BLOG: Legislative Developments
What Can NJ Property Owners Expect from President Biden’s $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill?
On November 15, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill (the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act”) that provides New Jersey with an estimated $12.3 billion in funding over the next five years to revitalize the state’s dilapidated roads, railways, bridges, and tunnels. While widespread infrastructure repair is long overdue in New... Read More
When Will The New Jersey Eviction Moratorium End?
As Covid-19 restrictions begin to be eased in New Jersey, especially with the removal of a mask requirement both indoors and outdoors for vaccinated individuals on May 28, life is slowly returning to a pre-pandemic level. However, one restriction which has remained is the eviction moratorium on residential evictions in New Jersey. Currently, New Jersey... Read More
Trials in the Age of COVID/SARS-2
As most New Jersey trial lawyers would know, ^ is a picture of the Hudson County Courthouse, which was built over a century ago. (click here for a detailed history of the building by jerseydigs). It is one of the most impressive and beautiful courthouses in the entire State. It was renamed the William J.... Read More
COVID Eviction Freezes – Who Is Supposed To Pay?
Yesterday, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued what is perhaps its most far-reaching order concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. The order, available here, was not an order concerning travel, immunization, or other health-related concerns tied to the pandemic, but rather an order seeking to halt evictions of residential tenants on a... Read More
Can The COVID-19 Pandemic Allow the Government To Seize My Private Property?
As we endure the uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic has already brought to our families, businesses and communities, the declaration of a national emergency last week by President Trump under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, as well similar declarations in New Jersey and other states, signal that our government agencies... Read More
TAKE THAT!! N.J. Legislature and Governor Fire Back at Recent Judicial Decisions Critical of Land Banking Processes
Last week, Governor Phil Murphy signed the “New Jersey Land Bank Law”, which now allows municipal agencies in New jersey to create “land banks” and “land banking” agencies to address and potentially revitalize “vacant, abandoned, and other problem properties” within their boundaries. This law, P.L. 2019, c. 159, takes effect immediately, and appears to be... Read More
Private Property Rights Protection Act Passed by the House
A federal bill H.R. 1944 introduced back in May of 2013, has been passed by the House of Representatives. Reported here. All the details and text of the bill are set forth in our June 2013 blog. Simply stated, the bill purportedly will punish States that abuse the eminent domain power by limiting federal dollars for... Read More
Highlands Act Withstands Another Round of Legal Attacks
New Jersey appellate courts, in a series of published and unpublished opinions, recently addressed a variety of issues raised by the adoption of the Highlands Regional Master Plan (RMP) as required by the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act (the Highlands Act), N.J.S.A. 13:20-1 to -35. The Council, on July 17, 2008, adopted the RMP... Read More
Private Property Rights Protection Bill Introduced by Congress
H.R. 1433 (the “Private Property Rights Protection Act”) was recently introduced in the United States Congress by its bipartisan co-sponsors Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Maxine Waters (D-CA). If the proposed legislation passed as currently drafted, the new law would prohibit a State from using eminent domain for private development where a State had received federal... Read More
New Jersey Legislature Introduces Bill to Address Loss of Business, and Resolution Proposing a Constitutional Amendment to Limit Takings
The New Jersey State Legislature introduced two proposed bills on February 4, 2010, to address compensation and “public purpose” issues. SCR63 would amend Article VIII, Section III, paragraph 1, of the New Jersey Constitution, to remove “[t]he clearance, replanning, development or redevelopment of blighted areas” as a public purpose, while more narrowly defining a public... Read More
