TOWNSHIP OF HOWELL

Municipal Complex

251 Preventorium Road

Howell, NJ 07731

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

Joseph M. DiBella

(732) 938-4500

The Never-Ending Saga & Scam of COAH

August 4, 2008 – The term COAH has become a house hold name across New Jersey. It has emerged as a term that is synonymous with the continued failures of our Sate government to produce creative, realistic solutions for New Jersey. As you likely know, COAH stands for the Council on Affordable Housing. Sounds simple enough, right? In fact the name even has a certain connotation to it that would suggest it is intended to help people and perhaps create policies designed to support the protection of affordable housing on New Jersey. Unfortunately it is anything but that. The truth is COAH has become an undesirable four-letter word that stands to cripple Howell Township and many other communities across the state.

First some background on this issue: COAH is the off spring of the now infamous Mount Laurel Supreme Court decisions. If you’re not familiar with the Mount Laurel issue, you should be because like many other more high profile issues, the Mount Laurel mess has cost tax payers hundreds of millions and has deprived us our ability to slow down residential growth. The issue is named after a 1975 NJ Supreme Court case in which the court ruled it was illegal to design zoning laws that made it economically impossible to provide for low and moderate income housing in a community. The basis of the ruling certainly sounds reasonable and perhaps back then it was well intended. However, 33 years later affordable housing is still an issue in NJ and the solutions the courts and the state’s government have offered have failed miserably.

I have written to the community in the past regarding this matter and have outlined the challenges we’ll face in dealing with the latest rules from COAH. These latest rules are now out and the matter has gotten even worse. The State’s latest regulations are more devastating than ever. In fact, according to our township manager Howell will be obligated to allow close to 900 MORE residential homes be built in Howell. This is a staggering figure that will bankrupt our community, destroy our way of life and bring crippling taxes. The impact is so enormous it’s nearly incalculable.

Just consider this: if each of these 900 homes produces an average of just 2 school age children we’ll have an additional 1,800 kids to educate. Assuming it costs $12,000 to educate a child this could result in additional educational costs of a whopping $21.6 million dollars alone. The impact on police, fire and first aid would be overwhelming and would require expensive increases in resources and equipment. Then there are the infrastructure costs; the impact on our roads, water supply and other resources. The impact and changes to our quality of life would be immeasurable with homes crammed on every shred of open land we have left.

The simple fact is we cannot let this happen. To be clear, I believe we need protections to ensure there is affordable housing for people of our State and in our community. Times are tough and more than ever people need affordable housing. However, the answer is not an arbitrary system that mandates that houses have to be built. It is so bad now that in the proposed new rules, additional homes are mandated to be built based in part on the number of new jobs that are added to a community; talk about a disincentive for business development!

The State also needs to strike down the Mount Laurel debacle, and fast. If the State wants to deal with the issue of creating affordable housing, they should start with making NJ more affordable first. Even if the State could create more affordable home prices, people would still leave in droves because they can’t afford to pay their taxes. We also need to demand the State require developers to pay for some of the cost affiliated with development like roads, infrastructure and schools. Today State law gives developers a free-pass on the costs of these items and instead passes the bill back to the tax payers. Termed “impact fees”, if builders had to help pay for the costs needed to pick up the additional burdens created by more houses, perhaps they would build fewer. The fact is that the politicians in Trenton are unwilling to tackle this issue for fear of angering the Builder’s lobby and other special interests. Mandating impact fees should be a part of any contained growth strategy for NJ.

Under the latest rules Howell Township must make plans to accommodate how we’ll handle these nearly 900 new homes to the community. We have to hire lawyers, planners and other professionals just to write the plan for how we’ll cram these 90 homes into our neighborhoods. The preparation costs alone are staggering.

I say enough is enough. I have recommended to the Township Council that we file a petition with the courts to refuse to comply with these ridiculous laws and that we fight the new rules with everything we’ve got. Simply put, we have no choice. While we have certain obligations to comply with the law, I want us to direct a majority of our resources towards defeating these rules and ending the madness affiliated with COAH. Other towns across the State are talking similar approaches and so I am also suggesting we band together with as many of them as we can to defray the costs associated with our upcoming court battle. If there is ever a cause with fighting for, this is it.

We need your help as well. As Mayor, I am asking the entire community to rally around our efforts to defeat the COAH regulations. You can start by calling or writing the Governor (Office of the Governor, PO Box, 001, Trenton NJ, 08625, telephone 609-292-6000) and demand that he and the legislature address the affordable housing issue in a meaningful way and not by demanding more houses be built. Write to the Speaker of the Assembly and the President of the Senate as well. We need to flood their offices with calls, emails and letters demanding they take responsible action and stop sticking it to middle class communities like Howell.

Over the course of the next several weeks I expect the Township will define our legal position and strategy and so I‘ll share that with you. Now is the time for us all to come together to fight a common threat that impacts us all. No matter your political beliefs or affiliation let this be the cause that brings us together to protect Howell now and for generations to come. As your Mayor, you have my pledge that I shall do everything in my power to protect and defend our way of life.

Thank you in advance for your support.

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