Executive Order No. 17 launches a statewide review of public land, funding gaps, transit-oriented development, and regulatory barriers as New Jersey seeks faster housing production amid growing affordability pressures.
MORRISTOWN, NJ – Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed Executive Order No. 17 on Monday, April 27, creating a cross-agency Housing Governing Council and ordering state agencies to review public land, funding systems, permitting rules and housing programs as New Jersey faces some of the highest housing costs in the country.
The order does not approve a specific housing project, change any local zoning plan or identify a Morris County site for development. It could, however, affect how state agencies coordinate housing finance, use surplus public land and handle transit-adjacent development in communities across New Jersey.
The council must be convened by June 11. State agencies must submit written housing affordability reports by June 27. The council must deliver initial recommendations to the governor by Sept. 24, ahead of the Governor’s Housing Conference.
“We can’t make New Jersey more affordable without making housing more affordable,” Sherrill said in the announcement.
The order is procedural, not project-specific. It directs state government to identify barriers and recommend changes, rather than requiring municipalities to approve particular developments. Still, the review comes as Morristown, Morris Township, Morris Plains, Madison and other Morris County municipalities are already working through New Jersey’s fourth-round affordable housing process, which covers the decade from 2025 to 2035.
The order is framed around a statewide affordability problem. It cites state findings that more than one-third of New Jersey households and more than half of renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing, the federal benchmark commonly used to define housing cost burden. It also says New Jersey housing costs rose 30% from 2021 to 2023, with the state’s median home price above $500,000 and median monthly rent above $1,800.
More recent Census-based analysis from USAFacts found that about 1.27 million New Jersey households, or 36.6%, were housing cost-burdened in 2024. That included 52.2% of renter households and 28.2% of owner households.
In Morristown and Morris County, private housing-market trackers show prices well above the statewide figures cited in the order. Realtor.com listed Morristown’s March 2026 median listing price at $687,500 and median rent at $3,100 per month. For Morris County overall, the site listed a $699,900 median listing price and $3,000 median rent. Different housing trackers use different methods, but the available data point in the same direction: the local market remains expensive for both buyers and renters.
The new Housing Governing Council will be chaired by the Governor’s Office chief operating officer and co-chaired by the Department of Community Affairs, the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, the Economic Development Authority and NJ Transit. The order also includes several other state departments and agencies, including Treasury, Transportation, Environmental Protection, Human Services, Labor, Education, the Schools Development Authority and the Office of Planning Advocacy.
State agencies must review land they own or control, including property that may be unutilized, underutilized or surplus. They also must identify planned housing or mixed-use projects on agency land, duplicative or outdated rules, funding and financing gaps, technology needs, municipal coordination issues and possible legislative or regulatory changes.
The order defines affordable housing as housing for households earning no more than 80% of the median gross household income in a housing region. Workforce housing is defined as housing for households earning more than 80% but not more than 120% of regional median income. The order also covers mixed-income housing, mixed-use development and market-rate housing.
For Morristown-area readers, the local connection is not that a new project has been announced. The connection is that state land, state funding, transit property and state permitting can shape what local housing production looks like, even when municipalities remain responsible for local zoning and affordable housing plans.
NJ Transit’s role is especially notable because the agency already has been reviewing its real estate portfolio for transit-oriented development. NJ Transit’s LAND Plan says the agency controls about 8,000 acres of real estate and estimates that long-term development opportunities could produce up to 20,000 housing units, along with non-fare revenue and municipal tax revenue. NJ Transit describes transit-oriented development as walkable, mixed-use development near stations that can include affordable housing and a wider range of housing types.
The order also temporarily limits disposal of agency-owned property. Until an agency has completed its required report, it may not dispose of property it owns unless the Governor’s Office chief operating officer approves the action.
The statewide review also intersects with New Jersey’s affordable housing system. The state’s current process stems from the Mount Laurel doctrine, the line of New Jersey Supreme Court decisions holding that municipalities in growth areas have a constitutional obligation to provide a realistic opportunity for their fair share of regional affordable housing needs. State law says municipalities are not required to build housing themselves, but their land-use rules must create that realistic opportunity.
The Department of Community Affairs has already published nonbinding fourth-round calculations for all 564 municipalities. Those numbers are intended to guide municipal planning during the 2025–2035 affordable housing cycle.
In DCA’s initial fourth-round calculations, Morristown was listed with a 140-unit present need and 341-unit prospective need. Nearby calculations included Morris Township at 9 present-need units and 571 prospective-need units, Morris Plains at 0 and 137, Madison at 0 and 206, Parsippany-Troy Hills at 138 and 553, and Roxbury at 59 and 989.
Those DCA figures are not necessarily the final number each municipality will use. A Morris County planning report says Morristown’s fourth-round prospective need was reduced through a vacant-land analysis and mediation, with the town settling on 285 prospective-need units while retaining its 140-unit rehabilitation obligation. The report says Morristown plans to address that rehabilitation obligation through its Home Improvement Program and the Morris County Rehabilitation Program.
That distinction matters because Executive Order No. 17 does not replace the fourth-round process. Municipal fair-share plans, court filings, settlements and implementing ordinances remain separate from the statewide review. The executive order instead looks at the state side of the housing system: whether agencies are using land efficiently, whether funding programs are coordinated, whether permitting delays can be reduced and whether residents can more easily find affordable and workforce housing opportunities.
One part of the order may draw scrutiny from open-government advocates and local officials. It says reports, recommendations and other information created under the order are advisory, consultative, deliberative and confidential, and are not public records under the Open Public Records Act. That means the agency land reviews and internal recommendations may not be publicly available unless the administration releases summaries, adopts formal policies or moves forward with public regulatory, legislative or property actions.
The council’s recommendations are expected to address five areas: how the state defines and administers housing goals; how it tracks and accelerates production; how unutilized or surplus public property could be used for housing; how housing funding and financing can be coordinated; and how residents can access affordable and workforce housing opportunities.
For residents in Morristown and surrounding towns, the most immediate dates to watch are June 11, when the council must be convened; June 27, when agency reports are due; and Sept. 24, when recommendations are due to the governor. The order’s practical effect will depend on what the administration releases publicly, whether recommendations lead to new rules or legislation, and whether any state-owned or transit-adjacent properties in Morris County are later identified for housing or mixed-use redevelopment.