Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
NJ towns ask judge to throw out builders' lawsuit over affordable housing
By
Mike Hayes
Published Mar 12, 2025
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images
By
Mike Hayes
Published Mar 12, 2025
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Officials in more than 150 New Jersey towns say a prominent builders association has no business telling them how much affordable housing to develop.
Attorneys for the municipalities, including Upper Saddle River, Livingston and East Brunswick, are asking a judge to dismiss a wide-reaching lawsuit filed by the New Jersey Builders Association last month targeting 158 towns. It argues that the towns must go beyond what their local officials say is possible and commit to building more affordable housing.
The builders association’s legal action came after town officials asked the state to lower their affordable housing obligations under the Mount Laurel doctrine, established in a series of state Supreme Court decisions dating back to the 1970s that require each municipality to contribute its “fair share” of affordable housing.
New Jersey is gearing up for its next 10-year round of Mount Laurel development starting in July. State officials aim to build more than 84,000 new affordable homes across the Garden State by 2035. In October 2024, town officials received the state’s calculations for how many low-priced units their municipalities would be responsible for building. According to the Department of Community Affairs, the numbers were based on factors such as average income and available land.
As Gothamist reported, each town is being asked to build about 150 homes on average, though some have to build many more.
More than a quarter of the 440 towns that filed resolutions in January committing to the process also claimed that the state had miscalculated their total amounts of developable land and asked the state to reduce their affordable housing obligations.
In its legal challenge, the builders association said that granting the reductions would amount to about 14,000 fewer homes being built in the state. The trade group asked a panel of judges assigned to review each town’s filing to reject all the requests and order the towns to commit to the state’s original amounts.
The builders took their action a step further on March 5, asking Judge Thomas Miller, the chair of the special panel reviewing the disputes, to consolidate all 158 lawsuits into one case. The latest maneuver set off a flurry of activity from the towns’ attorneys asking for the builders’ challenge to be dismissed.
Attorney Edward Buzak, who represents Upper Saddle River, told the judge that the trade group did not provide “a scintilla” of evidence that the borough deviated from the state’s formula when it asked the state to lower its affordable housing obligation.
“We respectfully request that Your Honor recommend the dismissal of the [builders’] filing,” Buzak wrote to the judge.
Upper Saddle River officials have requested that their obligation for the next Mount Laurel round be reduced from 233 to 201 affordable homes. They claim the state erred when it estimated that the borough has 12 acres of developable land. The actual number is around six acres, according to a resolution passed in January by Council President Jonathan Ditkoff and other members of Upper Saddle River Council.
The builders association did not respond to a request for comment on the motions to dismiss.
The state’s panel of judges is working to resolve all disputes over the towns’ obligations by the end of the month.
Separately, the Fair Share Housing Center has filed challenges against 68 towns. The influential housing nonprofit has asked the panel of judges to redistribute the affordable housing targets for the 158 towns disputing their numbers so that New Jersey stays on track to build 84,000 new low-priced homes over the next decade. The group's executive director, Adam Gordon, said that could mean that some towns’ numbers go up.
Tagged
new jersey
housing
Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .