On February 9, 2010, Governor Christie signed an Executive Order immediately suspending the operation of the Council on Affordable Housing (“COAH”) and appointing a panel to study the issue of affordable housing and make recommendations to the Governor within 90 days. This comes at the heels of the Introduction of Legislation S:1 by State Senators Lesniak and Bateman to abolish COAH and the existing municipal affordable housing requirements. Instead, low and moderate income housing would be made a part of a municipality’s Master Plan. This is the first step in changing the way affordable housing is provided to New Jersey residents.