Demand that Governor Murphy restore the Council on Affordable Housing

    Cranford Township Committee recently joined 10 other NJ municipalities calling for action to get the courts out of the affordable housing arena and return authority to Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), as was intended by 1985 Legislation.      

 

The action urges Governor Phil Murphy to make appointments to the COAH Board which no Governor has done since Gov. Chris Christie tried to abolish COAH in 2013. Leaving important development decisions to trial judges is unfair to municipalities trying to fulfill their obligations in good faith and further unnecessarily burdens the Courts. 

 

  As a Cranford resident, I support the resolution and agree that:

1.    Governor Murphy must make appointments to the Council on Affordable Housing as intended by the 1985 legislation and remove the Courts from the decision-making process of local development.

2.   COAH should impose only realistic fair share responsibilities on municipalities and not require municipalities to approve builder’s plans that the local infrastructure can't handle

3.      Home rule must be restored and municipalities that agree to voluntarily comply must be able to secure approval of an affordable housing plan the municipality deems to be the best plan for the community free from the demands of developers and threat of a builder’s remedy lawsuit.