums for sections and projects, paving requirements, and more. This Court specifically declared some of these restrictive devices invalid. Nothing has really changed since the date of our first opinion, either in Mount Laurel or in its land use regulations. The record indicates that the Township continues to thrive with added industry, some new businesses, and continued growth of middle, upper middle, and upper income housing. [48] As far as lower income housing is concerned, from the date of that opinion to today (as far as the record before us shows) no one has yet constructed one unit of lower income housing  nor has anyone even tried to. [49] Mount Laurel's lower income housing effort has been either a total failure or a total success  depending on its intention. We realize that given today's economy, especially as it affects housing, the failure of developers to build lower income housing does not necessarily prove that a town's zoning ordinances are unduly restrictive. One might have expected, however, that in the eight years that have elapsed since our decision, Mount Laurel would have something to show other than this utter cipher  that is, unless one looked at the amended ordinance. Mount Laurel's notion of providing a realistic opportunity to build lower income housing has led to the rezoning of less than one-fourth of one percent of its land (about 20 out of 14,700 acres). This miniscule acreage consists of three zones, R-5, -6, and -7, each one owned by a different individual (apparently not residential developers in the cases of R-5 and R-6) who may very well elect never to take advantage of the alleged opportunity to build lower income housing. The zone designated R-5, consisting of 13 acres, allows the construction of townhouses and garden apartments with a maximum of 10 units per acre. It is owned by an industrial developer, is totally surrounded by industrially zoned land, virtually isolated from residential uses, has no present access to other parts of the community, no water or sewer connections nearby, is in the path of a proposed high speed railroad line, and is subject to possible flooding. It would be hard to find (other than R-6) a less suitable parcel for lower income or indeed any kind of housing. Furthermore, as one of plaintiffs' experts pointed out, no experienced industrial developer would allow this parcel to become a pocket of protesting residents objecting to his planned industrial uses surrounding them. The R-6 zone is for detached single family residences on 6,000 square foot lots, which is an effort to comply with the Mount Laurel I requirement that there be some residential development permitted on very small lots. Mount Laurel I, 67 N.J. at 187. It includes, however, only 7.45 acres. It has an extremely serious drainage problem, lying so low compared to the surrounding area that it would cost $10,000 per acre, according to plaintiffs' experts, to raise it so as to minimize that problem. In addition, there are no water or sewer connections nearby. There are cost-generating requirements concerning parking, street widths, and others, that will subsequently affect the price of homes, if they are ever to be built. The size of the zone itself is so small that it is highly unlikely that any developer would consider building low and moderate income housing there, for the necessary economies of scale could never be achieved. Defendant's planner estimated that only 30 units could be built in this zone, and conceded that under no circumstances would anything be built for five to six years since there would be no sewer or water access available until then. Lower income housing on this tract is a phantom. The R-7 zone is somewhat more complex. It does not consist of any specific land but rather is defined as being a maximum of 10 percent of the units to be built in Section VII of an existing approved PUD known as Larchmont. The only thing certain about this zone is that there will be no construction started until 1984, according to defendant's planner. R-7 is really not a zone at all, but rather a waiver by Mount Laurel of certain restrictions and requirements that would otherwise have been imposed on the Larchmont Section VII units. As noted in Mount Laurel I, the price of units scheduled to be built in this development would be far beyond the reach of low or moderate income families because of these restrictions. Plaintiffs' planner concluded that even without them, the developer would have no incentive to build lower income housing. In other words, R-7 provides the realistic opportunity for the construction of lower income housing by allowing, not requiring, such construction by an existing developer whose plans for middle and upper income housing are already intact and who will be permitted to build precisely what he had intended to build at a higher profit than could be realized from lower income housing. Unless something changes radically, it is certain that no builder will construct lower income housing in R-7. There is no evidence that the present developer has any intention to do so, especially in light of the benefits available to him when he builds upper and middle income housing