Kenilworth planning board adopts fourth‑round affordable housing plan; council endorsement next step

The Kenilworth Planning Board on June 24 adopted the borough's fourth‑round housing element and fair share plan, the board's consultant said, setting zoning mechanisms and redevelopment credits the borough will use to address its assigned prospective need.

Michael Mistretta, the borough's affordable housing planner, told the board the Department of Community Affairs assigned Kenilworth a fourth‑round prospective need of 208 units and a present (rehabilitation) need of 35 units and that the plan filed with the borough on June 13 lays out how the town intends to meet that requirement.

The vote sends the planning board's resolution to the borough council for endorsement, a required administrative step under the amended Fair Housing Act, Mistretta said. The council's endorsing resolution and the planning board's adopted plan will be uploaded to the state portal for review; interested parties will have until around Sept. 1 to comment, he said.

Why this matters: The amended state law and Department of Community Affairs (DCA) procedures require each municipality to file a fourth‑round housing element and fair share plan covering 2025–2035. For Kenilworth, which the consultant described as largely built out, the plan relies primarily on one approved redevelopment project and three overlay zones to generate…