Draft_October 2025_West Orange_HEFSP_with Appendices

Township of West Orange October 2025 Essex County, New Jersey Draft Housing Element and Fair Share Plan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Housing Growth and Projections In terms of residential growth, the issuance of building permits serves as one of the indicators that help to determine housing needs in a given municipality. Table 15 below illustrates the number of building permits that were issued over the 10-year period between January 2015 through December 2024, when the Township issued building permits authorizing the development of 861 housing units. Within this time frame, the busiest years for building permits occurred in 2016 and 2022, with roughly 72% of all building permits since 2015 having been issued in those years. The vast majority of the permits issued during this time frame were for multi-family homes, while only 73 permits were issued for one-to-two family homes and two were issued for multifamily structures. Further, throughout the same 10-year period, West Orange issued permits authorizing the demolition of 14 units. If the demolition rate were to remain relatively constant over the next approximately 10-year period, an additional 14 residential units could be expected to be demolished between January 2025 and January 2035, resulting in a projected net increase of 847 units. Table 15: Housing Units Authorized by Building Permits, 2015-2024 West Orange Year 1 & 2 Family Multi Family Mixed-Use 2015 13 0 1 2016 7 299 0 2017 12 0 0 2018 8 100 0 2019 6 0 0 2020 9 0 0 2021 4 0 0 2022 8 304 0 2023 1 82 0 2024* 5 1 1 Total 2014-2024 73 786 2 10-Year Average 10-Year Permit Projection (2025-2035) Source: State of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Building Permits: Yearly Summary Data *Note: 2024 Data includes January-November 25 Total 14 306 12 108 6 9 4 312 83 7 861 86.1 861