New Jersey Low-Cost Coastal Housing

From the Asbury Park Press:
N.J. may ease way for low-cost homes in coastal zones

"New Jersey wants to ease the way for affordable housing projects in some coastal centers by temporarily relaxing some environmental limits, under a proposed rule to be published today."

"Such projects would still have to meet wetlands and other environmental rules, said Ruth Ehinger, who heads the state Department of Environmental Protection's Coastal Management Program."

""This is a very important rule," said Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, president of N.J. Housing and Neighborhood Development, a nonprofit seeking to build more than 400 affordable housing units in Lakewood. "There is a great need for affordable housing.""

""We're not affecting anybody, we're helping people," Lefkowitz said. "We help the community. It's a win-win situation. No one gets hurt here.""

"But Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, a Sandy Hook-based coastal conservation group, said the DEP, instead of trying to ensure that affordable housing projects protect the environment, is "creating loopholes and exemptions that will encourage towns to site affordable housing projects in environmentally sensitive areas.""