When residents at Thursday's special meeting asked affordable housing planner Beth McManus whether these rounds ever end, her answer was blunt: no, not unless the legislature changes the law.

New Jersey's affordable housing obligation, rooted in the state Supreme Court's 1975 Mount Laurel decision, operates in ten-year cycles.[1] Each round, the state calculates how many affordable units each municipality must plan for based on regional housing need. Wyckoff's fourth-round obligation was set at 344 units — a figure that dropped to effectively zero after the township applied a 'vacant land adjustment' reflecting its status as an essentially built-out community.

But zero net new units required does not mean doing nothing. The law requires municipalities to demonstrate they have created zoning opportunities for affordable housing to occur if market forces align. That is the role of the overlay zones adopted Thursday.[2]

For context: Wyckoff's prior round zones — adopted around 2018 — include the Chevrolet dealership area, the Wyckoff Shopping Center corridor, and the Christian Healthcare Center, among others. Many of these sites remain unbuilt, and the township is still compliant. 'The overlay zones from previous rounds just sit there unless someone acts on them,' McManus said.[3]

The fourth round, however, added a new wrinkle: two properties owned by churches in financial difficulty — the Wyckoff Assembly of God on Franklin Avenue and the Abundant Life Church on Lafayette Avenue — were placed in the housing plan after those congregations indicated they were considering selling. The state saw their large parking lots as undeveloped land suitable for inclusionary housing.

'Churches with large parking lots are a liability now under this process,' Committeeman Boonstra said, echoing concerns that as congregations age and finances strain, more religious properties could become targets in future rounds.

Residents also learned that the township's obligation is calculated regionally, not locally. In Region 1 — which includes Wyckoff — income thresholds are high. Moderate income for a single person is approximately $69,000; for a four-person household, roughly $102,000. 'This is not the workforce you might picture in your mind when you hear affordable housing,' McManus said. 'These are teachers, nurses, police officers — people who work in this county but can't afford to live here.'

The fifth round begins in 2035.