TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River officials ripped "Trenton-style liberal social engineering" while claiming victory in announcing the township must provide just 1,285 affordable housing units between now and 2025, a reduction of nearly 50 percent in initial estimates of what the township should provide.

The mandate of 1,285 units comes after a lengthy legal battle with state housing advocates. Township officials said in a news release that most of the units needed to fulfill the mandate already are under construction or have been approved,which means new construction impact will be minimal to residents. Toms River officials said the housing policy punishes suburban towns like Toms River, which has already provided more than 1,700 units of affordable housing in the first two rounds of rulings by the state's Council on Affordable Housing.

"The state's misguided affordable housing policy has led to excessive development, which results in higher property taxes, infringement upon local control, overcrowded local schools and overstressed municipal services," officials said in the release.

Councilman George Wittmann called COAH a flawed public policy "hatched by clueless Trenton politicians and force-fed to suburban municipalities like ours by our liberal courts."

Wittman noted that the initial state maps of potential sites for affordable housing "included the median strip of land on the Garden State Parkway and the golf course of one of our gated senior communities. The state never verified the maps and we had to correct the errors." Councilman Maurice "Mo" Hill said the mandate ignores the fact that 50 percent of Toms River residents commute to points outside Ocean County to work.

Despite that, he said, and despite having "no convenient rail service and not a single four-lane state highway serving our community, Toms River gets assessed with the fourth highest affordable housing obligation in the state."

"This is Trenton-style liberal social engineering at its worst and it threatens the quality of life in our town," Council President Brian Kubiel said. "We've worked very hard to provide sufficient affordable housing for residents – especially seniors and the disabled – but it's never enough for our out-of-control liberal judges and big-city politicians."



"While Toms River has continued to provide affordable housing units, many other municipalities have very minimal or in some cases no requirement to provide any affordable units," Kubiel said. "The process is patently unfair and does not recognize the contributions of inclusive towns like Toms River." "We have always recommended a common-sense approach to the location of affordable housing where the jobs are located and where there is sufficient transportation infrastructure to support the increased growth and development of the affordable units," Hill said.