Hello. My name is Peter Lupo. I'm a real estate attorney. I specialize in land use law and telecommunications law. Today, I'm I'm going to present about legal considerations for inclusionary zoning and affordable housing options obligations.

I'm gonna talk about balancing legal mandates with community needs.

So let me just go over the introduction. Today's objective is gonna be to examine the legal frameworks governing inclusionary zoning or IZ in affordable housing throughout the country. I'll very often, I'll move right to New Jersey. This is where I practice law as well as New York state, but it applies across the country. If we have some technical focus on that move document, and then we'll go ahead and, in the case, that occurred in nineteen seventy five, in New Jersey, and, it had reverberations across the country.

So the agenda is gonna be a formal housing trust fund, allocation requirements. They talk a little bit about fair share housing settlements, builders remedy lawsuits, innovative housing solutions to help alleviate the the crunch of housing and affordable housing, existing practices towards affordable housing policy.

So the syllabus, as you see over here, we do a brief introduction. We talk IEC, inclusionary zoning, the Metform doctrine, which is again here a case law in nineteen seventy five New Jersey, Affordable housing trust, funds, bills with revenue lawsuits, accessory dwelling units. Again, that's a innovative way that's being used. It was originally done in California. I'll cover that a little bit. Mixed use credit development, community land trusts, community development block grants or CDBG, section eight and a low income housing tax credits or kind of commonly referred to as LIHTC, little roll to the conclusion.

So let's talk a little bit about, understanding inclusionary zoning. So definition of it is, municipal policies which require we incentivize developers to include affordable housing units and new residential projects.

The purpose is to promote socioeconomic diversity, racial diversity, and address critical housing shortages.

So let's do a little bit about the Matt Laurel, doctrine overview. So in regards to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which amending some municipalities to provide a share a fair share of affordable housing. So again, key principles is gonna prohibit exclusionary zoning. I will cover that in a bit. And requirements for municipalities to plan and zone for affordable housing.

So let's explore one of the most significant judicial doctrines in the history which is the Mount Monroe doctrine. This landmark doctrine addressed the unconstitutional practice of exclusionary zoning and reach the common municipalities approach to rural housing. So my goal with this slide is to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the legal, historical, and social implications of doctrine, which focuses on exclusionary zoning and discriminatory impacts and the cost neutral principles that follows. So let me give a little bit of a historical context to exclusionary zoning or EZ.

This promotes the local zoning practices that intentionally or inadvertently excluded the service of people, often loans from individuals by imposing restrictive requirements like large middle lot sizes, prohibiting multifamily dwellings, or mandating high building costs.

While these policies were justified under the guise of preserving community calendar, community character, they also perpetuate the economic and racial segregation.

In New Jersey for example, exclusionary zoning was particularly pervasive during the personal retreats for the boom.

Communities sought to protect property values to maintain homogeneity using zoning ordinances to prevent the development of affordable housing.

This place like not rural and active ordinances that lived in land use to single family homes on large lots. It's likely more than low income families who reside in these areas.

These pauses weren't just about housing. They were tools of social exclusion.

So the legal challenges in that in that world was a town in New Jersey. It's right outside of Fort Dix if you're familiar with New Jersey.

The issue came to head in Matt Laurel. That was a small town of rural mechanics. It said, the town of the village near impossible to take on residence, and then many long term, after families defined affordable housing. This prompted the south, Burlington County NAACP to file a lawsuit against Mount Laurel Township alleging that the zoning ordinances violated the New Jersey constitution.

So on that basis, there were two different, theories of law that they, that they pursued. The first was, equal protection of laws.

The New Jersey constitution's equal protection clause guarantees that no person or groups have been denied same protection of laws that enjoyed by others.

And exclusively zoning policies. This report is going to impact the poor populations.

It's not really adding them access to housing opportunities.

So the following things that having access to housing, clean, affordable, safe housing was a was a relief in the state of New Jersey.

And by restricting form of housing development, that Laurel's building laws perpetuated, perpetuated systemic inequality and rich segregation, violating principles of legal protection. So what the court found. The second, claim that the, that the NAACP wrote was substantive due process.

And in this case, the substantive due process on the on the speed and federal constitution ensures that laws and regulations serve a legitimate public purpose and are not arbitrary.

So map rules zoning ordinances which prioritize preserving community character will provide the kinds of opportunities to help meet the standard. The reasons were arbitrary and that's not a legitimate public interest so they exclude vulnerable populations in the community.

So in this, nineteen seventy five landmark, decision, in the agreement with the plaintiff, the court held that the municipalities have a constitutional obligation to provide a reasonable opportunity for the development of affordable housing. This obligation starts from New Jersey constitutional guarantee of the general of of general welfare and legal protection as I kind of alluded to just a little bit while ago. So the, memorial, doctrine evolves since nineteen seventy five, and the the nineteen seventy five decision is often called, Met World one, minimized, resisted compliance, or just didn't abide by it, which prompted for litigation by, concerns of unique programs such as the NAACP and other housing advocates, led to the, Met World two decision which prompted the doctrine. And in this ruling, the court introduced the concept of the builder's remedy, which I which I mentioned before the the, introduction.

And under this remedy, developers consume its products that failed to apply with affordable housing obligations, gain and court to build high density housing that included affordable units. So we'll go into, delve a little more into, builders' remittance a little later on.

So the manual decisions significantly impacted the municipal land use law, which is the New Jersey's primary framework for land use and zoning. Historically, NLU MLU, go on, municipalities to enact restrictive zoning ordinances with legal regards to regional house needs and then the, rural doctrine enforcement is probably still line their zoning practices with constitutional principles. It's really popular in general welfare rather than exclusion. So this is where I kinda mentioned before why it's such a revolutionary case, why it was such a landmark in zoning, and the one with constitutional responsibilities, and not only New Jersey but across the country.

