Less Is More–Fewer Decisions but Greater Substance

Although the Supreme Court decided about half the number of cases in the municipal field than it has typically done in the recent past, the significance of their decisions far outweighs the reduced production. For example, for the first time in over a decade, they re-entered the affordable housing field and invalidated the Council on Affordable Housing’s (COAH) third-round regulations, leaving the municipalities without enforceable third-round guidelines. In the eminent domain field, they decided two cases, first comprehensively addressing and clarifying the process to be followed when a property owner contends that the highest and best use for its property involves a zoning change or a variance. In the second case, they confirmed that bona fide negotiations had to take place only with the record owner of the property and further, refined the criteria for evaluating the “bona fides” of bona fide negotiations.

In a case with far-reaching implications, the court found that the New Jersey Civil Rights Act (NJCRA) could be used as a vehicle to enforce the right of referendum afforded citizens under the Faulkner Act, which holding subjected the municipalities to the obligation to pay plaintiff’s attorney fees.