West Orange Township_Fourth Round HEFSP_Final Draft

Township of West Orange August 2025 Essex County, New Jersey Draft Housing Element and Fair Share Plan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLANNING FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING Pursuant to both the FHA (N.J.S.A. 52:27D-310, et seq.) and the Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL) (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-28), municipalities in New Jersey are required to include a Housing Element/Fair Share Plan in their master plans. The principal purpose of the housing element is to describe the specific, intended methods that a municipality plans to use in order to meet its low- and moderate-income housing needs. Further, the housing element is meant to demonstrate the existing zoning or planned zoning changes that will allow for the provision of adequate capacity to accommodate household and employment growth projections, to achieve the goal of access to affordable housing for present and future populations. The statutorily required contents of the housing element are: a. An inventory of the municipality's housing stock by age, condition, purchase or rental value, occupancy characteristics, and type, including the number of units affordable to low and moderateincome households and substandard housing capable of being rehabilitated; b. A projection of the municipality's housing stock, including the probable future construction of lowand moderate-income housing, for the next ten years, taking into account, but not necessarily limited to, construction permits issued, approvals of applications for development and probable residential development of lands; c. An analysis of the municipality's demographic characteristics, including but not necessarily limited to, household size, income level and age; d. An analysis of the existing and probable future employment characteristics of the municipality; e. A determination of the municipality's present and prospective fair share for low- and moderateincome housing and its capacity to accommodate its present and prospective housing needs, including its fair share for low- and moderate-income housing, as established pursuant to section 3 of P.L.2024, c.2 (C.52:27D-304.1); f. A consideration of the lands that are most appropriate for construction of low- and moderateincome housing and of the existing structures most appropriate for

3 of P.L.2024, c.2 (C.52:27D-304.1); f. A consideration of the lands that are most appropriate for construction of low- and moderateincome housing and of the existing structures most appropriate for conversion to, or rehabilitation for, low- and moderate-income housing, including a consideration of lands of developers who have expressed a commitment to provide low- and moderate-income housing; g. An analysis of the extent to which municipal ordinances and other local factors advance or detract from the goal of preserving multigenerational family continuity as expressed in the recommendations of the Multigenerational Family Housing Continuity Commission, adopted pursuant to paragraph (1) of subsection f. of section 1 of P.L.2021, c.273 (C.52:27D-329.20); 13