So exclusionary zoning policies in New Jersey, not only violate the concept of principles, but also disproportionately harm local families racial minorities.

So we travel that one, exclusionary, frankly, racial segregation.

Many exclusionary zoning practice were designed to prevent integration by making it possible for African Americans. This fact that it was to live in predominantly white suburbs and exacerbated economic inequality. So by limiting the flow of housing, these policies force low income families to remain in urban areas with fewer economic and educational opportunities.

So as you go here and see this slide directly, you see some of those, points that I mentioned over here. And if you for your reference, you could take a look at the sort of Southern Burlington County and double a c p versus the map hash map map moral case that we see over here. And then, the follow-up to Matt Laurel too. And there have been successive iterations, but I find these two cases are seminal and provide a very good, overview of how this actually works in the state of New Jersey. Obviously, two principles, exclusionary zoning, a requirement to plan. So the key thing is that that they don't have to necessarily create the housing directly and have to, give a form of opportunity, for developers and other individual homeowners to create affordable housing, and that is a key provision right here. And that is by way of getting rid of, exclusive zoning provisions.

Let me go over a little bit about affordable housing, trust funds.

So the purpose is to support the development and preservation of affordable housing.

And let me go let let me go into a little more depth about this, how they can be and how they become a cornerstone for addressing the housing crisis across the United States including here in New Jersey.

To begin with, what is an affordable housing trust fund? Simply put, it's a dedicated pool of money used exclusively to create, preserve, or rehabilitate affordable housing.

These funds are designed to ensure that resources are available to address the housing needs of low and moderate income families even when market driven housing solutions fall short.

So the concept of housing trust, funds emerged in nineteen eighties. You'll see that the nineteen eighties, generally speaking, were a burgeoning time for, creative ways of addressing, housing, two ridges and for affordable housing. And at the time, the total funding for affordable housing was declining. So this was public housing and, give a little bit of historic context during the Nixon administration.

And since then, there's been very little investment by the United States government in, public housing.

It's worse as state and local governments fairly fill the gap, for these, homeless and people which struggle to find, formal housing or were in risk of becoming homeless. And in response, jurisdictions began to set up housing trust funds as a way to ensure that consistent and flexible from extreme inspiration from the ups and downs of annual budgets that normally comes about from the federal government and state governments.

The first house of trust fund in the United States was established in nineteen eighty one in Burlington, Vermont, as a cumulative model was, also incubated for many different types of creative solutions under the then behind Bernie Sanders, so I'm sure everyone knows, a very famous progressive, senator from the state. This time was innovative because it linked funding or for affordable housing directly to local taxes and fees to create creating a sustainable mechanism to address housing challenges.

Other states in this family has quickly fall asleep. Today, there are over eight hundred housing trust funds across country, operating at the state, local, and regional levels. So how does the funds work? I'm pretty curious to know. Typically, housing trust funds are financed through dedicated revenue sources.

These could include real estate transfer taxes, capital recording fees, or even developer impact fees. The idea is to avoid reliance on general budget allocations, which are often something to pull the pressures and economic fluctuations.

So for example, Florida State has initiative, initiative's partnership program is funded by a course of a documentary stamp tax of real estate transactions has been a leading, example of this model.

So let's talk about New Jersey directly. The New Jersey's Affordable Housing Trust Fund is established in the Fair Housing Act of nineteen eighty five as per the state's response to the Met Law of Decisions, which I just discussed.

This trust fund is primarily financed by fees collected from developers.

Municipalities can also establish their own local trust funds which often funded through payment developers making move, building for housing units. Now what's nice about when the municipalities can get can establish this is they can highly tailor, needs for housing to their own goals and, and expectations. So it's a lot more progress with roots level versus our plans from the state of federal level.

The trust funds in New Jersey serve multiple purposes. They help create affordable rental housing, provide them through assistance for time, first time homebuyers, and fund rehabilitation projects for older housing stock. Importantly, these funds enable municipalities with the natural doctrine, which ensures that affordable housing is developed in a way that's also social and economic inclusion.

Housing trust funds also plays a different role in domestic systemic inequalities.

Historically, exclusionary zoning and discriminate housing practice have disproportionately formed communities of color and local residents.

At the federal level, the National Housing Trust Fund established in two thousand eight under the housing and economic recovery act. It's another major milestone. This fund is dedicated building, rehabilitating, preserving housing for extremely low income households. Those are less than thirty percent of our immediate, income. It's funded through contributions from government sponsored enterprise like Freddie Mac providing critical summit supplement to state and local efforts.

But, of course, challenges remain.

Housing trust funds often face political and economic pressures. For, for example, during budget shortfall, some states have diverted housing trust fund remedies to other causes, undermining their intended purposes. Advocacy and oversight are subject to show you that these funds are protected and continue to serve those most in need.

So let's go into a formal housing trust fund, legal basis.

As discussed, this, this act established to make it to comply with Matt Laurel obligations, and it also includes authorized mister Palace to create affordable house trust, funds to support housing initiatives. So you see over here in New Jersey, some of the, of the different, NJAC, and some of the codes and statutes that provide for it. And it gives you some of the funding sources I just discussed. You have developer fees, payments and roof construction, which develop, developers who are required to go to affordable housing on the amount of obligations to pay fees of the trust fund, subjecting for all units. That's one way of doing it. And other local revenues, and I just discussed some of the, work three zero eight. They can allocate on the, locally generated funds to the, affordable housing trust funds.

Let me go into a little bit of that land banking. Which is another creative way of, making creating housing.

So this is used across the nation. This is actually it wasn't, originated in New Jersey unlike the Mount Laurel doctrine.

So let's do a basic definition. A lending is essentially a public or nonprofit entity created, acquire, manage, and repurpose vacant, abandoned, and tax related properties.

Think of it as a community toolbox for revitalizing neighborhoods.

