Hazlet Mayor Takes Affordable Housing Plan Off The Agenda

Hazlet Mayor Scott Aagre and former Senator Joe Kyillos

Hazlet Mayor Scott Aagre posted the following message on the Township’s website this afternoon:

The Hazlet Township Committee has rigorously been fighting a builder’s remedy lawsuit filed by a developer and the State regarding an acceptable compliance plan to meet the township’s housing requirements.

Hazlet has always maintained that it has never used its zoning power to exclude or discriminate low and moderate income households and that Hazlet has more than its fair share of affordable housing. Unfortunately, the State does not recognize the 9 mobile home parks and the existing housing inventory since these were built prior to the State’s mandate and Affordable Housing Act. Hazlet is 98 percent built out and considered a metropolitan area according to the County’s Regional Strategic Plan. In a June 2018 court ordered conference, the State agreed to a proposed compliance plan. This compliance plan includes zoning for new affordable and market value residential units, it is the least intrusive compliance plan the State had ever agreed to and provides the protection for Hazlet from future developers coming in and densifying our current community with other potential sites through builders remedy lawsuits. It provides the ability for Hazlet to maintain the building controls and bulk requirements for these two proposed
affordable housing sites in our current compliance plan.

The proposed compliance plan has been met with overwhelming resistance from our residents, which we, as elected officials, are here to listen to in making our decisions for the betterment of the Township. In addition, there has been public statements by members of the Township Committee voicing their opposition to this settlement plan which does not provide the necessary support to further this plan for adoption.
We will request from the Court the ability for Hazlet to formulate a new compliance plan with the
current affordable housing numbers in order to provide the town protection against future builder remedy
lawsuits.

At this time, I, Mayor Scott Aagre, will be taking the current Affordable Housing Compliance Plan off the agenda until which time Hazlet can come up with a compliance plan that can receive a majority agreement from the Township Committee and the residents of Hazlet or as ordered by the Superior Court based on our August 29, 2018 Settlement Conference.