SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 3065
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MAY 13, 2024
The Senate Environment and Energy Committee reports favorably
and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 3065.
This bill would require environmentally sensitive or flood-prone
lands, where development is prohibited or substantially constrained by
environmental laws or by any State or federal agency, to be excluded
from counting as available land for the construction of affordable
housing as a part of the fair share affordable housing obligation of a
municipality, established pursuant to the "Fair Housing Act,"
P.L.1985, c.222 (C.52:27D-301 et al.). Currently, State statutes only
establish this requirement if development is prohibited on the land by a
State or federal agency.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS :
The committee amendments would:
(1) omit certain technical changes to section 1 of P.L.1995, c.231
(C.52:27D-310.1), which were included in the bill as introduced, to
account for the passage of P.L.2024, c.2, which also amends this
section of law;
(2) explicitly include flood-prone lands as a category of lands to be
excluded from affordable housing-related calculations;
(3) provide that excluded lands are to be those on which
development is "prohibited or substantially constrained," rather than
"regulated"; and
(4) explicitly include certain environmental laws that may
substantially constrain development pursuant to the bill's provisions.