These properties often sit idle, become eyesore, bring in real resources, and make it direct investment.

Land banks take a proactive role in turning these liabilities into assets, whether for affordable housing, community spaces, or economic development.

Land banking began to gain tracks in the United States late in the late twentieth century. One of the earliest examples in the Saint Louis, this is Saint Louis land reutilization authority, which is created in nineteen seventy one to address urban decline. The modern land banking movement, however, took off in the early two thousands. The establishment of the Genesee County Land Bank in Michigan.

Flint, Michigan had thousands of vacant properties from the collapse of its manufactured base. Everyone knows Flint, Michigan from, the contamination and the tropical system, the whole host of economic woes that afflicted it. The land bank stepped in, acquiring these properties, clearing title chains, repurposing land uses that supported community goals.

Today, the Genesee County models are widely signed as a gold standard.

So let's take a look at some of the file, what has occurred here in New Jersey, particularly when it comes to abandoned and tax related properties, Urban areas like Newark, Camden, and Trenton, areas have been very closely compared to Detroit and suburb, suburbs of Detroit.

Kind of with the blight caused by such properties, decline in manufacturing, decline in the area, and really isolate with many American cities after the the focus during the sixties and seventies on its organization.

We have been looking for ways to streamline the process of returning those properties to productive use. So something that often covers a bureaucracy that accompanies tax foreclosure.

New Jersey formally passed in twenty nineteen. This was under governor Murphy. This will allow for this price to create or designate land banks to manage or repurpose distressed properties.

So new Newark, New Jersey quickly became a leader establishing the Newark land bank. Newark's approach is particularly noteworthy because it focuses on community driven priorities like affordable housing and local business development while making use of innovative technology that attract properties. So the key thing here is you wanna be creating affordable housing. We also have local jobs, support people so that they can put mortgages and rents and, start creating, and contribute towards tax, revenue for the for the town.

New Jersey embraced land banking with the New Jersey Land Bank law, which was passed in twenty nineteen as I mentioned before by the gov signed by the by governor Murphy. It's a law that's it's kind of creating this land banks to manage repurposed to trust properties.

Land banks in Jersey still face its challenges though. Women is ill. New Jersey system of five to sixty five municipalities means that many towns don't have the resources to establish or operate this land banks effectively.

There's also the issue of funding. Land banks are also like grants, partnerships, and creative practices.

But these things are always reliable. The regionals, county level approach might be a solution to maximize efficiency similar to what we, see in New York state.

These are one that we ensure that it can be a flexible tool. In, for example, in Cayuga Land Bank, centered in Cleveland, that has worked to stabilize neighborhoods hit by the foreclosure crisis.

In Atlanta, Georgia, they have a a land a a land bank collaborates, close with a number of property developers to create affordable housing. And in New York, the Albany County Land Bank, these are the model that emphasizes community partnerships of transparency.

So in Canadian, Jersey, we're looking at these examples and any other means probably really, across the country. First land banks work best when they have clear legal authority, robust funding, and short partnership with community stakeholders.

Secondly, finally, our bar part of a broader redevelopment strategy that includes rural housing, economic development, and environmental sustainability. And finally, the focus should always remain on the serving public interest, showing that land banking doesn't just clear properties, but it creates opportunities for residents and revitalize its communities.

So let's get a little bit about, recent updates, in, Fair Share Housing Choices.

So, one of the big ones was South Brunswick, New Jersey. It's the first municipality to meet their new affordable housing obligations for the next decade. It's known as the fourth round of, Matt Laurel, and the agreement includes development plans to address housing shortages. Again, New Jersey has has one of the biggest critical shortages of affordable housing together with places like, California and Boston, Massachusetts and the like.

And, you find that there's some legal charges by affluent towns aiming to afford, block affordable housing mandates and, Fisher and Housing Center views these as attempts to hinder the state housing development.

So one of the big, things right now as I mentioned is the cornerstone of the state's approach addressing housing in a quell inequities under the Metwall doctrine. So in twenty fifteen, the New Jersey court decision that reaffirming Metwall doctrine, significant products have been made in creating full housing. This decision established a judiciary pathway to be super housing for further affordable housing obligations after a period of legislative and executive gridlock. As a result, more than twenty one thousand deconstructed affordable homes have been built, which is pretty pretty amazing.

And, and with the total production of housing nearing seventy thousand units statewide, sounds like a lot but New Jersey, they're missing by hundreds of thousands, but it is still something that helps move the needle towards creating affordable housing. And in twenty twenty four, just this year, governor Bill Bill Murphy signed landmark legislation, which strengthens the state's affordable housing framework. The new law scheme has processed the municipalities, recording terms of the master plans, and zoning versus the accommodate of normal terms of production. As I mentioned before, that would be called inclusive zoning, so that it would allow for more mixed use and small homes and reduce the burden of land acquisition and construction costs.

It reduces the codified methodology for calculating house obligation, knows the Jacobson methodology, and this garnished a clear time for compliance. For instance, municipalities must adopt their housing element fair share plan by mid twenty twenty five to avoid litigation risks. And we'll talk a bit about litigation and then the, other way of enforcing, compliance with the mettleord doctrine and these, statutory frameworks, which is to build this remedy. And we'll go to the slide presentation in that a little bit.

The significant innovation on this law is the creation of a formal housing dispute resolution program, which provides immediate opportunities for municipalities, developers, and advocates to address disputes early. Additionally, transparency by maintaining public acts plans, trust plans, spending, and affordable housing progress at every stage. For housing community and accessible, affordability controls new now require a movement of forty years for rental units and thirty years for ownership of units. With renewal, renewal options extend these restrictions.

So the key thing here to take away is that, they wanna make sure to preserve this to be in the how affordable housing stock.

