Governor Sherrill Unveils Statewide Housing Strategy Focused on Housing Production and “Speed to Shovel”

Governor Mikie Sherrill unveiled a new statewide housing strategy on January 29th that puts increasing housing supply and removing barriers to development at the center of New Jersey’s response to its housing affordability challenges.

The strategy, announced at the Governor’s Conference on Housing and Economic Development, identifies the need for approximately 350,000 additional homes in New Jersey to keep pace with growth, improve affordability and remain competitive. It lays out a series of initiatives designed to increase housing production, accelerate development timelines and make it easier to build throughout the state.

The strategy is organized around five key pillars:

• Pillar 1: Deliver more homes
• Pillar 2: Increase New Jersey’s “speed to shovel”
• Pillar 3: Partner with municipalities to build and preserve housing
• Pillar 4: Expand access to housing opportunities
• Pillar 5: Lower costs, fight unfair housing practices, and keep New Jerseyans housed

Increasing New Jersey’s “Speed to Shovel”

Several of the strategy’s priorities align closely with NJBA’s longstanding advocacy, particularly the focus on making New Jersey’s development and permitting processes faster, more predictable and easier to navigate.

Under its “speed to shovel” initiative, the Administration plans to establish clearer permitting timelines, develop the State’s first permitting dashboard and “shot clock” permit deadlines, and systematically review State permitting processes for opportunities to reduce delays. The strategy also calls for assessing and modernizing outdated housing development regulations, including examining processes governed by the Municipal Land Use Law, and working with municipalities to improve transparency, certainty and speed in local approval and redevelopment processes.

In addition, the Administration plans to identify unnecessary, outdated, burdensome, conflicting or obsolete regulations and expand the use of technology to improve government processes. The strategy also calls for greater coordination among State agencies involved in housing development and financing to reduce duplicative requirements, paperwork and delays. These efforts reflect many of the reforms NJBA has consistently advocated for, including enforceable review timelines, greater regulatory certainty, improved interagency coordination and modernization of State and local permitting processes.

Expanding Housing Supply

The strategy also places a significant emphasis on creating more opportunities for housing production. The Administration announced a goal of increasing planned housing production on State-owned land from approximately 20,000 to 40,000 homes and creating a more centralized process for identifying, preparing and bringing State properties to market for housing development.

Other priorities include accelerating housing near transit, converting underutilized office buildings and aging commercial properties into new housing opportunities, revitalizing downtowns and expanding both rental and for-sale housing production. These priorities align with NJBA’s support for stranded-asset conversion, transit-oriented development incentives and policies that create more opportunities to build the range of housing New Jersey needs.

NJBA CEO Jeff Kolakowski, who attended the announcement, stated:

“Governor Sherrill’s housing strategy recognizes a fundamental reality: if New Jersey wants to make housing more attainable, we have to make it easier to build. The focus on increasing housing supply, improving our speed to shovel, streamlining regulations and approvals, and partnering with municipalities is exactly the kind of comprehensive approach our state needs. NJBA looks forward to working with the Governor and her Administration to turn these priorities into action and deliver more homes for New Jersey families. Let’s Build, NJ.”

Building on Recent State Initiatives

The housing strategy follows several actions by the Sherrill Administration aimed at improving the State’s development and permitting processes.

Earlier this year, Governor Sherrill established the Housing Governing Council through Executive Order No. 17 to develop a coordinated, whole-of-government approach to housing. The Administration has also launched broader permitting and regulatory-efficiency initiatives intended to reduce delays, improve coordination and provide greater transparency across State government.

NJBA has been actively engaged with the Administration and State agencies on many of these issues and will continue advocating for practical reforms that reduce unnecessary delays, provide greater regulatory certainty and allow responsible housing projects to move forward.

Learn more about Governor Sherrill’s Housing Strategy and read the Housing Strategy and Progress Report.