19 May 2008

COAH Woes

New Jersey municipalities have been complaining about recently announced Council On Affordable Housing mandates - They are unfair, arbitrary, don't take into account land preservation initiatives or towns' master plans, and undo much of the work towns have done since 2004.

Hillsborough Township officials have decided to put their money where their mouths are by throwing in with the League of Municipalities in a potential lawsuit to fight COAH Round Three obligations.

Our $500 pledge is a nice token, but I don't see how it will make any difference. Seventy other municipalities around the state have also anted up, but it won't be nearly enough. I would think that you would need at least half of the state's 550 municipalities to contribute AT LEAST $5000 apiece to even get started.

I have previously given my opionion of COAH. I think the whole thing stinks. Fixing it will require a complete dismantling of the COAH bureaucracy and a new vision for what affordable housing really means. Until then, every resident in Hillsborough could pony up $500 and it wouldn't do a bit of good.

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