So again, New Jersey is about to go fourth round of level of obligations, which is set to begin this coming year, just a few, twenty twenty five. It will emphasize creating full housing, historically exclusionary areas. That's quite good in New Jersey. Something that, this, you know, transit and closer deployment. Again, many people who are, you know, who are who are, red burden also have very big issues with, getting access to the job, centers that are rich in jobs. So they're trying to go ahead and emphasize how many these new construction sites and new buildings, you know, transit.

The state is also implementing strict oversight of mutual trust funds, which work that they are utilized effectively to build or rehabilitate housing rather than sit idle.

So while the progress has been made in this department, there's a lot, you know, travels are remaining. Advocates include the Fair Share Housing Center in terms of size, we need for, continued vigilance, enforce these requirements.

Given the housing crisis affecting many low and moderate income families, the FedRack remains mostly a model of strong legal enforcement combined with community advocacy, a balance that many other states, are looking to replicate. And I'm gonna go through the Brunswick settlement right now, which, is a fairly large size one and, you know, kind of, I think the river race across the country.

So first, we need to have to meet updated affordable housing obligations.

In this meeting, the agreement incorporates concrete development plans to address housing shortages and comply with constitutional mandates.

In the matter of the application attached to South Brunswick, was the actual settlement itself if you're interested in looking at that.

And then in the, stamp service guide, the New Jersey judiciary falls too with the network of doctrine and and the series of cases that came out of it, by passing the Fair Housing Act back in nineteen eighty five.

And, South Brunswick settlement demonstrates a peaceful adherence to the statute of affordable housing obligations of the Fair Housing Act in nineteen eighty five. And, you see settlements like South Brunswick's help its palace avoid judicial intervention or bills remedy losses that mean the constant obligation to provide their fair share for housing.

So recent housing obligations, we have Fair Share Housing Center.

You know, courts work to to resolve updated housing plans to address current and future housing needs.

We go over some of the legal challenges by municipalities.

So then every as you may expect that every local municipality is really enthusiastic about creating affordable housing. So, you know, for years, you know, century, in some cases, they've had a pretty common policy, and some have fought back. And, they've been we've mapped some determined, court cases to push back against them.

So some claim that there's insufficient infrastructure to support affordable housing, to sort of local zoning autonomy, then every local municipality likes to make a trade and sell a streetscape and create, the, you know, the everything the way they want it to appear.

So for example, things like, a case of buildings, types of signage on there, sign size of sidewalks. They try to create a uniformity.

And they also say that there's a rival concerns or quality of life arguments that they include, they had to start, popping up the amount of, affordable housing, which creates more of a population. So some of these are are racially and, and, and so economically neutral, but, some courts have found or actually the case of Matt Laurel was that was that there was a, a racial component to it. So give you, for example, a case, and you'll find that, that Motleytown has challenged codes regulations to, like, applies to the four house applications and that the, court upheld the need for fair share housing plans, which reinforce the natural doctrine.

You have the fair share housing center. They have a response that that they, that the lawsuits are, or deliberate types to handle house development, involve some principles established in the world. And then you have a number of different, you know, attachments who, had supporting, you know, what's over here. You can find it.

Let's go to the building of law streets.

You have definition. So it's a legal action by developers against municipalities that feel to comply with this rural housing obligations, seeking approval to build higher density housing. So, it's like the township has found not to be in compliance with Mount Laurel.

Then what could what could happen is a developer come in and contrary to the local town zoning code, for example, might have a five eight say a five acre minimum lot. The current developer could come in and say, hey. We wanna build, twenty townhomes on five acre lot that they purchased. And if they do not if the Wilco municipality doesn't have a, approved fair share housing plan in place, then what could happen is the developer come in and force the municipality to allow them to build something with higher density. So it really makes a township, to something that they clearly don't wanna do. So it's a way of a conduit to, force the local, municipalities to comply with providing their fair share opportunities for affordable housing.

So you wanna be proactive about it as you see here in the slide. And, it could lead to court in any developments that can be used as a not not complying. So this in effect makes, municipality, vulnerable to do something that they don't wanna do by way of their exclusion and zoning practices.

And the developers strike back. So the bill's remedies. So the bill's remedy is a legal action brought by developers. I had to mention before against municipalities that failed to comply with the formal housing obligations.

The, dumpers see court approval as the as the municipality fights back, which they will, to build high density housing that includes affordable units over at the local zoning extensions.

And here's some of the legal basis that, that depends that that type of build as revenue.

Established the bill as remedies, judicial tool to enforce affordable housing obligations when displays are not compliant. And the conditions we build as remedy is available to show that the prod proposed proposed project includes substantial percentage of affordable housing. So they wouldn't be able to be all market based. I was like, this is that would really effectively adjust, adjustly reach the developer.

They would be able to buy a twenty five week a lot in this example I get before and build twenty townhomes that would be very, lucrative for the, for the for the builder. But in this case, they could do some sort of work in, value projects and and townhouses as an example, but they would also be required, to do a substantial amount of them to be affordable housing.

And, miss the municipality itself must lack a client for a housing plan under the Fair Housing Act, something that was not approved by the court, in advance.

The implications of building remedies, encourages municipal compliance. The municipalities are incentivized to proactively create housing plans to avoid building remedies, remedy losses, and we take control of rezoning their municipality.

Court mandated development, noncompliance to result in court ordered approvals for higher density developments, offering exceeding a local zoning restrictions.

One of the key cases I'm referencing here is a health development company versus Burnham's Township. The court building that it's builders remedy allowing develop and construct a project with a formal housing component to it. Reinforced the principle that municipalities can't be used solely to exclude formal housing. The outcome here was that the builders remedy shifts power to developers and courts compelling municipalities to fulfill the constitutional obligations under the Mount Laurel doctrine.

And we'll give some example cases here. You have Toll Brothers versus, West Windsor.

You'll see over here Westwood's attachment failed to adopt the client housing plan, which resulted in successful builder's remedy lawsuit. The developer failed in this case, and the court approved the high density development that included the formal housing units. Implications were New Jersey courts have generally prioritized cost neutral obligations to provide formal housing over municipal zoning restrictions.

