Affordable Housing Update

Posted: October 14, 2022

Dear Residents,

As many of you are aware, a Settlement Agreement has been entered into between the Township of Randolph, Fair Share Housing Center (“FSHC”), and the court order approving same, which was entered by the court on June 3, 2022 after a properly noticed fairness hearing.

The Housing Element and Fair Share Housing Plan addresses the plan to meet Randolph’s fair share housing obligation within this Settlement Agreement. The Fair Share Plan is part of the Township of Randolph’s request to acquire a Judgement of Compliance and Repose (“JOR”) from the court in the Declaratory Judgement Action in the Matter of the Application of the Township of Randolph for Declaratory Judgment, Docket No. MRS-L-1640-15 which was filed in Morris County on July 2, 2015, and includes the projects and strategies to address Randolph’s affordable housing obligations. View a copy of this plan .

This plan is a detailed look into Randolph’s court ordered obligation to provide housing. In an effort to make it easier to follow this plan, as it tracks through our boards and committees, the Randolph Township Division of Planning & Zoning Administration, within the Office of the Randolph Township Manager, has created a map that summarizes the proposed affordable housing projects and lists the status of these plans. View the map .

It is my intention to have additional information posted whenever there is a status change to any of these projects. Please keep in mind that board and committee meetings are always open to the public, during which these applications are reviewed.

Because of this communication objective, I would like to bring to the community’s attention that #15 on this overview map “Heller/JMF/Liberty Village” has a status change from “Application Pending” to “Planning Board Hearing 10/24/22.” This application will therefore appear before the planning board on October 24, 2022.

On September 29, 2022 the township appeared at a compliance hearing held before the Honorable Stephan C. Hansbury in order to acquire a JOR. The summary of this appearance is as follows:

1. Directed the township to furnish to the Special Master and FSHC additional documentation as set forth in the September 27, 2022 Special Master’s Report (“Report”) related to the credit worthiness of the various affordable housing credits sought by the township in the Settlement Agreement within 30 days of the hearing;
2. Directed that the township meet with Avalon Bay (Route 10, Block 44, Lot 13) and with Ten Development Partners (“TDP”) (Route 10 Block 44, Lots 8 and 9) to attempt to address the concerns raised by each of the developers with regard to Zoning Ordinance No. 27-22 (R-8 Zone) and resolve those issues within 90 days of the date of the compliance hearing;
3. Denied and rejected for the fourth time the objections raised by Randolph Mountain Partnership in connection with their zoning ordinance adopted more than 14 years ago;
4. Directed the township to provide to the Special Master and FSHC additional documentation as requested in her report within 90 days of the hearing;
5. Reserved water for all of the affordable housing projects not yet built and lifted the Scarce Resource Order allowing non-affordable housing projects to proceed utilizing the remaining available water and any future water that becomes available;
6. Continued the township’s immunity from builder’s remedy lawsuits until further order of the court; and
7. Established a continued compliance hearing for January 5, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

If you have any further questions, you can reach our planning & zoning division at (973) 989-7080 or at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this e-mail address).

We will post additional informational updates as we receive it.

Regards,
Marie Potter
Mayor, Randolph Township