On Thursday, May 21, the Senate voted 22-14 to amend a bill sponsored by Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) that would permit developers to convert age-restricted units to non-age-restricted units as long as they set aside a portion of the units for affordable housing.
The Senate agreed to the Governor’s changes set forth in his statement accompanying his conditional veto. The bill will now have to be approved by the Assembly before being sent to the Governor for his signature.
Under the terms of the bill (S-2577), for a developer to be eligible for conversion they would have to set aside 20 percent of the units for affordable housing.
According to the press release from the Senate Democrats:
The bill says if a developer converts an age-restricted project to non-age restricted, the units that are set aside for affordable housing would count toward a municipality’s affordable housing obligation. But the market rate units in the development would not generate any additional growth share obligation under the Fair Housing Act.
. . . .
In his conditional veto message, the Governor recommended that in order for a development to be converted from age-restricted to non age-restricted, the developer of the age-restricted development must agree that a minimum of 20 percent of the units in the development will be provided as affordable units. The Senate bill originally required only that the developer provide an amount not to exceed 20 percent.
The Governor also inserted language to provide that if the approving board determines that the requirements of the bill have been satisfied and the conversion can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and will not substantially impair the intent and purpose of the zone plan and zoning ordinance, the application for the conversion would be approved.
The Governor’s final recommendation modifies the appeal process within the bill, so the court would consider the reasonableness of the decision, rather than whether or not the criteria within the bill has been satisfied.
For the complete press release, click here.
For the Governor’s conditional veto message, click here.