Those were many lawsuits exposed mispassed to judicial intervention. We filled the plan proactively. And as you can see here, very, very powerful judicial instrument to make the municipalities comply with map oral fashion.

Let's move on to, accessory dwelling units. And, right now, we're gonna shift a little bit to, ways of creating affordable housing with, with things that are that exist, mainly barns, sheds, garages, more by allowing accessory structures that are already there, to become housing.

So something that has units, on a single family lot such as basements, apartments, or detached cottages.

And the benefits is that increases a formal housing stock, provides safer homeowners, promotes diverse communities.

It also really, allows also for multi generational hopes. It allows for somebody to come in with a parent or grandparent as well lived direct, you know, necessarily in the same structure that allows them to be somewhat independent but very close by literally in their backyard and allows this multi directional unit to to live together, and allow each to support the other. In the case of, the company person, it can allow them, you know, again, this autonomy in life that they don't have to be in a senior citizen home or life, be close to the family, and also help working families. In this case, that even perhaps with a child rearing, a child, and babysitting. So And this actually began in, in California during the World War two, where there were housing shortages in the defense industry. That was one of the extreme ways that was done, in nineteen forties, and I believe it was back to World War one. Where there was a surge of wartime employees, lack of housing, lack of hotels.

Also, equipment was being and materials were being diverted towards wartime production, and this allowed in very quick and affordable ways allowing, for expanding wartime, boom around, these plants and and, usually, courts.

Just some of the legal considerations.

Zoning regulations, building codes, and community opposition often creating where this great densification of people. So a lot of those parties try to fight against it, because they claim that it creates, additional burdens on things like education, on roads, traffic, and the like. But still, ADUs, accessory dwelling units, are increasing popularity.

When we go into the ADU defined, an accessory dwelling unit is a self contained residential unit that's built on the same lot as an exist existing home.

ADUs are also known as in law suites, grain flats, separate units, or countertop assets.

The sum of the basics are as follows. The process of obtaining ADU permits, varies by municipality, The local zoning laws such as bulk and use of regulations, and, and and contains specific regulations for properties with each zoning district.

The average cost of building ADU is around a hundred and eighty thousand. Most homeowners pay between sixty and a hundred two hundred and eighty five thousand. The average cost per square foot is hundred fifty to three hundred dollars.

And when you look at, you know, fifty five in old communities, if you look at the cost of, you know, hundred and eighty thousand dollars as an apt cost, it's reasonably affordable, to be able to create an initial home either for rental purposes as a natural source of revenue if you're looking to, you know, to do that or do you wanna bring in, your, your elderly parents to live there. So ADUs can be attached or detached from a home depending on how local this how they, defies ADUs.

And so if it's from a home, it's also called a little a cottage or a backyard cottage, but in effect, it's an accessory to the primary function of property, which is a single family property.

So some of the functions, ADUs are subordinate to the main house, but are functionally independent.

They generally have their own, own basic facilities to do their living. So they have, toilets and bathrooms, sleeping area. Kitchen, they may kind of resemble, if you look at them as a open floor plan, studio apartment in many cases depending on their perspective.

So we go into what types of EDUs there are.

The the community could be growing it. You see some examples over here.

Must be between the kind of wall from an existing or post new kind of home.

So this is connected here. You see over here. You see the EDU conversion kit built from existing space within the home. So that's maybe perhaps a garage. I've seen many of these as a as a like, to the New Jersey where people take a garage that's attached to the house. They convert that garage into an apartment. We give it a bathroom, a small kitchen, and the like.

Then you see over here another example of a freestanding structure, then EDU accessory dwelling unit that's attached.

You see, over here accessory dwelling unit that's attached over here as well. Shows at least one wall with a primary home. So you see over here, there's many different types of ways of creating the accessory dwelling unit. And depending on the needs and the size of property and the enabling ordinances of the municipality, that that'll kinda drive what these what these, accessory dwelling units look like.

We go over some, ADB dimensions. Let me give our New York state as an example.

There's no state wide code that universally limits accessory dwelling units, to a particular size or number of bedrooms.

Instead, the local municipalities have the authority of staff to our regulations regarding ADU size specifications.

That idea of kind of, allowing, each ruling town to decide what their the character and the streetscape of the community look like. So they delegate this. They give word of that context. They give avoid enabling, authority to allow the employee to use the state. But a lot of people kind of tailor it to what, works for their own municipality instead of centralized, command planning, from the state down.

So let's give the village a Tarrytown to look where it's supposed to be a minimum of three hundred square feet. It can be a maximum of three, a thousand square feet with no more than two bedrooms. Again, you wanna kind of limit the density and use of property because, you know, you're earning people change one of these lot of box means that it's a burnout. It's super, the water demands on natural gas for utility companies on educational. So you do wanna create additional housing, but you don't wanna crash the infrastructure of the task. So So that's what some of these, square footage caps and, size, of the properties really, kind of kind of.

And these zones with.

We talked about maybe perhaps a studio or bedroom ADU that's that's that's permitted.

So some of the statewide legislative efforts, to standardize any regulation across the United States, such as Senate Bill, s four forty five forty seven a, has not been enacted a lawyer, but the bill proposed that ADU fifty percent of Disney primary doing size unless such a move would prevent the creation of ADU that is not greater than six, six hundred square feet. So they're trying to balance, again, size versus use, density, and the the other requirements, the tenant requirements of having a new structure that just discussed.

So the unit of the state of my standard, local, of course, this is building codes at each specific municipality and county where the property is located, determines the permissible size, and specifications for an ADU.

