Hamilton Council adopts 504-unit affordable housing obligation after consultant reduces state land-capacity estimate

Hamilton Township Council on Monday adopted a binding resolution setting the township’s round 4 affordable housing obligation at 504 units after a consultant and township planners urged removing parcels that the state’s mapping had counted as vacant or developable.

The change reduces Hamilton’s land-capacity factor — one of three inputs the state uses to allocate regional need — and produces the lower municipal obligation. The resolution (No. 25-080) authorizes township staff to submit the binding resolution and related filings required by the new state program within the statutory deadlines.

Consultant Caroline Reiter of T&M Associates told the council her team reviewed the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) parcel mapping and aerial data from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and recommended removing parcels that are not actually vacant or developable — including houses of worship, Recreation and Open Space Inventory parcels, narrow lots with streams or other physical constraints, cemeteries and drainage basins. Reiter said DCA’s initial mapping identified about 273 acres of vacant land in Hamilton; the consultant’s parcel-level review reduced that estimate to about 166 acres.

Those changes lowered the township’s land-capacity factor from 2.41 percent (the DCA figure) to 1.48 percent, Reiter said. The township’s other two allocation factors — income-capacity and equalized nonresidential valuation — remain those used by the state. Reiter said the three factors are averaged and applied to the Region 4 regional obligation to calculate Hamilton’s municipal obligation.

"We believe this is the best approach," Reiter told the council, adding, "Can I guarantee you're not going to get a challenge? No." She warned the council the new law creates a formal challenge window and hearing schedule that could result in disputes about any municipality’s stipulated number.

Under the new statutory process, the governing body must adopt a binding resolution by Jan. 31 and the affordable housing council then has 48 hours to submit the resolution and to file a declaratory-judgment (DJ) action as part of the program. Reiter told the council challenges may be filed by interested parties — developers, advocates or others — during a roughly month-long challenge period; the law calls for those challenges to be considered quickly and, where required, finalized in March.

Council members and staff emphasized they had worked parcel by parcel with the consultant and township planners. The council’s motion to adopt the resolution passed following a roll call vote. The council also instructed staff and the consultant to move forward immediately on the next step: preparing the township’s Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, which must be adopted by the planning board no later than June 30.

Councilman Carabelli and other members said they viewed the 504-unit figure as manageable and cited pending redevelopment and nonprofit proposals that could generate credits toward the obligation. Township staff flagged redevelopment discussions for a vacant building expected to provide about 50 affordable units and ongoing talks with Habitat for Humanity and a local nonprofit, which the administration said could produce additional credits.

A member of the public who identified herself during comments praised the council for engaging the process: "I'm very proud of you that you are working on this," the resident said, calling Hamilton’s approach preferable to municipalities that plan to litigate the state obligation.

What happens next: the council’s adopted resolution will be posted and submitted per the statute’s timelines, the township will prepare its housing element and fair share implementation plan for planning-board review, and the new state program will accept challenges during the statutory window. If a challenge is submitted, the statute requires a rapid review and scheduling of hearings between the parties.

Minutes and filings associated with the resolution should be available on the township’s website and through the consultant; township staff confirmed they are preparing the required submissions and the planning-board schedule to meet the June 30 deadline.