Hoboken, NJ Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Density Bonus Law (2026)

Hoboken's Zoning Code once ran a local density bonus program under Chapter 196, Article XVII, Affordable Housing, added May 18, 1988 by Ordinance No. P-6, which let the Board of Adjustment grant a use variance or an increase in residential density or floor area ratio (FAR) for developments that included affordable set-asides. The City Council repealed that article prospectively on October 17, 2012 by Ordinance No. Z-208, and the Code now marks §§ 196-68 through 196-81 as Reserved. The repeal ordinance carried a narrow savings clause: it stayed in force for any residential development application seeking a density or FAR variance that was already pending before the Board on the effective date, and for any application that had already received approval under the old terms.

For every other project since 2012, a developer who wants more units than the zoning district allows by right must instead seek a use variance under the state Municipal Land Use Law, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-70d(5), the so-called "d" variance, before the Zoning Board of Adjustment rather than through a City-granted zoning bonus. City Code § 65B-4A(4) then imposes a 6% development fee on the equalized assessed value of each additional unit realized through that variance route, well above the 1.5% baseline fee for ordinary residential construction, and pegs the baseline density to the highest density permitted by right in the two years before the variance filing if the zoning changed in that window. Chapter 196 itself carries no current bulk, height or FAR bonus schedule tied to affordable housing, green building or any other incentive.