Let me give some more, examples over here. I I really do find the the the ways, ADUs to be very interesting. I was just at the League of Municipalities in New Jersey, which had all five sixty five municipalities and attendants. And the ADUs was something that's, really caused a lot of, discussion and thought amongst the participants, local, town councils and mayors and other state officials were buzzed about ADU, so I figured I'd kind of fleshed it a little bit. We're here now in New York State and New Jersey, but this gives you some ideas that are really kind of emerging across the country.

So we have a town of Anhears, attached or attached residential unit, providing independent living facilities. They have some size of strip which have been up to two hundred square feet. Very, very tiny type of home, but if you're a single person, you know, it would be potentially better than, having to, not have anything at all, living at home or shelter. Maximum size with two square feet.

They record some setbacks. Again, you have, some of the traditional zoning considerations, the ability of structures of homes is that they have, setbacks. So you will have the encroachment of the properties of, you know, natural light, air circulation, the like, did require some setback requirements. Some additional provisions, the ADUs could exceed fifty percent of the primary twelve hundred square footage or six hundred square feet, which is less.

And, no additional parking spaces required for ADUs, so in the line, it would be street parking, perhaps municipal parking. The, town of Rochester, you know, secondary dwelling, unit staff as we judge for the private residence. We'll have to symbolize, restrictions, two hundred square feet at minimum, fifteen hundred as a, square feet as a max.

Setback requirements, has to go, has to deploy existing zoning, district setback regulations. And these are giving me setbacks or put in place across the country as a way of preserving light air, you know, the feeling of encroachment, the feeling that you're, you know, right on top of your neighbor. So it previs out perception of the spaces within the community.

Additional provisions, ADUs are permitted in all of the essential zone districts.

Whatever is required, be the primary or accessory to own. So one of the two have to be, occupied by the the owner. And the idea again, I think, in this case, is to ensure, taking, proper upkeep of the property. So So it's not just a investment property that sort of lives, far away and then, had has falls into a district. So anyway, the general principle and thought is that anyone who lives in the the property is gonna care about looks and will, preserve and upkeep it accordingly.

Let's go to mixed use developments.

Something in the last ten years has gained a lot of traction. You see, an example over here of a building that has a combination of retail space at the ground level. It's got, some apartment buildings, some, that you can rent, some that you can buy as condominiums, and you have some commercial space for for working arrangements. So, a lot of things go with thought with mixed use development. Part of it's gonna be affordability.

The height of density allows more units to be built in a in a in a square, acre or or the footprint that it occupies.

Then it allows, for people to be able to work perhaps where they where they live, if there's commercial units. Some people are allowed to work remotely as you know. CLO really showed them the ability if you have broadband and device, they can really work remotely and not have to be, tethered to the office. So this kind of brings in, best practices of public planning and, the like.

So let's get into a little bit of a bit of a definition of mixed use development. Definition, projects that combine residential, commercial, and sometimes industrial spaces. Some of the advantages as I as I alluded to just before is that particular land use. You're allowed to if you have one acre land, you're building one house on that on the acre.

In this case, you can build twenty units including retail space and commercial space. It reduces its sprawl. If we have a minimum, size per house of an acre, two acres, five acres, you create quite a bit of sprawl here. You you put quite a lot of people in a very short a small area and enhance, enhances community engagement.

Some of the, best practices as I learned, you know, when you have, we'll take the old World Trade Center in New York City. It's a short course during that eleven, but one of the biggest things about the World Trade Center from a planning perspective is that it, had two giant buildings that were for, commercial use. And when people during the daytime, when people were there, it was a bustling, you know, area. The restaurants, there were, you know, bars perhaps after it's closing, people could come together after work.

But after five, six o'clock, it turned into a complete ghost town. And the idea of this mixed use developments is that you don't have a high cost range of any one type of function. So it's not purely retail. It's not completely commercial, and it's not completely residential, and allows a little synergy between all the parties that helps reduce driving, need for cars, recover the footprint and the wipes.

Some of the legal challenges, and zoning approvals. As I mentioned before, in case in New Jersey, there were prohibitions against, allowing for, mixed use developments and that type of local density. Different types of demands. Again, you know, one of the things if you add that many people to a location, it impacts the education system means that you have to start building new school ramps or expansion of schools, hiring new teachers. That's another additional tax burden.

Water, sewer, all these things will be impacted by the amount of people using it. May may not be enough work really to find the town. So there are some legitimate tie, aspects of time, but usually, if you if I did anything else where there's a rule, there's a way to some, real plot put into it, There's ways of overcoming some of these logistical and infrastructure demands.

And it balances diverse stakeholder interest. It allows, you know, people to, cohabitate together, that would not have been permissive, possible with ex exclusionary zoning principles, the ones we discussed before, the minimum size homes, our minimum size lots. It allows for, that type of, interaction to people who are not other otherwise ordinarily been together with exclusionary zoning provisions.

Mixed use developments, legal and financial basis.

So the legal basis for this, is, mixed use developments are enabled by form based codes or overlaying zoning districts. Allows a combination of residential, commercial, industrial uses within the city area as you saw from that photo. Got a little bit of the flavor for that. Environmental and urban planning policies. You know, the state and local governments promote, mixed use projects, reduce the role, encourage walkability, and meet sustainment development goals. And then over that would be the smart growth initiatives, and complete these policies.

So some of the financial basis, tax increment financing, key attest as a goal.

These plans we direct to increase property tax revenues in the development area to fund project costs.

Public private partnerships, something that's really become really popular in the United States, something that the United States government does, and many states have started adopting these, p threes, the public private partnerships, where the developers collaborate with governments. They should have cost, risks, and benefits, and they see benefits. So in, offsets some of the cost and things at risk for the government. The private industry, the private industry also benefits because they get, lucrative contracts with the government. So really the whole idea is where it's properly administered within the confines of constructs of the private private partnership program. I wouldn't really benefit. Private and government entities really benefit from that.

