Roxbury Township in northwestern New Jersey is locked in a heated dispute with the Trump administration over its plans to open a large immigration detention center in the quiet suburban community.
But local officials are now also embroiled in another real estate-related quarrel that could reshape Roxbury: the township’s state-mandated affordable housing requirements.
On Feb. 12 — one week before the $129 million detention center deal between the owners of a Roxbury warehouse and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security became official — a Morris County district court judge terminated the township’s legal immunity from what are known as “builder’s remedy” lawsuits, due to its withdrawal from New Jersey’s affordable housing planning process. This exposes the township to potentially costly and lengthy litigation from developers that could ultimately force the township to build affordable housing to meet state requirements, even if it's part of projects that violate local zoning.
The result is an affluent community being squeezed by pressure from both the state and federal governments to use its land for specific — albeit radically different — purposes that critics say would dramatically alter the township.
On Friday, New Jersey's attorney general sued the Trump administration over the planned detention center.
Hundreds of municipalities across the state this year are kicking off the fourth round of affordable housing development under what is known as the Mount Laurel doctrine. This series of state Supreme Court rulings dating back to the 1970s mandates that every Garden State municipality contributes its “fair share” of housing for low- and middle-income people. The policy has helped deliver tens of thousands of low-priced homes around New Jersey, but in the face of local resistance, the process has been far from smooth.
Roxbury’s legal issues illustrate a classic tension between municipalities and housing advocates since Mount Laurel's inception. At the center of the current dispute is Roxbury’s most recent Mount Laurel affordable housing plan, which has been challenged by the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center, a prominent advocacy group in New Jersey.
Roxbury officials last summer filed a plan they said would yield only eight affordable housing units over the next decade, a dramatic reduction from the 499 affordable homes that state officials assigned to the township as its Mount Laurel obligation.
In making its determination, the township cited a 2024 New Jersey Highlands Act “build-out” report outlining such factors as environmental, water and sewer constraints on development in this mountainous part of the Garden State.
But last September, Fair Share Housing Center challenged Roxbury and 15 other municipalities’ Mount Laurel plans, and asked the courts to strip them of their builder’s remedy immunity. If that happens, a developer could sue to compel the township to approve the developer’s plans to build housing that includes the mandated affordable units.
Two months later, the center’s attorney, Esmé Devenney, filed a letter in court saying Roxbury intended to withdraw from the state’s affordable housing program. At the time, Devenney reiterated her organization’s request that the township lose its immunity to builder's remedy suits if it withdrew.
Fair Share Housing Center spokesperson Jag Davies said the organization has since reached agreements with most of the 16 towns, with only Roxbury losing their immunity so far.
”Roxbury is definitely a unique outlier,” Devenney told Gothamist.
Davies noted a “record” number of towns — more than 400 — are currently participating in New Jersey’s affordable housing process during the fourth round of Mount Laurel allocations.
Roxbury Mayor Shawn Potillo and Township Manager J.J. Murphy didn’t respond to a request for comment on the town’s affordable housing situation.
Township Attorney Anthony Bucco, a Republican state senator, also didn’t respond to an inquiry. Bucco has said the township remains in good standing with its affordable housing obligation.
