Following the demise of the Council On Affordable Housing (“COAH”), and at the direction of the Supreme Court in Mt. Laurel IV, 221 N.J. 1 (2015), New Jersey trial courts assumed responsibility for evaluating municipal compliance with the State’s constitutionally mandated affordable housing obligations. Although most municipalities obtained certification of their municipal plans through settlements of declaratory judgment actions, Princeton and West Windsor in Mercer County sought certification from the court, requiring it to determine each town’s fair share of low and moderate housing units for 1999 to 2015 (Gap Present Need) and from 2015 through 2025 (Prospective Need). Their applications for certification were opposed by the Fair Share Housing Center, an affordable housing advocacy group. The parties presented to the trial court competing and very divergent methodologies in support of the number of units each claimed satisfied constitutional requirements.
After a lengthy trial, the Mercer County Superior Court issued a decision reviewing the methodologies proposed by both sides and adopting a formula that the court then applied to each town to establish its fair share of low and moderate income housing units for the period 1999 through 2025. In 2024, the New Jersey Legislature subsequently incorporated the court’s formula into the amended Fair Housing Act at N.J.S.A. 52:27D-304.3.