Under a bill unanimously approved by the Senate Economic Growth Committee on February 26, 2009, municipalities would be permitted to voluntarily convert age-restricted (55-plus, senior housing), approved real estate developments to non-age restricted units upon application by developers agreeing to set aside a portion of the project as affordable housing. The conversions would be subject various constraints, including time limitations to undertake the conversion (25 months from the enactment of the bill), the requirement that there are no deposits on units and no units have been conveyed, as well as various other constraints and flexibility built into the bill to accommodate the conversion without negatively impacting existing owners, contract purchasers, the municipality and community at large, as well as future non-aged restricted purchasers of units within the development. Existing age-restricted developments either completely or partially sold would not be impacted by this bill.
An identical bill has been introduced in the New Jersey State Assembly and referred to the Housing and Local Government Committee.
The bill as approved by the Senate Economic Growth Committee and introduced in the Assembly may be accessed online here.