You have some federal and state incentives. You have your low income housing tax credits, LIHTC as I mentioned before, for federal for affordable housing bonus. And we'll talk about this in a bit. I'll talk a bit about the HUD Community Development Bank of Block Grants. So as I said, the CDBG's Community Development Block Grants, which were first introduced during, Nixon in nineteen seventy four for infrastructure equipments, and we'll talk about this also more in actually just a bit.

Let me give you a little example here.

The, the the, example, of Atlanta State Trail in Georgia, and it's called the Atlantic State Trail. You can see here it's a real thriving community. Just taking a look at here, you see that this is a dynamic area, outdoor space for people to to, to come together.

You have a modern, clean type of environment for open spaces, public transportation, and you have a little bit of a time center over here. It's just been lacking in suburban scrolling. I'll find this in suburban. It's been street malls.

We've seen that there's a cluster of housing that's all around this area. So the coffee shop over here, cafes, and so that is, people to interact, nice with each other. Lots of people stay local. They have to drive more businesses, reduces the the burden on streets and roads in terms of people who have to drive lower carbon footprint.

And these houses around here have a mix of, prevailing market we market, rents. There's some also fixed and affordable housing. So it allows me to develop and go ahead and start building homes that makes sense from a financial standpoint because no developers gonna come in and, start building, if they're not gonna make money on things. So you wanna incentivize together with tax incentives and other types of things that allows for this type of development. So it's a hundred and thirty acres.

It was on a four steel mill. We took a a place that was a industry that the United States really has really lost a lead on, rusting industrial areas, including this dynamic thriving era and implementing best practices from zoning standpoints and technology.

That's five thousand housing units including affordable options. You see that there are there's one point five million square feet of retail office space, eleven acres of parks and public plazas. People are able to walk around, exercise it, and and meet as a community.

So some of the legal framework, you have so many amendments, a lot for high density mixed use development, financing mechanism. As I mentioned before, tax increment financing is one way of doing it. We do, low income tax credits, but in this case, it's tax increment financing, private equity and central investment partnerships, some of the p three, the private part of private part of the project I mentioned before.

And the impact was to transform an industrial site into a thriving urban community, putting over three billion economic activity and becoming a model for sustainable mixed use development.

So let me move on to community land trust or CLPs.

So the idea is that the, concept is that nonprofit organizations, require and hold land to ensure long term having affordability. One of the big issues you find often is that, a lot of to justification, for example, you find that homes are being, converted to, other uses, and become unaffordable.

So they hold the land and keep it so that, it remains in the form of housing stock. So they simply own a strip of land and buildings, and they provide affordable housing options. And, some of the latest fireworks there is land leases, lease that restrictions.

Again, if if it is being resolved by the original owner, then it stays within the formal housing stock. It doesn't go to, it doesn't go over to, you know, gentrification. So people coming in with higher, incomes and skill sets, this displays the people who are in the community themselves who may need a little assistance with housing.

So let me go on to community land trusts.

So we'll give you a little bit of, what it is. It's a nonprofit five zero one c three organization that requires a whole lands holds land for the benefit of the community, showing long term affordability and equitable access to housing.

Key legal features here is all the dual ownership. Underlying lands owned by the CLT, individuals or entities own a lease of structure on land, and they usually have a ninety nine year readable ground lease to ensure that the land aligns with the CLT's mission It's, again, creating and preserving affordable housing. For the building, about, the speculation by limiting resale value of homes to, price caps so it keeps it in a affordable, housing stock. And it targets low and moderate income houses. So the governance is these areas that CLT is operated with tripartite boards representing some residents for a community and public rent, interest.

Applications, affordable housing, long term solutions for long term families, anti displacement. Again, state lines and needs to provide for rent to justification, which is very disruptive as I mentioned before to, affordable housing stock.

And, maintains community gardens, local businesses, or free spaces.

So let's see a little case study here.

Shreve Lane Housing Trust. It's broken in Vermont. Again, home turf from Bernie Sanders.

It has, the the largest CLP in the US. It provide over twenty five hundred affordable homes.

Again, it has a nine nine, on the Vermont law. It's a nine nine year of ground lease to for, to enforce affordability. So it has terms and conditions under which the units that are above that land are to be maintained and transmitted to other, affordable housing, recipients.

We have here, we have the the Dudley Neighbors, Boston, Massachusetts, born in the eighties as part of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, combines urban blight and justification.

Impact has developed affordable housing, a greenhouse, and a community center to trust on land. Again, greenhouse allows, for carbon emissions and allows people to grow during wintertime.

For people, it's a good way for communities to come together, and, in a productive manner.

Let's go, some of the takeaways from CLP. You see over here that they operate towards credit, state, and local regulations.

You see, that operates as a final one c three not for profit, which call qualifies for tax exemptions.

It's peak level, enabling legislations such as in Vermont and Massachusetts can support CLT operations. It demonstrates how nonprofit entities can combine legal mechanism legal mechanisms. So ground leases, resale formulas, and community governance to ensure sustainable affordable housing solutions.

For legal practitioners, CLTs can serve as a key tool to combat housing equality as you found as we first discussed in the beginning with the Met Laurel doctrine.

Let's go to established practices.

Let's talk about community develop block grants. One of the one of the big developments during the seventies to address homelessness and housing security and affordability.

So this TDBG program was established by the Housing and Community Development Act of nineteen seventy four. This was at the very, very end of Nixon's term, passed, narrowly through the through the House and Senate, decided to to law before he was, impeached and, resigned as president of the United States, administered by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD.

The purpose is to provide flexible funding for local governments to address housing, infrastructure, community development needs.

And that can assembly display submit a a consolidated plan to HUD every three to five years, a detailed community needs, proposed projects, along with annual performance evaluation reports, which is called papers, and track progress and compliance.

The agreement amount, HUD determines the grand amounts for each municipality.

