Franklin Lakes November 14, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 5 Borough appoints new affordable housing counsel by Frank J. McMahon The Franklin Lakes Council has appointed a new attorney to provide the borough with the legal counsel it requires for all affordable housing issues. Jeffrey R Surenian will replace Stuart Koenig, the borough’s former counsel on affordable housing who died suddenly in September. Koenig was considered the state’s foremost expert on affordable housing and land use laws. Surenian received his bachelor’s degree in 1976, graduating magna cum laude from Pennsylvania State University. He pursued graduate studies in English literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and earned his juris doctorate degree from the Rutgers University School of Law in 1983. He has been admitted to the bar in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He concentrates his practice exclusively on affordable housing matters, and his firm represents municipalities before the courts and the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, who recently took over all the duties and functions of the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing. Surenian counsels municipalities that are seeking to comply with their Mount Laurel affordable housing responsibilities, whether in the absence of a lawsuit, or in the face of lawsuits by developers and/or public-interest plaintiffs. Surenian also assists municipalities in seeking approvals of their affordable housing plans from the commissioner of the NJDCA, typically in the face of one or more objectors. In 1983 and 1984, Surenian served as law clerk to Superior Court Judge Eugene D. Serpentelli, and as the Mount Laurel trial judge for the central portion of the state in the first year of his appointment, distinguishing himself academically and in practice in the affordable housing arena. Surenian represented Brick Township, where he developed a concept that has come to be known as “credits without controls.” His success in securing approval of this new category of credits resulted in the township’s receipt of over 400 credits against its fair-share obligation, valued at over $8 million based upon the $20,000 per-unit rate for Regional Contribution Agreements that existed at that time. He also represented (or represents) Cherry Hill, Toms River, Middletown, and Wayne, municipalities with fair-share quotas of more than 1,000 units, and he assisted with legislation that capped the fair-share obligations of these communities at 1,000 units. He also assisted Manasquan and Beachwood in protecting their last significant vacant parcels of land from development. Surenian secured the first two waivers in the state from the cap on age-restricted housing for Barnegat and Wall Township, and he went on to secure Appellate Division approval of a “temporary immunity” procedure to facilitate the ability of municipalities to comply with their fair share obligations without the necessity of builder’s remedy litigation. He has also had considerable success in establishing the principle that developers have an obligation to make good faith efforts to achieve an amicable accord prior to instituting builder’s remedy suits. At least three different judges have dismissed three different builder’s remedy suits based on Surenian’s success in establishing this principle. He claims these examples represent some of the successes he has achieved in aiding diverse municipalities in their struggle with the burdens of Mount Laurel compliance. Surenian received the Professional Achievement Award of the New Jersey State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division in April 1990, and he was the recipient of the Michael A. Pane, Esq. Award in 2009 for excellence in ethics. He was also named a New Jersey Super Lawyer for 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, and he authored Mount Laurel II and the Fair Housing Act, a treatise recognized as authoritative by many jurists and cited by the New Jersey Supreme Court. He also co-authored a chapter on affordable housing law in a well-respected treatise entitled “New Jersey Land Use and Environmental Law.” He has also lectured at Harvard University and has served as a lecturer and panelist at a number of seminars instructing municipal officials and attorneys about the ever-evolving field of affordable housing law.