By Donald Wittkowski
A court settlement in a two-year legal battle over Sea Isle City’s affordable housing obligations will clear the way for the town to give final approval to its updated master plan in 2018.
The master plan’s recommendations on housing and zoning could not be completed until the affordable housing agreement was finished.
In 2015, Sea Isle sought a court order declaring that it was in compliance with the state’s Fair Housing Act of 1985 and the landmark Mount Laurel doctrine that requires New Jersey municipalities to use their zoning powers to provide for affordable housing.
Bringing the litigation to a close, Sea Isle and the court-designated Fair Share Housing Center reached agreement on the city’s affordable housing needs. A state Superior Court judge approved the settlement on Dec. 1.
Now that an agreement has been reached, the affordable housing requirements will be incorporated into the new master plan. City spokeswoman Katherine Custer said the Planning Board is expected to take a final vote on the plan by the first half of 2018.
“It has been a long process. They have been working on it for literally a year,” Custer said in an interview Tuesday.
The agreement creates the “reasonable opportunity” for affordable housing to be built in Sea Isle. Developers would be given tax and construction incentives to build affordable housing units in their projects.
Overall, the agreement calls for a total of 372 units of affordable housing to be built in Sea Isle through 2025. Affordable housing would be scattered throughout the city instead of being concentrated in just a few locations because of the scarcity of developable land in the resort town, City Solicitor Paul Baldini said.
Questions about the city’s affordable housing obligations had delayed the Planning Board from voting on the master plan for several months this year. Worried that the court fight would cause further delays, the board went ahead and approved an abbreviated version of the plan in September, knowing that the affordable housing part would have to be added later on.
“As of this point, it’s the only thing missing,” Custer said.
New projects to solve the city's parking shortage are considered a high priority in the updated master plan.
Altogether, the master plan includes more than 40 recommendations, including a series of proposed changes to solve what are widely considered the town’s most serious problems — overdevelopment and a lack of parking. Most of the recommendations grew out of a 2015 community survey that generated more than 3,300 responses from the public.
Considered a blueprint for the future, the 58-page document proposes sweeping zoning changes aimed at reducing density and parking problems in both the commercial and residential areas of the city.
It also looks at key issues, such as planning, zoning, economic development, housing, the business community, transportation, parking and recreation.
Sea Isle last updated its master plan in 2007. Under New Jersey law, municipalities are required to update their master plans every 10 years. Sea Isle had originally hoped to approve its updated master plan in 2016, before it encountered delays caused by the legal battle over its affordable housing obligations.
