Abatements of real property taxes for qualified residential property; application, approval, requirement

The governing body of a qualified municipality which has complied with the provisions of section 3 of this act may, by ordinance, provide for abatements of real property taxes for qualified residential property. The governing body shall include the following items in its enabling ordinance and shall select among the following options where appropriate:

a. A property tax abatement term of five years;

b. The application procedure for an abatement authorized under this act;

c. The method of computing payments in lieu of real property taxes pursuant to subsection b. or subsection c. of section 7 of this act;

d. An approval method for abatement applications by the assessor or by ordinance on a per applicant basis; and

e. A requirement that: (1) to be eligible for an abatement, a dwelling house, condominium unit or unit in a horizontal property regime shall be occupied by the owner thereof, and that a cooperative shall be occupied by residential shareholders therein; or (2) in a case in which paragraph (1) of this subsection is not satisfied, the annual payment in lieu of taxes on the unit or dwelling house shall be increased by 1% above the amount otherwise chargeable under section 7 of this act; and that, in the case of a cooperative, the annual payment in lieu of taxes shall be the amount chargeable under section 7 of this act plus an amount determined by multiplying 1% of the amount chargeable under section 7 of this act times the percentage of units not occupied by residential shareholders.

In the case of an abatement for the conversion of a building or structure to qualified residential property, the building or structure so converted may include, but need not be limited to, commercial or industrial buildings or structures, or underutilized school buildings.

L.1989, c.207, s.4.