“I come here not to praise COAH, but to bury it.”
- Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union)

Senator Lesniak, who chairs the Senate Economic Growth Committee, has become one of the most vociferous critics of the state’s affordable housing regulations on the Democratic side of the aisle over the last several months, joining a cacophony of voices from the Republicans, who are in the minority. However, it is a bit unusual for a committee chair to release his planned opening statement several weeks in advance of the hearing on a bill which excoriates a part of the executive branch, and, by implication, the Governor himself, since he is the head of the executive branch, so I thought this would be an interesting read for those following the debate.

The bill, S-2485, is not yet available on the NJ Legislature’s web page but sources in Trenton say that the legislation will likely call for significant changes to the July 17, 2008 law commonly referred to as A-500 — particularly on the issue of the statewide 2.5% non-residential development fee. Here is a portion of Senator Lesniak’s blog entry with a link to the full article below:

COAH Reform: Life or Death For Our Economy

The following is Senator Lesniak’s statement opening a Senate hearing to be held later this month on reforming the policies of the Council On Affordable Housing (COAH).

I come here today not to praise COAH, but to bury it. In my 31 years of working with government’s bureaucracy, I have never experienced an agency that has so totally failed its mission as COAH has. If the legislature fails to act, and act quickly, COAH’s policies will continue to not produce necessary affordable housing and will stifle job production and the state’s recovery from the worldwide recession.

. . . .

For the sake of the future viability of our state as a prosperous and healthy entity that provides for the general welfare of all of our residents, we must reform COAH. Make no mistake about this effort. We will not tolerate any exclusionary zoning or any efforts to keep low income residents from living in a municipality. But attempts at social engineering that are contrary to the laws of economics, the laws of environmental protection and the laws of common sense are doomed to failure. And failure has been the signature of COAH throughout its existence. Low income residents of our state have been, and will continue to be, the most damaged by that failure.

Today we will be considering legislation sponsored by Democratic and Republican Senators which will bring much needed common sense and effectiveness into our government’s obligation to provide for affordable housing and the general welfare of our residents. We must succeed. Failure is not an option.

Those who support the status quo remind me of a line referring to President Lyndon Johnson in a Vietnam War protest song, “We’re knee deep in the big muddy and the big fool says to push on.” Let’s get out of the big muddy and then push on.

Here is a link to the full blog entry by the Senator on the NJ Voices blog at www.nj.com.