Published September 15, 2014
By Kathleen Lynn

* He is using issue to seek affordable housing changes, say developers, advocates

Governor Christie has drawn criticism from both developers and housing advocates for halting an effort to ease fees on developers, while using the issue to propose a wide range of changes to the state's affordable-housing policies.

Observers say the Republican governor's affordable-housing proposals are unlikely to gain traction in the Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats.

On Thursday, Christie vetoed a bill that would have suspended a 2.5 percent fee paid by commercial developers and used to finance affordable housing. The fee, which is paid to towns, was first established in 2008, but had been suspended for a total of four years, to encourage construction in a difficult economic climate. The latest moratorium on the fee expired a year ago; the bill would have suspended the fee again.

In his conditional veto, Christie acknowledged that he has supported the moratorium in the past, but said "meaningful, long-term affordable-housing reform cannot be realized as long as the Legislature refuses to fix the Fair Housing Act." The veto, he said, is a "steppingstone to achieve that change." In his veto, he suggested a number of changes to the bill that would loosen affordable-housing requirements.

Supporters of the legislation said the veto would mean developers will continue paying the fee.

"That's neither good for job creation nor economic growth. The governor has, for all intents and purposes, approved a tax hike on businesses," said Assemblyman John Burzichelli, a Gloucester County Democrat and one of the bill's sponsors.

"I'm disappointed the governor didn't just sign the bill to address the need to send a signal to business that we're interested in your business and we'd like to have those jobs here," said Michael McGuinness, head of the New Jersey chapter of NAIOP, the commercial developers' trade group. He said the commercial developers had been "dragged into" the complicated question of affordable housing.

Affordable-housing advocates also criticized the veto, saying the governor's proposals would loosen the requirements on developers to provide affordable housing. They said the Legislature was unlikely to consider the proposals.

"This is not a serious proposal from the governor," said Kevin Walsh, director of the Fair Share Housing Center in Cherry Hill.

"Historically, his ideas have been a non-starter, so we are optimistic the Legislature will not act on this," said Nina Arce, a spokeswoman for the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey in Trenton.

Lawmakers have been unable to pass legislation on affordable housing; the last attempt ended in a veto by Christie in early 2011. The issue also remains tied up in litigation before the state Supreme Court, as housing advocates and the Christie administration have disagreed over how much affordable housing should be required.

Christie ran for office in 2009 promising to significantly weaken the state's affordable housing council, and he tried unsuccessfully to disband the council after taking office.

Carl Goldberg, co-president of Mack-Cali Realty Corp.'s Roseland unit, said at a conference last week that New Jersey's inability to nail down an affordable-housing policy is making it difficult to compete with neighboring states in terms of economic growth.

Goldberg said developers, investors and lenders need to understand their affordable-housing obligations before starting a project. "Our inability to come to grips with the severity of this problem is chasing private investment away from the state," he said.

He added that he had spoken to a Kansas pharmaceutical company that was considering relocating to the Garden State, but it decided not to because not all its employees would be able to afford to live here.

Staff Writers Linda Moss and John Reitmeyer contributed to this article. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @KathleenLynn3