ROBBINSVILLE -- Fearing higher taxes and a school district unable to support a huge influx of students, Robbinsville attorneys will file a declaratory judgement complaint with the New Jersey Supreme Court regarding affordable housing, Mayor Dave Fried said.

In 2009, the town was approved by the state to build 317 affordable housing units, Fried said.

But in March, the state supreme court ruled lower courts will now be charged with determining the number of low- and moderate- income houses in each town and city.

Now, developers and residents can go to court and challenge any municipality on the number of units, following the ruling which came from a lawsuit filed by the Fair Share Housing Center, an affordable housing advocacy organization in Cherry Hill.

Since the decision, the number of units FSHC is asking to be built in Robbinsville has jumped to 1,000, which has not yet been approved or denied by the courts.

"I believe all of us should build affordable housing, but asking us to build 1,000 units is just unsustainable," Fried said.

In an email to township residents, Fried emphasized because rules allow up to 20 percent of development to be affordable housing, 4,000 extra units can be built.

Fried said this would lead to the possibility of building another school, which would ultimately end up in tax increases.

Fried and Robbinsville attorneys will file a complaint to court in July, asking that the court does not mandate FSHC's large number.

The township is not the first in Mercer County to go to court about increasing their Council of Affordable Housing numbers.

Hopewell also filed a complaint with the court this spring about the increase in affordable housing units proposed to be built.

Mike Cerra, the NJ State League of Municipalities Director of Government, said there will be many more complaints filed by the July deadline.

"There are probably going to be hundreds of municipalities filing declaratory judgements," he said."The number is easily going to be in the triple digits."

Fried is not opposed to building more units, he said, as long as it is a number that can be sustained by the township.

"Our goal is to keep the number of new affordable housing units built in Robbinsville to a realistic number based on the existing conditions in the township," the email to residents said.

"It absolutely makes no sense," he said.

But according to Kevin Walsh, executive director of the Fair Share Housing Center, the increase in units is needed.

"You can't have Amazon's warehouse and ignore the fact that those workers need a place to live," Walsh said, noting most workers would qualify for affordable housing. "This is why New Jersey is one of the most expensive places to live in the country."

Fried said instead of building in Robbinsville, COAH should once again adopt Regional Contribution Agreements, which would allow a municipality to pay for affordable units to be set up in another municipality.

Had this program, which ended in 2008, been in place, Robbinsville would be able to build up to half of their affordable housing units in Trenton, which Fried said would be more cost efficient because the land is cheaper.

"We need to start building our cities," he said. "What they should be doing is putting the affordable housing in areas where there is more need."

Brielle Urciuoli may be reached at gurciuoli@njadvancemedia.com.Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.