Despite opposition from affordable housing advocates, the Senate Budget Committee approved a bill sponsored by State Senator Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) which would suspend the 2.5 percent non-residential affordable housing development fee adopted as part of the A-500 legislation in July of 2008.

According to the Star Ledger:

Lesniak’s bill would suspend the 2.5 percent fee on all commercial and industrial development that was imposed under last July’s affordable housing reforms. The measure would exempt from the fee all nonresidential development projects that receive site plan approval from a municipality or from the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission before July 1, 2010.

The bill also would suspend the obligation municipalities are under to build affordable housing as long as the state does not provide funding to replace revenue the fee would have raised. The bill would divert $15 million from the state’s long-term obligations and capital expenditure fund to affordable housing.

For the full article, click here.