in the R-7 zone. Mount Laurel's view of these zones is, of course, somewhat different. The Township itself, however, concedes that at the very most the three new zones could accommodate only 131 units of lower income housing. Their belief that this would be sufficient to comply with our mandate was based upon an analysis of Mount Laurel's fair share obligation that we find to be wholly inadequate. To determine its fair share, Mount Laurel first conducted an on-site study to determine its indigenous lower income housing need and concluded that this was 103 units based upon the number of deteriorated or dilapidated units in the Township and the number of lower income families presently residing in Mount Laurel paying rent beyond their means. [50] Mount Laurel then calculated its fair share of the prospective regional lower income housing need to the year 2000 as 515 units. The Township then incorrectly assumed that its indigenous housing obligation was part of its prospective need obligation and therefore concluded that its total obligation until the year 2000 was 515 units, 103 of which met its present indigenous need. The final step of the Township's fair share analysis was a determination that these 515 units should be phased in through the year 2000. The Township would allow immediately for the 103 units to meet its indigenous need, and permit the remaining 412 units in segments of 17 per year through 2000. The Township maintained at trial that once its three new zones were filled to capacity with lower income housing, it would create additional zones where necessary to meet its yearly quota. The shortcomings of Mount Laurel's fair share calculations are obvious: Mount Laurel adopted an approach calculated to lead to the smallest possible share of lower income units in order to keep such units out, as it has done successfully for so long. The Township began by adopting the estimate of its region's lower income housing need derived by another entity, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. We will for the moment assume the correctness of that Authority's conclusion that 22,900 units represents the prospective need to the year 2000 for Burlington County, although one could make a case  as plaintiffs' experts did  that that figure should be closer to 40,000. It is the allocation of this need among the municipalities of the county that is so blatantly self-serving. The sole factor used by Mount Laurel's planners in allocating this regional need for 22,900 lower income units was developable land. Its studies indicated that Mount Laurel had 5,936 acres of such land, and Burlington County 263,282 acres, and concluded that this 2.25 percent ratio, when applied to the county need of 22,900 units through the year 2000, meant that Mount Laurel's fair share was 515 units. Vacant developable land, at this point, may be regarded as land not legally committed to other uses. The formula, therefore, assigns the same share to 100 acres located 100 miles from Camden, totally unsuitable for lower income housing and totally devoid of any demand for such use, as it does to 100 acres 10 miles from the center of Camden, near shopping centers, transportation facilities, and highly suited for lower income housing and subject to intensive demand for such use. In fact Mount Laurel's formula equates the highly desirable vacant acreage of Mount Laurel with that of the Pine Barrens. Its analysis would lead to the conclusion that Bass River, located far from any activity that would suggest, at least at the present time, its desirability for lower income housing and with a present population of 1,000, has a fair share of 2,500 lower income units while Mount Laurel, located at the heart of the regional housing demand, and with a population of 17,614, has a fair share of 515 units. As one of the plaintiffs' experts noted, the Mount Laurel plan is not a fair share plan, virtually by definition. [51] More importantly, Mount Laurel failed to take certain critical factors into consideration in its allocation formula, namely, the land's suitability and the need for lower income housing. As for suitability, plaintiffs' expert noted that the distance from Camden was a fair measure of suitability (and perhaps need) in this analysis. She also noted that any respectable fair share formula took into consideration the need for lower income housing, usually using some kind of employment statistic as a measurement of that need, reflecting the obvious fact that people want to live near where they work. Plainly, consideration of these factors and reduction of the weight given to vacant developable land would substantially increase Mount Laurel's fair share allocation. [52] In sum, we find that Mount Laurel's 1976 revised zoning ordinance fails completely to comply with the mandate of Mount Laurel I. The three new zones created by the revised ordinance do not provide a realistic opportunity for the construction of any lower income housing. Further, even if those zones could realistically accommodate as much lower income housing as Mount Laurel claims (131 units), this would fall far short of Mount Laurel's fair share of the prospective regional