COAH Proposes New Regulations to Create “RCA-Lite” for Favored Towns
Senator Steven Oroho (R-24) said that new regulations set to be adopted by the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) prove once again that the Corzine Administration lacks both direction and a coherent plan for managing development in New Jersey.
Under proposed regulations set to be adopted at its upcoming September 9 meeting, COAH will reincarnate a scaled-down version of the Regional Contribution Agreements (RCAs) that were banned when Governor Corzine signed A-500 into law. The proposed regulations allow for the creation of Regional Affordable Housing Development Planning Programs (RAHDPPs), essentially “RCA-lite,” which have guidelines that closely mirror those that governed RCAs.
“Governor Corzine and COAH proponents used words like ‘reprehensible’ to describe the Regional Contribution Agreements that A-500 outlawed, ” said Senator Oroho. “Now, only one year later, the Governor is allowing COAH to adopt a plan for ‘RCA-Lite’ without saying a word. His silence is deafening.”
In language banning RCAs, a portion of A-500 states that: “The Legislature finds that the use of regional contribution agreements, which permits municipalities to transfer a certain portion of their fair share housing obligation outside of the municipal borders, should no longer be utilized as a mechanism for the creation of affordable housing by the council.”
Another section of the legislation, however, allows “regional planning entities” to create plans that allow for the transfer of a portion of one municipality’s affordable housing obligation to another, using language that is strikingly reminiscent of RCAs. Although A-500 did not specify how those plans were to be structured, the soon-to-be-adopted COAH regulations structure RHADPPs as a fraternal twin of the RCAs that Corzine outlawed.
“We shouldn’t be surprised that the people at COAH went back to the well and modeled the new regional planning agreements on RCAs, ” said Oroho. “Through this reincarnation, even COAH seems to agree that Governor Corzine’s push to ban RCAs was misguided.”
The combination of A-500 and the proposed regulation would allow regional planning entities, including the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, the Pinelands Commission, the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority and the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, to adopt RAHDPPs that transfer affordable housing obligations between municipalities within their jurisdictions. Similar authority would be given to the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority in conjunction with the Atlantic County Planning Board. Municipalities that are outside of the jurisdictions of those entities would not have any opportunity to participate in regional agreements.
“If RCAs are to be made available to some towns again, regardless of what COAH calls them, they should be available to all.” added Oroho. “Until Governor Corzine shows some leadership and stops signing laws that allow preferential treatment to be given to favored towns, property taxes across New Jersey will continue rising.”
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March 30, 2011
