Mount Laurel Requirements to Change

Religious leaders in New Jersey are uniting in opposition to new rules set to the landmark Mount Laurel decision, in which the Supreme Court of New Jersey "held that Mount Laurel's large lot zoning discriminated against lower-income people seeking housing in the suburbs." The new rules would "exclude towns that say they do not want any kind of new development and for the others require one unit of low-income housing for every 10 new market-priced homes and every 30 jobs that new commercial development creates." Housing advocates argue that "at best, new construction will fall far short of the state's needs" and "at worst...the rules will make many poor people 'prisoners of the inner city.' " In particular they contend that the new rules will compound existing segregation in neighborhoods.