lower income housing need  as would the 515 units that Mount Laurel claims it will accommodate by the year 2000. The conflicting testimony offered by Mount Laurel on these issues was unpersuasive. The Township planner responded to criticism that the use of vacant land as the exclusive criterion in determining fair share would result in allocating an enormous amount of lower income housing to the Pine Barrens (30 percent of the entire regional need, according to plaintiffs' expert) by noting that it is a very reasonable allocation method because the total units ... get equitably distributed over the entire county; and ... there are a lot of townships in the county land. Given the likelihood that areas such as the Pine Barrens that are reserved as conservation zones by the SDGP should not have any prospective fair share allocations, we find wholly unacceptable Mount Laurel's allocation formula, which would place a greater obligation on Pine Barrens municipalities. Mount Laurel also tried to deflect criticism of its zoning ordinance by contending once again that its PUDs, which this Court in Mount Laurel I found totally unsuited for lower income housing, did in fact provide a realistic opportunity for such housing. For the reasons outlined in Mount Laurel I, 67 N.J. at 167-69, 182-83, we again reject this contention. [53] Finally, Mount Laurel maintained that it had made an honest attempt in an unknown area and that the courts should defer to a municipality's good faith effort to determine and meet its fair share obligation. It was this argument that seems to have particularly impressed the trial court when it upheld the Township's revised zoning ordinance. Relying upon this Court's statement in Madison, that the entire problem of formulating fair share plans is essentially and functionally a legislative and administrative, not a judicial one, 72 N.J. at 541-42 (footnote omitted), and having concluded that Mount Laurel acted in good faith and with the express intent of compliance, Mount Laurel II, 161 N.J. Super. at 344, the trial court upheld Mount Laurel's fair share analysis and the resulting 1976 revised zoning ordinance. [54] The trial court's initial finding of compliance [55] is understandable in light of Madison. Under the objective tests of today's opinion, however, Mount Laurel's revised ordinance is plainly insufficient to meet the Township's Mount Laurel obligation. The plaintiffs not only show that Mount Laurel had failed to provide a realistic opportunity for the construction of its fair share of lower income housing, however that fair share is reasonably measured, but, even absent such evidence, also proved that the land use regulations of Mount Laurel remained facially invalid. The demonstration of facial invalidity does not depend upon an ordinance being totally bereft of provisions for multi-family dwellings; it is enough to show either that such provisions are woefully inadequate or are simply a smoke screen that diffuses the underlying exclusionary intent or effect. Moreover, a much more significant burden, different in kind although not in weight, was cast on Mount Laurel in this case. Mount Laurel's actions in this matter, commencing even prior to 1971 (for 1971 marks simply the date of the commencement of the original action, as distinguished from the date when Mount Laurel began to exclude lower income people, which undoubtedly occurred long before), require a modification of the rule that attaches presumptive validity to municipal ordinances. Its actions not only make such a presumption inappropriate, but, given the importance of the constitutional obligation, require just the reverse, namely, that the burden be cast on Mount Laurel to prove that its ordinances are valid. Presumptive validity of governmental action serves many important values. It acts as the most effective check on judicial interference with executive and legislative actions. It is justified by the fact that those in government generally act within the powers granted to them and do so properly. Ultimately it represents an assertion of faith in government, including an obligation on the part of the governed to abide by the rules of constituted authority, for it casts a heavy imprint of validity on any governmental action challenged by an individual. Absent particular fundamental interests (such as freedom of speech) that may be impinged upon, any governmental action from the issuance of a parking ticket to the seizure of a steel plant is presumptively valid. The genius of our system of laws is that it is only a presumption, for both may be set aside upon proper proof that the presumption was unwarranted. The exception, however, is a rare one, for the presumption goes deep, and indirectly includes the assumption of any conceivable state of facts, rationally conceivable on the record, that will support the validity of the action in question. Given the importance of the societal interest in the Mount Laurel obligation and the potential for inordinate delay in satisfying it, presumptive validity of an ordinance attaches but once in the face of a Mount Laurel challenge. Equal treatment requires at the very least that government be