SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3951

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 17, 2019

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 3951, with committee amendments.

      As amended and reported Senate Bill No. 3951, requires the promulgation of separate construction and fire safety code criteria for seasonal agricultural labor housing.  The bill also requires the promulgation of separate fire safety code criteria for commercial farm buildings.

      Current law requires the Commissioner of Community Affairs and the Secretary of Agriculture to jointly promulgate separate construction code criteria for commercial farm buildings.  Current law does not provide for separate code criteria for seasonal agricultural labor housing under either the construction code or the fire safety code.  Current law also does not provide for separate code criteria for commercial farm buildings under the fire safety code.

      This bill requires the Commissioner of Community Affairs, the Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development, and the Secretary of Agriculture to jointly promulgate separate construction and fire safety code criteria for seasonal agricultural labor housing.  These criteria is to protect the occupants of seasonal agricultural labor housing, while also minimizing, to the greatest extent possible, any impediment to the orderly development of the State's agricultural and horticultural enterprises.

      The bill also requires the Commissioner of Community Affairs and the Secretary of Agriculture to jointly promulgate separate fire safety code criteria for commercial farm buildings, similar to what is provided with respect to the construction code.

      Seasonal agricultural labor housing is defined, under the applicable regulation, as dwelling units designed solely for lodging farm employees and their family members, including their civil union partners or domestic partners, where such employees perform seasonal agricultural or horticultural labor on the contiguous land, five acres or more, qualifying for farmland assessment.  Any housing that is either occupied by the landowner, the landowner's spouse, the landowner's civil union partner, the landowner's domestic partner, or their children, parents, or siblings, or is not vacant annually for a minimum period of 90 continuous days during any period of 12 continuous months, is not to be considered to meet this definition.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS

      The committee amendments:

      (1) add a definition of “commercial farm” as it is defined under the “Right to Farm Act,” P.L.1983, c.31 (C.4:1C-1 et seq.) to the sections of law being amended by the bill;

      (2) make other technical and clarifying amendments to the bill; and

      (3) provide that the Commissioner of Community Affairs, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and all other interested and affected parties, would prepare the separate fire safety code criteria for commercial farm buildings, as required under the bill.  The bill, as introduced, provides that the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the Commissioner of Community Affairs and other interested  and affected parties, would prepare the criteria.  The amendments also clarify that the Commissioner of Community Affairs, instead of the Secretary of Agriculture, may make use of the services of Rutgers, the State University to prepare the proposed criteria.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      This bill is not certified as requiring a fiscal note.