By now, most residential and mixed-use developers doing business in New Jersey have read that the Department of Community Affairs (“DCA”) late last Friday released its report calculating regional and municipal obligations for the fourth round of affordable housing units that must be built. DCA calculated the statewide affordable housing “present need” to be 65,410 units and “prospective need” to be 84,698 units. The report, along with each municipality’s present and prospective affordable housing needs, can be found here.

The fourth-round rules cover the time period of 2025-2035. A municipality’s present need is defined as the number of substandard existing affordable housing units which need to be rehabilitated, and the prospective need is defined as the anticipated affordable housing needs which need to be built during the next decade. It remains unclear exactly how the fourth-round calculations incorporate any still-unmet third-round obligation. Each municipality must address both its present and prospective needs.

The DCA report details each municipality’s affordable housing obligation and is just the first key step in the formulation, over the next year and a half, of a realistic opportunity to create more than 80,000 additional affordable housing units – and potentially more than 400,000 total units – throughout the next decade. Next, each municipality must adopt a resolution detailing how its present and prospective obligations were determined, which analysis may differ from the DCA’s calculations. A municipality’s determination may be challenged by an interested party, which presumably will be property owners, prospective developers, and the Fair Share Housing Center. Below is a complete timeline of the remaining steps in the fourth-round process: 

  • January 31, 2025: Each municipality must adopt a resolution with the determination of its present and prospective fair share obligation by this date. The municipality then must file an action regarding the resolution with the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program (the “Program”) within 48 hours of the adoption, and must post the resolution on its website.
    • If the municipality misses this deadline, it loses immunity from exclusionary zoning litigation until such time as the municipality is determined to have come into compliance with the Fair Housing Act and the Mt. Laurel doctrine.
  • February 28, 2025: The deadline for an interested party to challenge the municipality’s determination of its present and prospective fair share obligation.
    • If the municipality’s determination is not challenged by this date, then the determination is established by default on March 1, 2025.
  • March 31, 2025: The Program must resolve any challenge to a municipality’s determination by this date.
  • June 30, 2025: Each municipality must adopt a Housing Element and Fair Share Plan and propose drafts of zoning and other ordinances and resolutions to implement its present and prospective obligation by this date. The municipality then must file these documents with the Program by the earlier of June 30, 2025, or 48 hours following the adoption of these documents.
    • If the municipality misses this deadline, it loses immunity from exclusionary zoning litigation until such time as the municipality is determined to have come into compliance with the Fair Housing Act and the Mt. Laurel doctrine.
  • July 1, 2025: This is the date that the third-round expires and the fourth-round technically begins.
  • August 31, 2025: The deadline for an interested party to challenge an adopted Housing Element and Fair Share Plan.
    • If an adopted Housing Element and Fair Share Plan is not challenged, then the Program shall apply an objective standard to conduct a limited review of the plan.
  • December 31, 2025: If a challenge to an adopted Housing Element and Fair Share Plan is resolved by this date, then the Program shall apply an objective standard to conduct a limited review of the plan. If a challenge to an adopted Housing Element and Fair Share Plan is not resolved by this date, then the municipality must commit to revising its plan to incorporate the changes requested in the challenge or provide an explanation as to why it will not.
    • If a challenge to an adopted Housing Element and Fair Share Plan remains unresolved, then the dispute is resolved by the county Mt. Laurel judge.
  • March 15, 2026: Each municipality must adopt the implementing ordinances and resolutions by this date. If the municipality is still in a dispute by this date, then it may adopt a binding resolution by this date to commit to adopting the implementing ordinances and resolutions following the resolution of the dispute.
    • If the municipality misses this deadline, it loses immunity from exclusionary zoning litigation.