as fair to the poor as it is to the rich in the provision of housing-opportunities. That is the basic justification for Mount Laurel. When that clear obligation is breached, and instructions given for its satisfaction, it is the municipality, and not the plaintiffs, that must prove every element of compliance. It is not fair to require a poor man to prove you were wrong the second time you slam the door in his face. This ruling is similar to Kruvant v. Mayor & Council Twp. of Cedar Grove, 82 N.J. 435 (1980), where we announced a time of decision rule that precluded a municipality from blocking a particular use of land by continually adopting prohibitory ordinances, one just as invalid as the next. There was a time to stop, we said, and while it may have taken six ordinances in Kruvant before we called a halt to dilatory municipal action, the principle is the same: depending upon the circumstances, a time must come when the courts will cease to defer in the conventional manner to municipal action. In Kruvant, we refused to consider the most recently adopted municipal ordinance; here we refuse to accord presumptive validity to Mount Laurel's revised ordinance. The delay in this matter exceeds that in Kruvant, for the rights of those represented by plaintiffs have been denied for at least ten years and undoubtedly far longer. Furthermore, the interests protected here dwarf those involved in Kruvant, as important as they might have been, for Kruvant involved only the economic interests of the plaintiffs. Here we have plaintiffs who assert interest in one of the basic necessities of life, [56] and seek protection that, if denied, would similarly affect many, many other poor people. [57] We therefore remand this matter to the trial court for further proceedings to determine Mount Laurel's fair share, and upon such determination to require further actions by the municipality to assure the expeditious revision of Mount Laurel's land use regulations (and other actions) all in accordance with this opinion. While we have held that the bona fides of Mount Laurel is irrelevant in determining its compliance with the underlying constitutional obligation, it is not irrelevant in determining the remedy adopted herein. Where, as here, there is evidence of lack of municipal good faith and/or interminable delay, trial courts must closely supervise orders designed to compel compliance. Here that supervision must include the appointment of a master.
Davis Enterprises was permitted to intervene as plaintiff in this case after Mount Laurel I was decided. Davis proposed a 535 unit, 107 acre mobile home park for the Township. Davis committed itself to securing federal Section 8 subsidies for 20 percent of the units. Mount Laurel originally rejected the Davis project because its zoning ordinance barred all mobile homes. Although this rationale for excluding Davis is no longer tenable after our overturning of Vickers, supra at 275 we must still decide whether Davis is entitled to the builder's remedy it seeks. The trial court granted the builder's remedy, ordering the Mount Laurel Planning Board to consider the Davis application and review it in a manner consistent with the least-cost housing principles enunciated in Oakwood v. Madison, 161 N.J. Super. at 359. We affirm the grant of a builder's remedy. It is clearly appropriate in this case under the new standard enunciated in this opinion. First, the Davis project will provide lower income housing for Mount Laurel. Beside the fact that mobile homes are generally much less costly than site-built housing, the trial court's decision requires that Davis construct at least 20 percent of its units for lower income persons. In addition, the site chosen by Davis is plainly suited for mobile home development and Mount Laurel has presented no real evidence to the contrary. Finally, we feel that after ten years of litigation it is time that something be built for the resident and non-resident lower income plaintiffs in this case who have borne the brunt of Mount Laurel's unconstitutional policy of exclusion. The Mount Laurel Planning Board held hearings on the Davis project after this Court had already granted direct certification of the original trial court decision in Mount Laurel II. On May 8, 1980, after Davis had submitted a revised plan to the Board that reduced the number of proposed units from 535 to 456, the Board rejected the Davis project. On December 2, 1980, the trial court granted a motion made by Davis in aid of litigant's rights, R. 1:10-5, and ordered Mount Laurel to grant Davis a building permit on condition that Davis apply to HUD for Section 8 subsidies for 20 percent of its units. On March 17, 1981, we granted Davis' motion for direct certification pending an appeal of the trial court's order by the Township. We now affirm the December 2, 1980, order with the added condition that if Davis is not able to obtain the Section 8 subsidies being sought, the developer must use whatever other means are available to make certain that at least 20 percent of the units built are affordable by lower income households, with at least half of these being affordable by low income households. [58]