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Toll Brothers8/16/2000
NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
Argued May 1, 2000
On appeal from Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Mercer County.
This is Mount Laurel litigation. Intervenors, Maneely Princeton Partnership (Maneely) and Dr. and Mrs. Charles Akselrad (Akselrad) are the owners of two tracts of land previously zoned for affordable housing as part of a 1985 settlement of an exclusionary zoning action instituted by Affordable Living Corporation against defendant West Windsor Township. Consent orders were entered in October 1985, rezoning intervenors' sites for exclusionary development as part of the overall compliance plan approved by Judge Serpentelli and incorporated into an October 1, 1985 consent judgment.
In 1997, the Township rezoned intervenors' sites to non-Mount Laurel uses, deleting them from the Township's compliance plan. On May 1, 1998, the trial court entered a conditional final judgment of compliance and repose in a builder's remedy action instituted by Toll Brothers against the Township. In that judgment the court authorized the Township to delete intervenors' sites from the compliance plan, and deemed the 1985 consent judgment "as having expired."
In these back-to-back appeals, intervenors challenge the deletion of their sites from the Township's compliance plan, arguing that the action was contrary to the rules of the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) and violated their vested rights under the 1985 consent orders. We reverse and remand for further proceedings. In our view, Rule 4:50- 1(e) provides the appropriate framework for resolution of the dispute before us. That rule allows relief from judgment where "it is no longer equitable that the judgment . . . should have prospective application . . . ." Applying Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(5) (the federal equivalent of Rule 4:50-1(e)), the federal courts have established practical and equitable standards for relief from consent judgments entered in public- interest litigation. We adopt those standards and remand with direction that they be applied in determining whether provisions of the 1985 consent orders and consent judgment affecting intervenors' properties should be vacated.
I.
A detailed review of the procedural history is necessary. In March 1984, Affordable Living Corporation instituted exclusionary zoning litigation against the Township. Affordable Living and the Township reached a tentative settlement, which included plans to rezone intervenors' properties for exclusionary development. Both intervenors had other plans for the properties, and objected to the rezoning. Both Akselrad and Maneely settled with the Township. In October 1985, a consent judgment was entered which, among other things, declared the Township in compliance and granted the Township repose from further Mount Laurel litigation until July 22, 1991. At the same time, consent orders were entered delineating the rights and obligations of both Maneely and Akselrad.
In May 1993, Toll Brothers, owner of a 293-acre tract, instituted an action seeking a site-specific builder's remedy, alleging that the Township's fair-share plan was defective due to unreasonable zoning constraints, market conditions and other factors. After a lengthy trial, Judge Carchman rendered a written opinion, reported at 303 N.J. Super. 158 (Law Div. 1996), declaring the Township's zoning ordinance in violation of Mount Laurel II, and awarding Toll Brothers a builder's remedy to construct a development of single-family and multiple-family dwellings, including 175 affordable rental units.
In March 1997, intervenors received notice that the Township had proposed to
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