(With Lt. Gov. Guadagno at today's bill signing ceremony are, from left, Ted Zangari, Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.; Bob Lieb, Mountain Development; George Sowa, Brandywine Realty Trust and 2011 NAIOP NJ President; and Anthony Pizzutillo, Smith Pizzutillo LLC)

Acting Governor Kim Guadagno earlier today signed into law a bill that revives and extends a moratorium on the imposition of fees on non-residential construction projects until July 1, 2013. The statewide 2.5% non-residential development fees had been charged to office, commercial and industrial real estate developers to help municipalities meet affordable housing obligations. An earlier moratorium on the non-residential fee requirement expired on July 1, 2010, and the commercial development community has been living with an uncertain financial obligation on their construction pro formas ever since.

Under the moratorium, a commercial project which has or receives preliminary or final site plan approval prior to July 1, 2013 will be exempt from the 2.5% fee provided building permits are obtained for the project by December 31, 2015. The moratorium is effective retroactively to the end of the last moratorium (July 1, 2010), thereby allowing for the reimbursement of any fees that may have been paid by a developer to a municipality in the interim (unless the fees have already been spent by the municipality on an affordable housing project).