Department of Community Affairs

Protect New Jersey’s cultural heritage by ensuring that full Corporate Business Tax (CBT) funding continues to be spent on this program.

Explore mechanisms that allow municipalities to deny development and redevelopment in high-risk flood areas, such as enabling towns to refrain from rebuilding public infrastructure, such as roads, after repetitive damage and destruction.

Enact a New Jersey zero-net-energy stretch code that is more aggressive than base code to achieve higher energy savings for residential and commercial homes and buildings which municipalities may adopt voluntarily. Update the energy stretch code statewide along with energy base code updates to ensure a consistent above-code option. Implement a mandatory statewide zero-net-energy code in the state no later than January 1, 2028.

Require installation of outdoor-vented electric cooking stoves for new, low-income housing funded by the State.

Provide guidance to incentivize shared parking and reduce or eliminate minimum parking requirements in appropriate locations.

Direct all state departments and agencies to give priority funding and treatment to redevelopment projects compared to development of undisturbed greenfields. Increase DCA, EDA and HMFA subsidy funding and provide additional support for redevelopment. Create new and enhance existing programs, including at DEP and DOT, to reduce barriers and incentivize redevelopment.

Direct the NJ Redevelopment Authority to coordinate and manage a public/private working group to create a redevelopment inclusion toolkit for municipalities that can be used in both gentrifying communities and already wealthy exclusionary communities. Elements of the toolkit should include:

1. Removing a percentage of housing units from the market and making them permanently affordable to lower income residents
2. Instituting an inclusionary housing ordinance that results in a percentage of all new residential units being permanently affordable to lower income residents
3. Reducing the cost structure of a percentage of commercial and retail spaces to ensure that small “mom-and-pop” and start-up businesses can exist
4. Developing public space guidelines to ensure all people have access to appropriate public spaces and facilities

Advance flood risk disclosure around past flood damage and future flooding risks prior to the purchase of a property.

Implement and monitor New Jersey’s building benchmarking law and consider how the data may be used to drive policies that make for greener, more resilient buildings.

Quickly move forward with implementation of new law (P.L.2021, c.182) that requires landlords to obtain lead-safe certificates before units are rented.

Require that Section 8 rent-subsidized units be inspected for lead hazards prior to occupancy.

Streamline application process for housing improvement by allowing applicants to be approved based on home address within a state approved geographic designation.

Set timetable for Whole House program review and begin expansion, which will deliver integrated lead (paint, water and soil), health, safety and weatherization improvements for homes in New Jersey’s most vulnerable communities. Include inspections to review potential exposures to household air pollution generated by cooking with gas and other options for funding to address any structural issues with homes that often defer weatherization or energy efficiency steps.

Offer no-cost or subsidized options for programs retrofitting low-income housing to switch to electric stoves which should include funding for electric panel upgrades, installation of outlets for electric stoves and shutting off gas lines.

Support the implementation of form-based codes which regulate the height and bulk of buildings, but not their use to allow residential and non-polluting commercial uses to locate in the same neighborhood (e.g., the corner store). Ensure that mixed-use residential and commercial redevelopment is incentivized at agency level.

Convene stakeholders to develop a proposal to increase diversity of housing choices in walkable towns, including learning from other states that have made it easier to develop accessory dwelling units and two-family and above homes.

Provide incentives to re-design car-oriented suburbs to increase overall street network connectivity by creating new through-streets and connections to surrounding development.

Strengthen building codes to reduce energy consumption and encourage efficiency in new buildings through the Uniform Construction Code and through local requirements (such as building performance standards).

Allocate resources to support proactive housing inspections of 5 percent of housing in high-risk areas of lead exposure.

Update building codes to require outdoor-vented gas stoves.

Encourage development of innovative business models that offer charging as a service (CaaS) to public and private fleets. Similar to Solar Power Purchase Agreements, these arrangements can result in savings to end use, eliminating upfront investment by entering into a long term contract for fueling, and perhaps vehicles including operation and maintenance.

Continue to incentivize and streamline mechanisms for municipal consolidation, in particular for small coastal communities, to increase potential revenue for struggling areas.