Under the state's affordable housing law, a developer can bypass local zoning laws if its project has an affordable housing-component and the town has less than 10% affordable housing. When Archstone filed its plans for the complex the town was just under the 10% requirement but a recent refiling with the state Department of Housing and Community Development put the town's affordable-housing stock over the mark.

Archstone heard the news the day it was to present its plans to the town board and requested a continuance. "We need time to analyze the information," Scott Shaull, a company vice president, tells GlobeSt.com. "We need to analyze whether they are over 10% percent." When asked whether that meant Archstone was going to challenge the DHCD's ruling on the town's affordable-housing stock, Shaull notes that "DHCD and the town believe they are over 10% but we need to understand how they got there."

Shaull was also unclear on whether the new ruling means the plan for the complex will change. "There are so many variables," he says. The plan has been met with fierce local opposition here, which was evident at the recent meeting where Archstone was originally to present its plan. If the town's designation of its affordable-housing stock holds, the developer will not be able to appeal to the state if the zoning board here rejects its plan.