Every municipality across the state must decide this month if it will accept or reject its affordable housing obligation numbers.

A New Jersey judge rejected a bid by Holmdel, Wall, and two-dozen other towns to stop the state's new affordable housing law.

NJ Judge Lougy denies temporary halt to new affordable housing law, as towns must adhere to or contest state housing unit quotas.

The appeal comes just days after a judge said the wider public interest overwhelmingly outweighed the 26 towns’ concerns over building affordable housing,

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert Lougy on Thursday denied a request from 26 towns to pause the affordable housing development process, Gothamist reported. The judge determined public interest in affordable housing supersedes towns’ arguments about being overburdened.

Led by Montvale, several municipalities filed a lawsuit in the fall to challenge the legislative overhaul of New Jersey's fourth round obligations under the Mount Laurel Doctrine.

The defendants' alleged harms are outweighed by the benefit the law could create for the public writ large, the judge said.