TRENTON – Sen. Ray Lesniak offered a somewhat mixed reaction when it came to extending a moratorium on the developer fees, a move for which he sponsored legislation four years ago.
“My legislation establishing a moratorium on developers fees is as important now as it was four years ago, since New Jersey’s unemployment rate still is much higher than the nation and regional unemployment; however, a further extension of the moratorium or its expiration should be part of a solution that also creates affordable housing opportunities, like my mortgage foreclosure transformation act which Governor Christie has vetoed twice,” Lesniak wrote in an email. “The developers fees supported affordable housing funds, but at the same time discouraged job creation. Not good. We need jobs and affordable housing.”
The moratorium on developers’ fees, which charged commercial developers 2.5 percent to support affordable housing, is scheduled to expire on June 30. Sen. Jennifer Beck has drafted legislation that would do away with the fee altogether.
