!! Jersey City Council – Affordable Housing Ordinance !!

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Dear Sgt Anthony Park Neighborhood,

This Thursday, October 13, 2022, the Jersey City City Council is poised to pass an ordinance (Ord. 22-084) that will change R1 (1-2 family) zoning rules for every part of the City.

Remarkably, the City’s Planning Office just gave the FIRST public presentation about the change last week.

That’s bad.

But what’s worse is if the change goes through, a developer will be able to buy and tear down a one or two family house in area zoned for only such homes, and build a large multi-unit building on that same small lot — and the only thing the City will get in return is ONE affordable unit for every TEN the developer builds. That means nine out of ten of the new units will NOT be affordable. Worse still, developers are even able to pay the city to avoid having this affordable unit all together.

Right now, if a developer currently wants to build something bigger than the zoning rules allow he needs to get a variance from the City, and the public has the right to object. But if the City Council passes the change, the public will lose that right, and instead developers will effectively be given the right to do what they want.

That’s a very bad deal.

In fact, the change can actually cause MORE LOSS of affordable housing as deep pocketed developers price out families to tear down buildings to make a windfall on “luxury” units. It also means less opportunity for renters to find apartments from local owners, which is one mainstay of the affordable housing we already have.

These changes will lead to the destruction of old houses, change the physical character and diverse makeup of neighborhoods, encourage more long-time residents to leave, and add to Jersey City’s parking and commuting nightmares.

But Jersey City doesn’t have to take this bad deal.

There’s a model program in Cambridge, MA that requires EIGHTY PERCENT of the units be affordable, and still allows some public input over building that would otherwise not meet zoning. And Berkely, CA is considering a program that will require ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the units to be affordable.

Rather than pitting NINBY against YIMBY, the City needs to allow time for more public input, and frankly better ideas to address affordability than simply another give-away to “luxury” developers.

The first step is to tell the city council to table the ordinance.

Please reach out to the Jersey City Council TODAY.

Council President: Joyce Watterman jwatterman@jcnj.org

At Large: Daniel Rivera DRivera@jcnj.org

At Large: Amy DeGise adegise@jcnj.org

Ward A: Denise Ridley DRidley@jcnj.org

Ward B: Mira Prinz-Arey MPrinz-Arey@jcnj.org

Ward C: Richard Boggiano RBoggiano@jcnj.org

Ward D: Yousef J. Saleh YSaleh@jcnj.org

Ward E: James Solomon JSolomon@jcnj.org

Ward F: Frank E. Gilmore FEGilmore@jcnj.org

Sincerely,

Sgt Anthony Park Neighborhood Association