Northvale adopts fair-share housing element; housing consultant says borough needs three new affordable units over 10 years

The Borough of Northvale Mayor and Council voted to approve Resolution 103, endorsing a fair-share housing element and fair share plan intended to comply with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ fourth-round affordable-housing rules.

Lindsay, the planning consultant who presented the plan, told the council the state released new fourth-round guidance with accelerated timelines and a three-factor calculation for prospective need based on nonresidential valuation, median income and mapped land capacity. “The present need is gonna be what is also called your rehabilitation need,” Lindsay said, describing the state’s distinction between rehabilitation of existing units and construction of new units.

Lindsay reported the borough’s process: an initial DCA mapping produced a larger prospective-need obligation that the planning team reviewed parcel by parcel and removed properties that were not developable (rear yards, environmentally constrained parcels, floodplains, steep…