Did a senior partner in a local law firm hired by Secaucus to represent the town’s position on affordable housing recently introduce legislation that may conflict with that position?
That’s the question some town councilmen and staff members at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission are quietly asking.
At its regularly scheduled meeting on May 13, the Town Council approved a $350,000 professional service contract to Parsippany-based law firm Weiner Lesniak to be a special attorney on affordable housing.
Even before this contract was awarded, the firm had represented Secaucus in affordable housing matters. Weiner Lesniak attorney George Hanley, for example, was the lawyer who represented Secaucus back in February when the Fair Share Housing Center – an affordable housing advocacy group – filed a motion to block the town’s efforts to buy two plots of land on Oak Lane and Farm Road.
The Town Council has long planned to purchase this land for River Walk, a project that would connect parks and open space along the Hackensack River from Laurel Hill Park to the Meadowlands walkway.
The Fair Share Housing Center, which has long argued that Secaucus is unwilling to assume its fair share of affordable housing under state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) rules, filed a motion at the beginning of the year to block the purchase of the Oak Lane and Farm Road plots. The advocacy group wanted this land to be considered for affordable housing.
In the legal wrangling that followed, it was Weiner Lesniak attorney Hanley who represented Secaucus’ position and who last month successfully secured the disputed land for River Walk. COAH actually sided with Secaucus, agreeing that these plots were better suited for the green space project than for affordable housing.
But…
At the same time that Hanley was battling with the Fair Share Housing Center, it appears that his boss, State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, a senior partner in Weiner Lesniak, was drafting legislation that may allow outsiders to impose affordable housing on Secaucus.
In May, Lesniak introduced a bill that, among other things, divides the state of New Jersey into five regions – each region with 25 towns – that would work collectively to develop affordable housing in their region.
Secaucus is included in the Meadowlands region. The state’s other four regions are the Highlands, the Pinelands, Fort Monmouth, and Atlantic City.
Lesniak and other supporters of the legislation have stated that this legislation would stop wealthy and middle-class suburban towns from paying poorer urban ones to take on their affordable housing share.
But opponents of the measure argue that it would force increased development in towns that don’t want it.
In reference to the River Walk brouhaha, Mayor Dennis Elwell said recently, “We will fight against any outsiders who try to impose unwise development on our community, in particular, plans that would harm the environment and the quality of life in our community.”
Xanadu could mean Secaucus gets burden
A controversial provision of the bill would allow regions to shift a large portion of affordable housing into towns within their region that have more land space than others. Under most circumstances, the shifting of affordable housing would be capped so that no town would be required to have more than a 50 percent increase in its affordable housing share.
But in the language of the bill, however, this cap does not apply to development by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which is building the massive Xanadu complex in the Meadowlands district. Because the amount of affordable housing required in a region is tied to the amount of commercial development, this exception could potentially mean that a large share of affordable housing in the Meadowlands could be shifted into Secaucus, which has more available land space than some other towns in the area.
Mayor Elwell has stated in the past that he does not want to see Secaucus become a “dumping ground” for other towns’ affordable housing requirements. Yet, the Lesniak bill would appear to open the door for that scenario to happen.
Last week, Town Administrator David Drumeler disagreed with that assessment. “We do have some problems with the Lesniak bill. But we support its intent,” Drumeler said. “It’s too early to tell how it will affect us. We asked that language be inserted into the bill that affordable housing could only be moved into another municipality with the permission of the receiving town.”
This language was, in fact, added to the bill. And the Elwell administration hopes that this language will be strengthened in the fall when the eventual law goes through its rulemaking phase.
The Lesniak version of the bill was ultimately combined with an Assembly version. The measure passed the Assembly on June 16 and the State Senate on June 23.
Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-32nd District), who represents Secaucus, abstained when the Assembly vote was called.
The measure now awaits Gov. Jon Corzine’s signature.
Update: Gov. Jon Corzine signed this legislation into law as the Reporter went to press on Wednesday, July 17.