AREA — Earlier this month, the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) announced a new round of affordable-housing obligations that will require New Jersey municipalities to make room for over 147,000 new units over the course of the next decade. And while it may be years before shovels hit the dirt, local leaders are already working to find the right middle ground between compliance with the state’s mandates and the needs of their own communities.

“The township and our team of professionals are currently evaluating the number and working towards formulating a plan to address our fourth-round obligations,” Scotch Plains Mayor Joshua Losardo said. “We have been working with outside professionals for many years to ensure that Scotch Plains remains compliant with state law.”

The process, Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle said, is a complicated one that will need to be navigated carefully.

“We are in a good position, but we still have a lot to figure out,” she said.

Last week, the Westfield Town Council voted by a narrow margin to introduce an amended redevelopment plan for One Westfield Place — a large-scale, mixed-use project slated for construction along the NJ Transit line.

That project, Mayor Brindle said, will help the town to meet its most recent obligations while still retaining control over the type of development that will be allowed within the community.

“Our number is actually lower than I thought it would be,” Town Planner Don Sammet said, referencing Westfield’s prospective need calculation of 397 units. “I would not have been surprised to see a prospective need of between 400 and 600 units, so I was glad to see that we came in under that mark.”

During the last round of obligations, released in 2014, the DCA initially suggested that Westfield would need to either build or make plans to build about 1,090 affordable units. Given the fact that redevelopers are only required to dedicate approximately 15 percent of new construction to affordable housing, the actual number of new units would have been much higher once the individual projects were complete.

“We did the math and it was something like 6,000 total units by the time you add market-rate apartments into the mix,” Mayor Brindle said. “There was no way — we don’t have the vacant land, we don’t have the space.”

After months of negotiations with the state and the Fair Share Housing Center (a nonprofit organization that advocates for equitable community development), Westfield’s obligation was reduced to a realistic development potential of 68 units.

Other local communities, including Cranford, experienced similar shifts.

“The law allows towns like Cranford to adjust their affordable housing obligation downward for multiple reasons, including a lack of available land for new housing,” the township notes on its website. “For example, in the Third Round, Cranford’s total affordable housing obligation was 440 units, but Cranford’s Affordable Housing Plan had to provide for only 140 units because of the lack of suitable locations for new housing in Cranford.”

Mr. Sammet said that he hopes that recent amendments to the state’s affordable- housing laws will make the process easier to navigate this time around.

“There were dueling methodologies to determine what the final obligations were for the last round,” he said, adding that the Fair Share Housing Center’s initial projections were “exponentially higher” than the numbers that were ultimately released. “On top of that, a group of municipalities formed a consortium and tried to come up with their own numbers, but there wasn’t much guidance. There was a lot of back and forth, a lot of arguing,” he said.

At the time, disputes were relegated to the now-defunct Council On Affordable Housing, a panel of gubernatorial appointees who were tasked with enforcing the state’s affordablehousing laws. The process, which state leaders have described as cumbersome and ineffective, led to numerous lawsuits between individual municipalities and the state.

In March of this year, however, Governor Phil Murphy signed off on a new legislative package designed to “streamline compliance and reduce litigation-related delays” by sending disputes directly to the judiciary. The amended legislation also establishes a formula that enables municipalities to determine their own present and prospective needs within certain parameters.

“It’s going to take some getting used to,” Mr. Sammet said, “but ultimately, I think it will be a better solution.”

In order to remain in compliance with the new round of obligations, municipalities will need to work with the state to identify additional properties that could realistically support residential development. These next steps, Mr. Sammet said, will give municipalities the leverage they need to negotiate appropriate terms and conditions.

“There are specific properties that are included in these conversations,” Mr. Sammet said, listing vacant land, public golf courses, nurseries and parking lots among them. Sites have to be at least .83 acres in size in order to be considered. Other factors, including location, infrastructure and the environment, also will come into play as the process unfolds.

Many communities, including Westfield and Cranford, will be looking at smaller-scale projects in addition to larger developments like One Westfield Place.

“Cranford is committed to satisfying its affordable-housing obligation, but doing so with a plan that is consistent with the character of our community and our existing housing stock,” Cranford officials said via the township’s website. “Our current affordable- housing plan focuses on affordable- housing contributions from age-restricted senior living units, qualified group homes, and mass transitoriented projects in our downtown.”

Each municipality will now have until Friday, January 31, 2025, to set its maximum affordable-housing obligation, either by accepting the DCA’s number as a reasonable starting point or arriving at one of its own in accordance with the new laws.

Communities will then have until Monday, June 30, 2025, to develop and approve a Fourth Round Affordable Housing Plan to meet their finalized realistic development potential numbers.

“New Jersey certainly needs more affordable-housing and I am very much in favor of finding a way to provide that housing as best as we can,” Garwood Mayor Jennifer Blumenstock said. “However, we do have size constraints in Garwood which pose a concern for us. At this point, we are going to be working with our affordable-housing planner and attorneys to figure out the proper way forward. I’m not sure exactly what that will look like just yet, but over the next few months we should be able to provide a better picture for our residents.”