Township Council sends 3rd-round plan to COAH Numbers to change when state agency amends methodology BY TOM CAIAZZA Staff Writer After years of noncompliance and a court-ordered plan to do so, come May 15, Edison will finally be square with the state Council on Affordable Housing, at least for now. According to Shirley Bishop, a housing and planning consultant hired by the township to help get its COAH house in order, the township will file its third-round growth-share obligation projections and implementation plan by the May 15 deadline, virtually eliminating its vulnerability to certain lawsuits that it had found itself involved in previously. "By Edison filing that plan," Bishop said, "Edison is protected from an exclusionary zoning lawsuit." Since its inception in 1987, COAH has gone through two rounds of affordable housing requirements and is beginning its third round now. According to Bishop, Edison's second-round plan was not filed, leaving the township vulnerable to a builder's remedy lawsuit, or a suit where a builder agrees to build the affordable housing requirement in exchange for a zoning variance for higher density building. Under the court order, Edison's second-round obligation reached 969 units of low- to moderate-affordable housing. However, using credits and bonuses that are available to municipalities, that number was slashed to single digits, Bishop said. The second-round number, which when combined with the first round is known as the prior round, is essentially a wash. Bishop said that when the plan is in place, Edison will essentially "be whole," barring one outside problem. In January, the state Supreme Court invalidated the third-round COAH numbers saying they did not accurately reflect the need of affordable housing in the state and that the methodology COAH used to come up with the numbers was flawed. Bishop cited a process known as filtering in which market-value housing prices were lowered to meet the standards for low- and moderate-income housing. The results of that process were included in the methodology COAH promulgated to assess a municipality's third-round obligation. The formula COAH advanced was one affordable unit for every eight market-rate units built in a town and one affordable unit for every 20 jobs created in the town. Those numbers, by court order, will be revised by early summer, forcing every municipality in the state to re-examine its third-round obligations. "COAH said it was happening," Bishop said referring to filtering, "and the court said, 'We don't see it.' " According to Bishop, Edison's projected requirement under the current third-round method, which spans from 2004 until 2014, would be 324 units. That number, she said, is likely to go up because the current numbers, according to the court, reduced the overall need of affordable housing in the state. Edison is still required to file a Fair Share Plan and a Housing Element report to COAH, using the current numbers in order to limit its vulnerability to litigation, despite the numbers almost certainly changing when COAH returns with new methodology, according to Bishop. The Edison council adopted a resolution on April 25 to send the Housing Element and Fair Share Plan to COAH for certification.