Assembly Republican Conference Leader Dave Rible applauded the ruling by the Appellate Division that towns do not need to provide affordable housing for the time known as the “gap period.”

The ruling overturns a February 2016 decision by a Superior Court judge in Ocean County which held municipalities responsible for providing affordable housing during the period between 1999 and 2015 in which there were no mandated quotas.

“This is great news for area towns who are already being forced to comply with unrealistic affordable housing requirements,” said Rible (R-Monmouth). “Many towns in the area feel incredible pressure to yield to unreasonable demands and this decision alleviates some of the burden of being forced to provide additional affordable housing.”

Monday’s decision states that the procedure for determining how the towns should accommodate for the gap period should be left up to the Legislature and Governor.

“While I still support scrapping the affordable housing requirements altogether, I’m very pleased that this ruling will stop the courts from forcing additional irresponsible, overreaching mandates on towns,” he continued. “These housing decisions should be left to elected officials who see firsthand how devastating these mandates can be for towns throughout the area.

“I have been arguing for years that these decisions should be left to the locally elected officials so we can keep our towns’ best interests in mind. This decision brings a sense of relief that we can finally stop adding to the overwhelming burden on our local taxpayers with these costly affordable housing mandates.”

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