They go again based on, on a formula by state and then, that that informs how much money is given to HUDs. It's also date based on state size, population, and need for each state for affordable housing. So the HUD evaluates consolidated plans that's issued, using formula based on factors like population I just mentioned, hobby levels, housing difference. So what is the quality of the housing stock that is significantly deteriorated?

Are they in need of a to schedule rehabilitation and the like to determine the size of c g CDBG allocation for each municipality? So this formula gives a fixed amount to each state and then each state gets a a separate amount based on these factors. So each state is a fundamental, similar amount for all fifty states, but then it changes based on these factors. This was agreed upon, in nineteen seventy four when the law was first passed.

So let me go over some of the CDBG development goals. Some of the federal goals are to benefit low and moderate income persons, prevent and eliminate forms of of blight, address urgent needs, due to natural disasters, or severe economic distress.

Development over time, nineteen eighty one, you saw the introduction of the small cities program targeting non entitlement areas, Expansion includes disaster recovery experts sorry, recovery, efforts.

So Doctor's disaster recovery in the CDBG.

Recent focus, climate resilience and equity initiatives different than the planet. So, obviously, we're facing much more storms and intensification of storms, the frequency of those. So climate resilience is something that's built into it. So you have to constantly have to, rebuild every time there's a storm.

So it's been just a separate CDBG has invested over a hundred fifty billion in communities nationwide, creating housing opportunities, improving infrastructure, and forcing economic development on the served areas. That's benefit over twelve hundred local governments, which is pretty substantial, nice nice impact across the country.

So you see some case studies over here. You see that c d CDGB funds, to address, housing for low income families and neighborhoods with aging infrastructure.

The program aimed to improve housing safety, enhance energy efficiency and stability at city of west communities. So some of the key features here to target low and moderate income homeowners that's under less than fifty percent of the adjusted median income for the area.

Scope of repairs include construction expense, HVAC upgrades, electrical rewiring, accessibility, amount of cleaning and energy efficiency improvements.

Outcomes, two hundred plus homes rehabilitated, unlimited plans for mold and faulty wiring, helps people that live in safe, affordable, clean homes.

Economic impact boosts local jobs through small business contracts and, helps with neighborhood stability.

Let's get into federal laws. Let's get into section eight a little bit, and then we'll go into our, to our conclusion.

Section eight was, something that was also, that was also introduced during these companies to help with with housing inequality and scarcity.

So we get into section eight in ITEC, which is low income housing tax credit. Section eight, is housing choice vouchers. This is very low income families, The elderly and disabled individuals afford decent state housing.

Tenants pay thirty percent of income towards rent. And again, that's what, the the United States government, the federal government defines as, a reasonable proportion of the of what you burden towards your housing. And a lot of people who are lawyers who are burdened, saddled with student loans as I know I was when I came out of law school, you probably, probably put the link to it and probably see if I pay a whole lot more there so my income towards my mortgage on my right. But that is just there and that's what they tried to, maintain, UberG's pipe to section eight. And, the LIHTC, the low income tax credit was introduced in eighty six to incentivize private investment for rental housing. Developers receive tax credits for building, rehabilitating rental housing for low income tenants, and the credits are located by, state local housing private housing agencies.

Let's start looking forward right now and get into our wrap up of, this one hour block of introduction. It says, start thinking about what what is, why is for, you know, for housing? And here we see a picture of Camden, New Jersey. Camden was like many US cities, fell victim during the, you know, the fifties and sixties and seventies to industrial blight, so to industrial abandonment in the cities.

And then what that left to was, loss of, tax revenues, loss of jobs, homelessness, inability to pay, started finding, a a a vacant, abandoned, and neglected lots of them in the city. And and you go ahead and start transforming a place like Camden, New Jersey with so many hard times and make it into something, renewable. And you see over here, little, of Kent, New Jersey, home to Kent Campbell Soup. You may remember Campbell Soup, but it's a famous movie by Andy Warhol.

Anyway, this is where Campbell Soup was, originating a lot of big injuries that have left and, tried to find its way forward. So we have a new, movement. It's called the Yindi Movement.

So yesterday backyard. So instead of, Nindi, people rejecting, people are embracing great, racial diversity, greater, ability for jobs, for people who work, remotely, to work in a small community where we have as you saw in the example of Atlanta, we have a mixed use of housing. We have a commercial space. We have a retail space.

So it's a political movement across, the United States that advocates more housing. And the YBI Movement aims to address the housing shortage in the United States by increasing the housing supply and facing the same challenges as the discussed approaches. So some of the strategies in maybe, have case for, new strategies like changing zone to increase density. That's one of the key things that New Jersey Municipality has started facing.

You know, the gym and and let go of their desire to have big open lots at least in that across the entire municipality, at least in certain designated areas.

Supporting public transportation, allowing people who are unable to work remotely and don't have cars, can't afford it. We don't have high how high insurance on cars are these days. A lot of people have transit to public transportation.

You need to have the kids believe that building more housing will create more options at fair housing levels, limit direct and rental impacts as we discussed before.

We have much greater carbon, neutral areas because people work locally and certainly drive. Reduces poverty by allowing for low income, audience and homelessness at least, we hope at least. Eliminate racial segregation, another great, you know, outlook for the GED movement, eliminate, free jobs, and stop climate stop climate change as I mentioned before. So let's roll to the conclusion of this one hour block of instruction. So this is recap.

Understanding the legal landscape is crucial in effectively addressing affordable housing needs while respecting community dynamics, call the action, collaborate with legal experts, planners, and community members to develop inclusive housing solutions, dental's obligations with community concerns, transparent planning processes, centers with developers to build these of rural housing, flexible zoning homes as we mentioned before allow for at least certain parts of town of higher density to allow for, greater ability to build homes that are affordable and, we offer education on full housing benefits for the community. With that, thank you very much for joining me. Hopefully, you found this to be instructional and informative and look forward to further CLE presentations.