A Hudson County judge has barred three luxury apartment buildings in Hoboken from leasing market-rate units until they comply with a decades-old city law requiring affordable housing.<\/p>\n
The ruling, issued by Judge Joseph Turula, applies to the VINE, Park+Garden, and Artisan buildings, all of which have operated without providing the affordable units<\/a> mandated by Hoboken\u2019s inclusionary zoning ordinance.<\/p>\n The case originally included a fourth property, the Harlow, whose owners settled earlier in the litigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Enacted in 1988, the ordinance requires residential developments with more than 10 units to reserve 10% for low- and moderate-income households.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is undisputed (that) the defendants have failed to honor these legal obligations,\u201d Turula said at a hearing in the cases on July 17.<\/p>\n The court decision marks a major victory for the Fair Share Housing Center, which filed the cases more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n Fair Share Housing Center is a nonprofit advocacy organization based in New Jersey that works to advance housing justice by using legal action, policy reform, and community engagement.<\/p>\n \u201cThis case shows that developers will be held accountable when they try to skirt affordable housing laws,\u201d said Josh Bauers, director of exclusionary zoning litigation at Fair Share Housing Center. <\/p>\n \u201cHoboken is one of the most expensive places in New Jersey, and affordable homes here can be life-changing for families,\u201d Bauers added. \u201cThis decision is a major step toward making sure working families \u2014 not just the wealthy \u2014 can afford to live here in Hoboken.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike New Jersey\u2019s Mount Laurel doctrine \u2014 which stems from a series of landmark state Supreme Court decisions beginning in 1975 \u2014 Hoboken\u2019s ordinance was adopted independently.<\/p>\n The Mount Laurel doctrine requires every municipality in New Jersey to provide its \u201cfair share\u201d of the region\u2019s need for affordable housing. <\/p>\n The doctrine stems from the case, Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mount Laurel Township.<\/p>\n The doctrine established a constitutional obligation for towns to use their zoning powers to enable the construction of affordable housing. <\/p>\n Today, most affordable housing litigation in New Jersey \u2014 including challenges brought by developers and advocacy groups \u2014 is rooted in Mount Laurel obligations. <\/p>\n Hoboken\u2019s inclusionary zoning ordinance, by contrast, was enacted in 1988 and operates independently of the Mount Laurel framework. <\/p>\n It applies locally, requiring developers of buildings with more than 10 units to set aside 10% for low- and moderate-income households \u2014 a mandate that has often gone unenforced until now.<\/p>\n Bauers emphasized that local inclusionary zoning laws like Hoboken\u2019s are \u201ccritical tools that augment our statewide affordable housing framework to ensure every community creates its fair share of affordable homes.\u201d<\/p>\n Fair Share Housing Center and local advocates began scrutinizing Hoboken\u2019s ordinance around 2010, after noticing inconsistent enforcement. <\/p>\n By 2011, as new developments came before the city\u2019s Zoning Board, organizers pushed for stricter compliance. <\/p>\n Developers at the time acknowledged the ordinance and publicly stated their intent to follow it.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately it boiled down to there being four developments that were approved between 2011 and 2012, all of which got approved with what we felt were token requirements from the ordinance, but not an actual plan to comply,\u201d Bauers said.<\/p>\n The litigation has stretched for more than a decade and has gone to the Appellate Division twice. <\/p>\n Under the most recent court order, the developers must add a total of 40 affordable units across the three buildings, including two- and three-bedroom apartments. <\/p>\n At least 25% of the units must be designated for low-income households, with the remainder for moderate-income families.<\/p>\n However, the developers have filed a motion to stay the ruling pending appeal. Bauers said Fair Share Housing Center will oppose that stay.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about enforcing the rules that have been on the books since 1988,\u201d Bauers said. \u201cThese developers have profited enormously while ignoring their legal obligation to provide homes for working families.\u201d<\/p>\n Requests for comment from attorneys for the Hoboken properties and from the mayor\u2019s office were not immediately returned.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Hudson County judge has barred three luxury apartment buildings in Hoboken from leasing market-rate units until they…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":236851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,81699,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-236850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-hoboken","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115226440475521595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}