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Middle Township’s 2025 Affordable Housing Plan
Meeting Our Obligations the Right Way
For the past several years, Middle Township has been working through one of the most complex issues any New Jersey town faces: how to meet our constitutional obligation to provide affordable housing while protecting the character of our neighborhoods and respecting our taxpayers.
In 2025, our Planning Board adopted a new Fourth Round Housing Element and Fair Share Plan that lays out exactly how we intend to do that between now and 2035. I want to explain where we’ve been, what the state now requires of Middle Township, and how this new plan keeps us in control of our future.
How We Got Here: From COAH to the Courts
New Jersey’s affordable housing system started with the Mount Laurel court decisions in the 1970s and 1980s, which held that developing towns must create a “realistic opportunity” for their fair share of low- and moderate-income housing. Those rulings led to the Fair Housing Act of 1985 and the creation of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), which was supposed to set the rules and numbers for each town.
Over time, COAH’s regulations were repeatedly challenged in court. The “Third Round” rules for 1999–2015 were largely struck down, and in 2015 the New Jersey Supreme Court declared COAH non-functional and sent affordable housing back to the trial courts. That meant if towns wanted legal protection from so-called “builder’s remedy” lawsuits—which can force very dense projects into local zoning—they had to go to court, work with Fair Share Housing Center (FSHC), and prove they were doing their part.
Middle Township did exactly that. We filed for a Declaratory Judgment in 2019, entered negotiations with FSHC, and ultimately reached a settlement in early 2022. The court-approved settlement set our Third Round obligations as:
• 48 units of “present need” (rehabilitation);
• 454 units of “prior round” obligation (1987–1999);
• 320 units of Third Round “prospective need” (1999–2025).
Working from that settlement, our Planning Board adopted a Third Round Housing Plan in 2022, and in October 2022 the court granted Middle Township a Judgment of Compliance and Repose—legal confirmation that our plan met the constitutional standard and protected us from builder’s remedy suits for the remainder of the Third Round.
What We’ve Already Done
We haven’t just written plans—we’ve delivered real homes.
Our compliance is built on a mix of:
• 100% affordable rental communities such as the Conifer Green Heron Point and Conifer Meadowlark Run projects, which together provide more than 150 family rentals with long-term affordability controls;
• Habitat for Humanity homes throughout the Township that have created affordable for-sale opportunities for working families;
• Supportive and group homes operated by organizations like the Arc of Cape May County and other providers, serving residents with special needs;
• A local rehabilitation program to bring substandard homes occupied by lower-income households up to code.
These projects are supported by our Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which collects development fees and interest and then reinvests those dollars into actual housing activity and administration of the program.
On the zoning side, we amended our TR Town Residential district to allow a reasonable increase in density and building height in appropriate, sewer-served locations—but only with a mandatory affordable housing set-aside for new multi-family projects. That balances our obligation with smart growth in the right places, not everywhere.
The New State Law and Middle’s Fourth Round Numbers
In 2024, the Legislature and Governor overhauled the system again. The State of New Jersy formally abolished COAH and created a new statewide Affordable Housing Dispute Resolution Program. The State directed the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to calculate Fourth Round obligations for every town for the period 2025–2035.
Under that law and DCA’s published methodology, Middle Township’s Fourth Round obligations are:
• 51 units of present need (rehabilitation); and
• 81 units of new construction (prospective need).
In January 2025, our Township Committee adopted a resolution formally accepting those numbers and starting the new Round’s compliance process. Our Fourth Round Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, adopted in June 2025 and now on file with both the courts and the state, is under active review, and we are responding to Fair Share Housing Center’s request for additional documentation, which we expect will clear the way for formal approval.
What the 2025 Plan Actually Does
Our 2025 Fourth Round Plan is built around a few core principles:
1. Focus growth where it makes sense.
Middle is 82 square miles, but roughly half of that land is environmentally constrained wetlands or flood-prone areas. Most of our existing and remaining developable land is clustered along Route 9 and Route 47 corridors. Our plan continues to steer any higher-density, inclusionary projects into these appropriate, sewered centers—not into rural or environmentally sensitive areas.
2. Continue inclusionary zoning, not sprawl.
The mandatory set-aside framework we began discussing in 2021—requiring a reasonable percentage of new multi-family units to be affordable—remains a key tool. When private development seeks additional density in designated growth areas, the Township ensures that low- and moderate-income families share in those opportunities.
3. Use rehabilitation to preserve existing neighborhoods.
To address our 51-unit rehabilitation obligation, we will continue and expand the Township-run rehab program that helps qualified homeowners bring older, substandard homes up to modern code. This helps keeps long-time residents in their homes, cleans up run-down properties and counts toward our state-mandated obligation.
4. Build on proven partnerships.
The Fourth Round plan continues to rely on trusted partners—non-profit developers, supportive housing providers, and organizations like Habitat and The Arc of Cape May County that have proven record of successful projects on the ground in Middle. Those relationships will be critical to meeting the additional 81 new-construction units required between now and 2035.
5. Maintain local control and legal protection.
By adopting our plan on time and submitting it through the new state Program and the courts, we preserve our immunity from builder’s remedy lawsuits and keep control of where and how affordable housing is built in Middle Township.
Looking Ahead
Affordable housing is never a simple topic. It sits at the intersection of property rights, environmental constraints, infrastructure, and basic fairness. As Mayor, my job is to make sure Middle Township meets its constitutional and statutory obligations without sacrificing what residents love about this community.
Our 2025 Housing Element and Fair Share Plan does exactly that:
• It honestly acknowledges our fair share numbers;
• It builds on projects and programs that already work;
• It concentrates growth in sensible, serviced locations; and
• It protects us from high-density, court-imposed development that would ignore local planning.
We will continue to report annually on our progress, maintain transparency with our residents, and work with responsible partners to turn this plan into real homes for people who live, work, and raise families here.
Middle Township didn’t choose this system—but we have chosen to face it head-on, with a plan that is fair, lawful, and grounded in common sense.
Chris Leusner
Mayor, Middle Township
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