Planning board adopts fourth-round housing element and fair-share plan aiming to meet 375-unit obligation

The Morris Township Planning Board on June 16 adopted the township's fourth-round housing element and fair-share plan, directing staff to file the plan with the court and to ask the township committee to endorse and implement the plan.

Board counsel and the planner presented the plan, which reflects a negotiated prospective need of 375 units for the 10-year fourth round (July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2035). That prospective need is substantially lower than the Department of Community Affairs's initial nonbinding estimate of 571 units; the township's professionals and counsel negotiated the 375-unit prospective need through the Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program and a settlement recorded in court on May 2, 2025.

The plan bundles a portfolio of sites and strategies the township expects to use to meet the obligation: inclusionary redevelopment and rezoning projects (townhomes and stacked flats), special-needs group-home units, and an extension-of-affordability-controls program that seeks monetary incentives to keep existing deed-restricted affordable units from exiting the inventory. The plan counts bonus credits (limited to 25 percent of the obligation, or 94 bonus credits) for eligible actions such as special-needs housing, office-to-residential redevelopments, projects within a half-mile of transit, and extensions of affordability controls.

Projects listed in the board's presentation and plan include 291 James Street (a townhouse site with a 20 percent set-aside), the Community Hope group home (a five-unit, five-bedroom special-needs project eligible for one-for-one credits), 300 Madison (a proposed townhouse or stacked-flat redevelopment with 118 units and a 20 percent set-aside), 100 Southgate Parkway (redevelopment of an office building with townhomes, 104 units, 21 affordable units), 60 Columbia Road (a dense mixed building with 84 affordable-unit yield in the township's calculations), and a 21-acre site owned by a rabbinical college on Sussex Avenue proposed for townhomes with 35 affordable units and a proposed trail connection to Patriots's Path.

The plan also reports outreach on preserving existing deed-restricted units: township staff sent more than 170 letters to owners of deed-restricted homes whose affordability controls may expire in this round; as of the hearing the plan reported 121 letters had produced responses favorable to extending controls (each extension counts as a half bonus credit under the statute). The board's planner said the extension program remains open and that additional letters and commitments are expected to increase the inventory credited in the plan.

Board members and counsel discussed the statute's tight timetable: municipalities must adopt and file plans by June 30 to preserve immunity from builder-remedy lawsuits, objectors may file between June 30 and August 31, and the township has until May 15, 2026 to adopt implementing ordinances following dispute-resolution outcomes. After public comment from a contract purchaser proposing an additional townhouse project on Whippany Road (not included in the current plan), the board voted to adopt the plan and direct filing: the roll-call vote recorded all members present voting to adopt.

The board's adoption directs board counsel to file the adopted plan with the court within 48 hours and to send copies to the state Office of Planning Advocacy and the Morris County Planning Board within 30 days.

The planning board also recommended that the township committee endorse the plan and proceed with implementing ordinances and site-specific rezoning or redevelopment actions identified in the document.