While New Jersey fights against a planned ICE detention center in Roxbury Township, developers are lining up to potentially supersede the municipality’s zoning rules to build their own projects.
Last month, a district court judge took away Roxbury’s legal immunity from builder’s remedy lawsuits, Gothamist reported, after the township withdrew from the state’s affordable housing planning process. That opens the door to a legal fight with developers that want to build locally, even without the township’s blessing.
The Garden State is in the midst of its fourth round of affordable housing under its Mount Laurel doctrine, which mandates every municipality build its “fair share” of affordable housing units.
After initially receiving a target of nearly 1,000 affordable units, Roxbury managed to negotiate with the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center to lower its target to 499 units, though the township wanted an even sharper decrease to 358 units.
But when Roxbury officials filed plans last year, the affordable unit count for the next decade of building was a paltry eight units, citing environmental constraints for the drastic failure to meet the target total.
In September, the Fair Share Housing Center challenged 16 municipalities regarding their Mount Laurel doctrine obligations, calling on the municipalities to be stripped of immunity from the controversial builder’s remedy possibility, which allows for a developer to sue to build a project with affordable units, even if it doesn’t conform to the town’s zoning.
In the intervening months, most of the municipalities in question have worked out a deal with the Fair Share Housing Center. Roxbury, however, did not and announced plans to withdraw from the state affordable housing planning process altogether, according to an attorney from the nonprofit.
The Fair Share Housing Center called for Roxbury to lose its immunity if it followed through on its threat. A judge concurred.
The mayor and township manager did not comment to the publication on the unfolding situation.
Affordable housing isn’t the only development facing resistance in Roxbury. Last week, the New Jersey attorney general’s office sued the Trump administration over the detention center planned in the borough.
Last month, a Goldman Sachs-backed venture in partnership with Dalfen Industrial sold a 470,000-square-foot warehouse in Roxbury to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The facility will be operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a new immigration detention center, which is expected to add about 1,500 beds to New Jersey’s detention capacity.
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