New Jersey State Senator Troy Singleton spoke with students in Stan Slachetka, FAICP, PP’s urban planning studio class about the state’s housing shortage and efforts to better connect housing policy with municipal land-use planning.
As part of the studio, students are preparing a comprehensive housing plan and recommended housing strategies for Ewing Township, NJ, designed to increase housing supply and encourage the development of a variety of housing types to meet the needs of the community. The proposed housing plan will be structured to address the requirements of New Jersey Senate Bill S1823, sponsored by Senators Singleton and Benjie Wimberly and its companion bill in the Assembly A3516 sponsored by Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez and Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak.
Singleton discussed his proposed legislation which would move the housing plan element from the Fair Housing Act into the Municipal Land Use Law, creating a stronger connection between how municipalities plan for housing and how they make broader decisions about land use and redevelopment. He emphasized that New Jersey faces a significant shortage of housing across income levels and argued that increasing the supply will require communities to consider a wider range of housing options, including duplexes and triplexes, accessory dwelling units, senior and multigenerational housing, and the redevelopment of underutilized commercial properties.
Singleton drew a direct connection between his proposed legislation, and the work students are conducting this semester in Ewing Township. He told students that their studio project closely mirrors the type of analysis envisioned in the new bill, including examining housing needs, land use, redevelopment opportunities, transportation connections, infrastructure, and consistency with broader state planning goals. He encouraged the class to treat the Ewing project as a pilot that could demonstrate how the proposed planning framework might work in practice.
Among the various potential housing sites in Ewing, students are examining the redevelopment of the former General Motors site, a large, underutilized property envisioned for a mix of approximately 1,100 housing units and 350,000 square feet of retail space. Singleton described the site as a textbook example of a “stranded asset” that could be transformed into housing and mixed-use development.
The discussion also gave students an opportunity to question Singleton about the practical challenges of implementing housing policy, including local zoning resistance, affordable housing requirements, transit-oriented development, school and infrastructure impacts, brownfield remediation, development incentives, and the tension between municipal control and statewide housing needs. Singleton encouraged students not simply to validate his legislation but to critically evaluate it and identify ways it could be improved. He said their recommendations could help inform future legislative discussions and was very interested in hearing their findings and recommendations when he attends their final presentation in December.