In the end, Housing and Local Government Committee Chairman Jerry Green (D., Union) stood by the proposal, which resulted from four months of work after he declined in June to allow his panel to vote on a Senate affordable housing bill widely known as S. 1.
Green's measure - as well as an amended S. 1 - passed with four Democratic votes. Morris County Republican Michael Patrick Carroll voted no, and Bergen County Republican Charlotte Vandervalk abstained.
The bill goes for a vote to the full Assembly, where Green said he expected it to pass.
Whether the proposal will get broader traction is another question, with the 2.5 percent fee a likely sticking point. Throughout the hearing, Green was insistent on retaining the fee to subsidize housing, given the state's fiscal problems. The fee is in effect but had been targeted for elimination under S. 1.
Grifa countered that the burden of funding affordable housing over time had shifted from residential to commercial construction, which was inappropriate in "this very fragile economy."
The measure would abolish the state Council on Affordable Housing, which enforces how towns comply with Supreme Court rulings that municipalities must provide their "fair share" of affordable housing.
Under the Assembly proposal, the vast majority of New Jersey's 566 towns would require developers to set aside 10 percent of new residential projects as affordable.
The set-aside requirement would not apply to municipalities - generally more urban areas, such as Camden - in which 10 percent of the total housing is deemed affordable, or in which between 25 and 50 percent of schoolchildren qualify for free- and reduced-price lunches.
