New Jersey’s Local Redevelopment & Housing Law (LHRL), N.J.S.A. 40A:12A-1 et seq., is a useful tool provided to municipalities in certain situations involving “blighted” and distressed properties and areas. Enacted in 1992, but preceded by less comprehensive statutes, it allows towns to bolster development by assembling parcels of land for sale to developers, demolishing or clearing what was there, sidestepping regular local zoning, and entering into agreements for favorable treatment. It permits the use of eminent domain to acquire properties, though most have been acquired voluntarily, and towns have usually not exercised this power. Sometimes it has also been applied to completely undeveloped properties such as wetlands.
It is not surprising then that sometimes the Redevelopment Plan process has been used, or at least proposed, for properties with historic and cultural significance that are in the way of someone’s planned development. The Act does not in itself address historic preservation. It encourages the development of affordable housing, though it is more often used for commercial and industrial purposes.
The redevelopment process begins when a municipal council, usually at the request of the mayor, asks the Planning Board to study and determine whether the properties are “in need of redevelopment,” a legal term of art. The Planning Board retains a planner and often an engineer to do the study, and then answers yes or no – but the latter outcomes are not very common. An ordinance is then drawn up to include all the planning and zoning provisions which the planner and board deem appropriate, and the council enacts it as an amendment to its Land Use Ordinance. A contract is then entered into between the municipality and a person or entity acting as “redeveloper,” and permits are issued for demolition and construction.