The stage is set for the court to issue its most significant ruling yet in the landmark Mount Laurel case. In 1975, the court outlawed zoning laws aimed at keeping out the poor. In 1983, the court ordered towns to meet firm affordable-housing targets.
There has been widespread criticism of the current method to determine a town's obligations. Even more criticism has been aimed at the state Council on Affordable Housing, the agency created to carry out the court's directives.
Current requirements call for the state's towns to add 115,000 new low-cost units by 2015. That obligation was supposed to be met by 1999, but the due date keeps getting pushed back.
Meanwhile, the Legislature and Gov. Christie have failed to find a suitable alternative to determine how towns must meet their affordable-housing requirements. When he ran for governor, Christie said he wanted to "gut" COAH.
Rather than scrapping COAH, which some legislators have also proposed, it would be better to retool the agency to make it more effective and close the loopholes that have allowed towns to escape their obligations.
New Jersey, with one of the wealthiest populations, is also one of the most economically segregated states in the country, with high concentrations of poverty in its urban centers.
By limiting housing opportunities to the affluent, towns often deny residency to the teachers, police officers, and shopkeepers who work in them. Young people can't afford to live in the communities where they grew up.
It's likely that Christie will get to fill one current and one expected vacancy on the court before it actually rules. If so, that more conservative court might be tempted to reverse the earlier Mount Laurel decisions. But if such a travesty were to occur, it could hardly be called justice.
