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After a nearly three hour public hearing, the city council tonight rejected a rent control ordinance proposed by the Asbury Park Affordable Housing Coalition [APAHA}. The vote was 3-1 against, with one abstention. 

Mayor John Moor and Council members Eileen Chapman and Yvonne Clayton voted no. Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn voted yes and Councilmember Jesse Kendle abstained. 

All members of council said that they did not think it advisable to approve such a far-reaching ordinance on such short notice, as the petition with the ordinance was submitted to them officially earlier this month. Even Quinn — an attorney who represents indigent tenants in landlord-tenant matters — said she was voting yes on the concept of rent control, even though she had concerns about the proposal. 

All members of council expressed a desire to see all sides sit at the negotiating table to hammer out a compromise. The provision of the APAHA’s proposed ordinance causing the most controversy involves barring landlords from raising rents up to market levels when a tenant vacates a rental unit. The proposal caps annual rent increases at the Consumer Price Index (CPI), with increases not to exceed four percent a year. 

The Coalition had obtained over 700 signatures on a petition to bring the matter before the city council, which is given 20 days under state law to act. If the Council failed to approve the ordinance — as it did tonight — the ordinance will be submitted to voters in a referendum. 

That vote will take place no earlier than April 20, under an Executive Order signed yesterday by Gov. Phil Murphy, who is delaying all elections until that time because of the pandemic. Otherwise, the vote would have been scheduled for late February or early March.

There is a five-member “Committee of Petitioners” who submitted the petition with the ordinance. City Attorney Frederic Rafetto said at tonight’s meeting that the referendum can be cancelled if, within 10 days after the council rejection tonight, four of the five petitioners request that the petition be withdrawn. 

Presumably, that would be part of an effort to bring rent control proponents, landlords and the city council together to work out a compromise. There were no indications at the hearing tonight that any of the Committee of Petitioners, or the Affordable Housing Coalition, had any plans for such a withdrawal of the petition and cancellation of the referendum.

Earlier today, a coalition of landlords issued a statement outlining their own ordinance to guard against excessive rent increases. That measure would limit rent increases to 6 percent, unless a landlord could convince a Rent Increase Board that an increase over that amount was necessary. 

Click here to read about the proposed rent control ordinance sponsored by the APAHC.

Click here to read about the proposed rent control ordinance proposed today by the coalition of landlords. 

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