Blake Gardens is a company in New Jersey that establishes residences for people with Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia.   Prior to a change in law in 2015, it was allowed to establish these residences in any residential zone in the State of New Jersey.  However, due to pressure from a local municipality that was opposing such a residence, the State Legislature in 2015 enacted a law prohibiting these residences in residential districts, while allowing less residential facilities to be permitted in residential zones.

Blake Gardens challenged in the Federal District Court for New Jersey the 2015 law prohibiting these residences in residential neighborhoods as being discriminatory and violative of the Federal Fair Housing Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act.

MH&H won a landmark victory in the Federal District Court of the District of New Jersey.  Judge Peter G. Sheridan of that Court ruled in favor of our client, a developer of community residences for people with Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, in striking a recently-enacted New Jersey statute that would have precluded the development of such homes in single family residential neighborhoods.   Judge Sheridan held that under the Federal Fair Housing Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act, the State failed to provide any justification for preventing those residences in single family zoning districts.   The decision will allow our client to develop a proposed home in Freehold, New Jersey, and will have considerable precedential value in other jurisdictions that limit the location of housing for people with Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia.

 

Blake Gardens, LLC v. State Of New Jersey, 2019 U.S. Dist. WL 5064652 (D.N.J. 2019)