BERGEN COUNTY REPUBLICANS

CALABRESE HELLER & DUGGAN

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GOP CANDIDATES SAY COUNTY SHOULD BE OPPOSING LATEST COAH REGULATIONS

Housing Mandates Will Kill Economy and Small Towns

Hackensack – The New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing’s Round 3 regulations requiring municipalities to build more so-called affordable housing,  must be opposed to protect the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of Bergen County residents, say Republican freeholder candidates.

COAH’s proposed regulations will force communities to provide one affordable unit among five residential units and one affordable unit for every 16 jobs (previous ratios were one affordable unit among nine residential units and 1 affordable unit for every 25 jobs). The housing to jobs ratio formula is especially damaging to towns in South Bergen who are suffering the results of the Xanadu mega mall development.

Chris Calabrese, a South Bergen business owner, says if the state legislature fails to act to stop COAH’s outrageous demands -- “the economy of South Bergen will come to screeching halt and the value of housing in the area will plummet.”

Calabrese, a real estate executive, said inundating South Bergen with thousands of units of new housing  will not only increase traffic gridlock, but will increase property taxes.  He said the all-Democrat freeholder board is hiding from the COAH issue because the freeholders are afraid of offending the far left wing of their party.

“Freeholder Bernadette McPherson knows that the social engineering effort of COAH will ruin the quality of life and the economy of South Bergen, yet she will not take the sensible stand and oppose COAH’s Draconian rules,” said Calabrese.  “She is a captive of the liberals who want more and more housing paid for by hard working middle class people.”

GOP freeholder candidate Paul Duggan of Bogota said as a freeholder he would be gathering community support to oppose COAH and bring taxpayer pressure on the Democrat controlled legislature to revise the Fair Housing Act.

“The freeholders aren’t using their power to pressure the state to abandon the lunacy of the COAH proposals,” said Duggan. “They are raising taxes and bowing to the social engineers that want the entire state to look like Hudson County.”

"Bergen homeowners are looking for affordable taxation – not high density affordable housing construction in their towns,” added Duggan. “Bergen is the largest county in the state and the freeholders should be using their positions to advocate for a sensible housing plan – not one that threatens the economy and land values in Bergen County,” added Dugan

Jeff Heller, the third GOP freeholder candidate, and a former Ramsey councilman, said COAH’s regulations -- if unchallenged -- will kill economic growth opportunities in eastern Bergen, while destroying the quality of life in the northern and western suburbs of the county

“The direction of state and local planning has been to limit growth, and preserve open space. Now along comes the extremists in COAH in Round 3 and they are advancing policies that will force overdevelopment in just about every community in Bergen County,” said Heller.

“At the very least, I would expect the freeholders to pass a resolution opposing COAH and demanding the legislature to scrap the Fair Housing Act,” said Heller.       

OTHER PROGRAMS POSSIBLE 

Calabrese said there are other ways to help people afford homes – noting that the county under former Republican County Executive William Pat Schuber created a first time homeowner program that provided low cost loans and grants to help people buy a home.

“The state needs ingenuity in its thinking to help people who legitimately need help to afford a home,” said Calabrese.  He also said Trenton needs a reality check when it comes to real estate. “Not everyone who wants a home in New Jersey is going to be able to afford one. That’s an economic reality.”