96 N.J. Super. 394 | N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. | 1967
The Housing Authority of the City of Paterson contests the validity of certain acts taken by the governing body of the city in an avowed attempt to divest the Authority of powers it is presently exercising. The action of the city, if sustained, will result in a transfer of these powers to the city which will thereafter continue to exercise them itself as a local public agency. The question presented appears to be one of novel impression in this State.
Por at least the last 30 years government in this country has been actively concerned with the problems of slum clearance, the creation and maintenance of sufficient and adequate low-income housing, urban renewal and the rehabilitation and redevelopment of blighted areas. In 1937 the United States Housing Act, 42 U. S. C. § 1401 et seq. gave initial impetus to this effort. This statute, as amended and supplemented from time to time, has made available to local communities very large sums of money by way of federal subsidy. The program outlined in the statute requires implementation at the state level in the form of legislation permitting the creation in local communities of instrumentalities designed to carry out the legislative purposes. In New Jersey legislation looking to this end in the form of the Local Housing Authorities Law was promptly adopted (L. 1938, c. 19; N. J. S. A. 55:14A-1 et seq.) This statute permits but does not require municipalities
At the same time a considerable degree of control over a housing authority rests with the governing body of the municipality. It must first authorize, by ordinance, the initiation and carrying out of any redevelopment project; it determines the existence of a “blighted area”'; it may order the authority, or its officers or employees, to comply with the provisions of any approved redevelopment plan, to maintain uniform systems of accounts and to file, at times and in manner presecribed by the governing body, reports and answers to specific questions. Annual estimates must receive municipal approval and expenditures or disbursements lacking such approval are forbidden.
It is clear that the drafters of this legislation contemplated, or at least hoped, that there would be effective cooperation between a local housing authority and the municipality that had brought it to life. In addition to including a provision looking to this end in the Local Housing Authorities Law itself (N. J. S. A. 55:14A-40), the same legislature adopted, at exactly the same time, the Housing Cooperation Law (L. 1938, c. 20; N. J. S. A. 55:14B-1
On March 23, 1967 the Housing Authority of the City of Paterson filed suit in the Chancery Division of this court against the City of Paterson. On the same day the City instituted suit against the Authority by way of prerogative writ in the Law Division. The former action has been consolidated within the latter. In brief, by steps taken in March of this year, the City sought to remove from the control of. the Authority certain rehabilitation projects with which the latter was actively engaged. The Authority resisted and has asked the court to determine its rights. In order to consider the issues involved in proper context it will first be necessary to set forth briefly the history of the
The Housing Authority of the City of Paterson was created by ordinance enacted by the governing body of the City January 23, 1941, pursuant to the Local Housing Authorities Law. Parenthetically it should be pointed out that the municipal government of the City of Paterson is rather unusual. For present purposes it will be convenient and sufficiently accurate to say that “the governing body” may be considered the Board of Finance and tlie Board of Public Works acting concurrently. On November 3, 1949, pursuant to a then recent amendment to the Local Housing Authorities Law (L. 1919, c. 300) the governing body adopted an ordinance authorizing the Authority to carry out redevelopment projects and in so doing to possess all the rights, powers, privileges and immunities conferred by this statute. We then move ahead to 1961. In that year the Authority entered into a contract with the United States of America acting through the Federal Housing ami Home Finance Agency by the terms of which the Authority received a loan in the amount of $63,870 for the purpose of completing a comprehensive study of the slum clearance and urban renewal problem in the city. The Authority agreed to repay the amount of this advance. By the end of 1961 this study, known as the General Neighborhood Renewal Plan, had been completed and had received the formal approval of the Authority, the local Planning Board and governing body. Apparently nothing was done immediately to put the plan into execution but in the summer of 1963 the plan was formally embodied in the municipal master plan by act of the Planning Board and in September of the same year a new resolution of approval was adopted by the governing body. The General Neighborhood Renewal Plan covered some 545 acres and it was never contemplated that the entire project would be undertaken at once. In September, 1964, the governing body adopted an elaborate resolution approving, as a particular phase of
“Similarly the city under the Housing Authorities Law is an agency of the state, functioning under state law to fulfill state purposes, and is not acting pursuant to its fundamental law to effect solely municipal objectives.
“Upon the formation of the housing authority the state law thereupon and thereafter controlled the city and the housing authority and no other law concerning the acquisition, operation or disposition of property is applicable to the authority except as specifically provided.”
Housing Authority, etc. v. City of Los Angeles, 38 Cal. 2d 853, 243 P. 2d 515 (Sup. Ct. 1952) noted in 21 George Washington Law Rev. 111 (1952).
“The relator grounds its contentions in support of the legal status of the Great Palls Housing Authority * * * upon the provisions of the Housing Authorities Law * * * to the exclusion of the general municipal statutes. On the other hand, the respondents (Oity) attack the legal status of the Gi-eat Palls Authority, and contend that all acts of the city council relative thereto must be governed by the statutes relating to municipal corporations. It is our opinion that the relator is correct, and the respondents in error.”
State ex rel. Great Falls Housing Authority v. City of Great Falls, 110 Mont. 318, 100 P. 2d 915 (Sup. Ct. 1940).
See also and to the same effect State ex rel. Helena Housing Authority v. City Council of City of Helena, 125 Mont. 592, 242 P. 2d 250 (Sup. Ct. 1952); Housing Authority of City of Oakland v. City of Oakland, 222 Cal. App. 2d 771, 35 Cal. Rptr. 527 (Dist. Ct. of Appeal, 1963).
Tu the ease last cited the court said,
“A housing authority cannot be foisted upon a city. It comes into existence only by action of the city council. When that body procures the creation of a housing authority and enters into a cooperation agreement with it, the council acts under state law, and contracts as an arm of the state, rather than in its strictly municipal capacity. When, as here, the housing- authority has incurred expense and has contracted for federal funds or credit in reliance upon the cooperation agreement, that contract binds the city, cannot be abrogated by it, and can be modified or terminated only as permitted by the applicable statutes * *
It is pointed out -by the City, however, that the relevant statutes of the states of California and Montana make no provision for the undertaking of such projects
Reference is made above to Project 143. Here a preliminary study has been made but little more has been done. The Project has not received the approval of the governing body. As to this as well as to all future projects the repealing ordinances appear as a valid exercise of the rights set forth in N. J. S. A. 55 .J4A-56. Indeed the Housing Authority has made no very strong contention to the contrary. At the time of the adoption of the repealing ordinances the City created, by a further ordinance, a Division of Urban Renewal within the municipal Board of Finance and established certain offices or positions within this Division. The validity of this action has also been challenged. In view of the decision reached above, it is concluded that this action is valid but the effect of this ordinance as well as that of the repealing ordinances shall have no effect with respect to Project 103.