Zinna: New Jersey and Affordability, Perfect Together

OPINION

New Jersey does not have a housing affordability problem, we have a will-power problem. Or to put it another way, we struggle to embrace evolving ideas to address our economic challenges.

To understand why we like to talk about affordablity rather than actually doing something, we only need look to the Declaration of Independence, and Jefferson’s words stating:  “…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves…”. In 2026 parlance that translates into: “it is easier to do nothing and complain, then take a risk and act”.

Let’s talk about the cost of housing, specifically, affordable housing. How many of you woke up this morning inside a home, apartment, or condominium? I woke up indoors, I like living in my home. The housing policy of New Jersey should be guided by one goal: everyone should be living indoors.

New Jersey has homes of all different economic value. What we need more of is affordable housing. Affordable homes for Seniors, Veterans, teachers, plumbers, police, and young families beginning their lives. Sometimes this means single family homes, or apartments, or townhouses.

One of the man-made barriers to building affordable housing are outdated zoning laws. Some of the laws address height, or density. The most egregious zoning laws are those that place a higher value on where we park cars over whether families can live in an affordable home.

In most New Jersey towns, including mine, it is generally illegal to park a car overnight on the street, or in public parking lots. This has the effect of eliminating available parking spots and therefore preventing the construction of both new market rate and affordable homes. It is a perversity of intent that downtowns are often zoned for apartments above retail stores, but we intentionally prevent home creation when we don’t allow overnight street parking for the specific apartments that would otherwise be legal to build.

In Tenafly we have creatively come up with a solution to the man-made zoning rules that favor cars. With the swipe of a pen, we changed the rules. As a test, we identified one of our downtown parking lots where it was illegal to park between midnight and 6:00 am and we allotted ten parking spaces for overnight parking for residents that live in our downtown. The parking spots were available on a first come, first serve basis. The result was that approximately twenty new market rate and affordable apartments were able to be built that otherwise would not have been allowed because of parking rules.

These new apartment rents are about one third of what a monthly mortgage would cost to purchase a house in our town, therefore for all practical purposes, all these new apartments are affordable. As a bonus, in addition to a monthly parking fee, we charged the apartment developers a one-time $20,000 license fee for each of the ten public parking spots. From this license fee, our Borough generated $200,000 in unanticipated cash revenue. This is from parking spots that already existed and were empty all night long. The cost to the taxpayers was zero, other than the ink to sign the ordinance.

Next month, a Non-Profit will be appearing before our Planning Board for approval to build the second Borough initiated 100% affordable housing apartment building in Tenafly. These homes are for Veterans. We did not have enough on site parking for the Veterans’ cars, which is required by our zoning laws. So, with another swipe of the pen, we changed the zoning laws so that the cars can spend their nights on the public street, while the Veterans and their families live indoors in affordable apartments.

There are many facets to the creation of affordable housing. Cars and parking should not be an excuse to stop the construction of homes and apartments. Governor Sherrill and the Legislature should consider overriding local zoning laws that prohibit overnight parking of cars on streets and public parking lots within certain distances of downtowns and with access to public transportation, such as bus stops and train stations.

Why some communities chose to fight affordable living with outdated zoning regulations rather than imagine how to increase home options is a question without an answer. There is no justification to favor cars over people. It is simply wrong.

If we hope to at least stabilize the increasing cost of housing in New Jersey, we need to create more affordable housing options. One major piece of that process will be to eliminate artificial man-made impediments, such as outdated parking regulations.

Mark Zinna is the mayor of Tenafly.  He was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2017.