Developments and Affordable Housing

The town was required to satisfy the Prior and Third Round FSHC requirements with Fair Share Housing Corporation (FSHC) and reached an agreement in 2017. The town’s executed Settlement Agreements and Amendments (2021) with FSHC provided for the ability to provide up to 1,174 market rate apartment units in order to provide 314 affordable housing units (AFH). Of those, 800 market rate units and 260 affordable have been approved by the town as of February 2024. The Town Council and Planning Board has also approved additional market rate apartment units bringing the total market rate units to 1,526. Of those, 389 are affordable housing units.

You will hear the number 998 as the ‘unmet need’ of affordable housing units. Thru discussions with the FSHC, Overlay zones were identified and agreed to that enabled the town to provide for some of this unmet need to satisfy the third round—- 660 market rate housing units would include 100 affordable housing units. Of the 660, 286 market units have been approved with 46 units being affordable (those numbers are included in the total numbers above and the chart below). The chart below identifies every development with the total housing units including the AFH units, as well as some potential developments that have been identified in the Town of Westfield’s annual report to the FSHC. Those reports can be found on the town’s website. Those reports do not have comprehensive numbers, so the chart below attempts to provide that for the Westfield community.

A State Law S50/A4 has recently been enacted on 3/18/24, regarding the affordable housing requirements for the Fourth Round and beyond. Some of the developments approved after 2021 may count towards the Fourth Round, although the egregiously oversized developments like The Sophia and One Westfield Place may actually harm our ability to meet the new and not yet determined affordable housing requirements. Those two developments impact the charm and character of Westfield because the dwelling units per acre higher than other approved sites in town. The new law now stipulates that the NJ State Department of Community Affairs will establish the AFH count by October 20, 2024 and the town council would be required to accept the numbers by January 25, 2025.

Sophia= 60 units/acre and OWP = 125 units/acre (north and central apartment building) The Scattered Sites Redevelopment Plan includes 4 sites totaling 4 acres in the heart of the Central Business District. We should be concerned that these sites will be bulked up well beyond traditional zoning in the name of achieving affordable housing numbers. These 4 sites are municipal surface parking lots that serve the retail/restaurant businesses in the central business district - lot between Prospect and Elm, the lot bhind Barrons and The Gap, the lot behind the Rialto, and the lot across from the Post Office. We have been asking the town council and mayor for the last few months about the status of these sites, stated the need for land use and design guidelines, and all have fallen on deaf ears.

LEGAL HISTORICAL TIMELINE

April 4, 2017 Settlement Agreement Third Round

November 1, 2017 Court Order Filed

February 2018 Affordable Housing Report - Housing Element and Fair Share Plan

March 5, 2018 Planning Board Adopted Housing Element and Fair Share Plan

August 23, 2018 Final Judgment of Compliance 3rd Round Settlement w/Gap Period 1995-2015, expired July 2, 2025

June 9, 2021 Planning Board approved 2021 Settlement Amendment  (increase from 15 to 25 units, transfer 6 Handler units to Williams)

June 15, 2021 Town Council approved Third Round Settlement Amendment including Williams Nursery

February 1, 2022 Final Judgment of Compliance for Settlement Amendment

Affordable Housing Obligations for 2025-2025 (Fourth Round) Methodology and Background

prepared by Department of Community Affairs, State of NJ