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New Jersey Future Announces 2010 Smart Growth Award Winners
New Jersey Future recently announced its 2010 Smart Growth Award winners. The organization is a statewide research, policy and education group that advocates for sustainable growth, environmental preservation, neighborhood revitalization and transportation choice.
The winners were selected from a diverse group of innovative development and redevelopment projects located across New Jersey. Six projects and 20 honorees received Smart Growth Awards for initiatives ranging from an innovative transfer-of-development-rights plan in Woolwich Township (Gloucester County) to a new town center in Robbinsville (Mercer County) to a creative neighborhood affordable-housing project in Jersey City.
The six Smart Growth Award-winning projects and plans drew praise from Debbie Mans, the NY/NJ Baykeeper and New Jersey Future board member who chaired the selection committee. ''These six award-winners exemplify the kind of creative thinking, innovative planning and careful consensus-building that are critical components of any successful 21st-century development or redevelopment project in New Jersey,'' she said. ''They are a credit not just to their communities, but to the entire state.''
At the awards ceremony on June 2, New Jersey Future also honored longtime board member W. Cary Edwards with a special Leadership Award. A former state assemblyman, Mr. Edwards served as chief counsel and attorney general in the Kean administration and was a key player in passage of the State Planning Act in 1985,
''Cary Edwards has been a powerful, influential and effective voice for smart growth in New Jersey for more than 25 years,'' said New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach. ''This special Leadership Award is but a small tribute to his lifelong determination to make New Jersey a better place to live.'' 6/14/2010
Resource(s): www.njfuture.org/
Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, Creates New Affordable Housing Zone
Hillsborough Township has approved a new zoning change that ''will facilitate the township's affordable housing plan set by the state's Council on Affordable Housing, or COAH. It currently calls for 296 affordable units to be built in Hillsborough by 2018, down from an original 650-unit plan set in 2008,'' reports the Messenger-Gazette.
The zone is located ''on a 50-acre parcel of land in the highway services district. A variety of uses were permitted on the parcel, ranging from banks to medical offices. The new Green Village zone changes the uses to allow for the affordable housing, as well as 352 luxury housing units with on-site recreation, a 130-room hotel, and retail and office space.
''This is a double opportunity for Hillsborough,'' said Deputy Mayor Gloria McCauley, ''an opportunity to add significant commercial taxpayers to help offset taxes for homeowners and to reduce the number of affordable units from what was originally proposed.'' 5/13/2010
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
New Jersey Future Calls for Strengthening State Planning and Office of Smart Growth
The Red Tape Review Group's report on New Jersey’s regulatory system drew applause and criticism when released last month, but an especially praiseworthy recommendation regarding more effective implementation of smart growth has ''slipped below the radar screen,'' says New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach.
''The Red Tape Review Group recognizes that the Office of Smart Growth and the State Planning Commission need to be strengthened,'' the report says. ''A transfer of their functions to the Department of State could serve to reinvigorate the planning functions of State Government, and ensure that planning activities complement job creation and retention, economic growth and investment.''
Director Kasabach considers it ''telling'' that the governor's group, ''tasked with weeding out unnecessary regulation, responded with a recommendation to strengthen state planning.'' Explaining the importance of the physical location of the state planning function in an op-ed column carried by several New Jersey newspapers, he points out that since the 1998 transfer of the State Planning Commission and the Office of State Planning from the Department of Treasury to the Department of Community Affairs, both the commission and the office – renamed the Office of Smart Growth in 2002 – have steadily lost their clout.
''Subordinated to a department whose land-use activities should be subject to the commission's oversight, rather than vice-versa,'' he writes, ''the commission and the office have been marginalized – too often functioning not as a mediator but as a contestant in bureaucratic battles between competing state agencies.'' He quotes from the report again, this time an idea similar to that behind the recent federal multi-agency cooperation. ''Witnesses,'' the report says, ''proposed that state planning should be used as a tool to align all levels of government behind a shared vision for future growth and preservation, as well as means to streamline and coordinate regulations and focus capital spending.''
Accordingly, Director Kasabach continues, ''(t)ransferring the State Planning Commission and Office of Smart Growth to the Department of State, under the Lieutenant Governor, would elevate them to heightened roles, strengthening the state planning function.'' What's more, he adds, ''giving them the tools they need to coordinate the planning functions of key state agencies – notably the departments of Environmental Protection, Transportation, Community Affairs and Agriculture – around the shared vision of the State Plan would invigorate the state planning process after years of stagnation and neglect.'' 5/1/2010
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
Bill to Let Builders Freeze Site Zoning for Vague Projects Would Hinder Smart Growth
Carried over from the last session, Senate Bill 82 would let builders lock in site zoning at the time of application, even if officials were to wait years for specific project proposals. The bill is ''a bad idea,'' says a Newark Star-Leger editorial, ''that denies municipalities the flexibility'' needed for smart growth planning. A real estate attorney, industry-based Smart Growth Economic Development Coalition founder Ted Zangari, calls the S82 bill (previously S58) fair to developers who often file costly time-consuming applications and then see their plans derailed by ''a malcontent or someone who controls a voting block, who starts squawking and town fathers have a change of heart.''
On the other hand, the editorial points out, residents ''have a right to weigh in'' on local development. The state requires revision of municipal master plans every six years, and a ''law that freezes zoning and ordinances would hamper'' municipal ability to respond quickly to any number of challenges. These could be posed by a baby boom or a population decline, aged infrastructure, water shortage or an inadequate sewage treatment system.
Municipal officials and environmentalists share these concerns. In a report from the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee, which approved the bill earlier this month, Star-Ledger writer Brian T. Murray cited objections by League of Municipalities Executive Director William Dressel and Sierra Club Chapter Director Jeff Tittel. ''This legislation discourages smart growth, undermines sound planning strategies, and is not in the best interest of the public,'' said the former, with the latter calling it ''the equivalent of someone obtaining approval for a driver’s license without being required to successfully complete a written exam or a road test.'' Restating his opposition, the editorial observes, Director Tittel was now joined by the league’s senior assistant counsel for land use Stuart Koenig. ''It undermines a town’s ability to redo the master plan,'' the Sierra Club director said about the bill. ''Town officials can make errors in zoning or other aspects of the plan that aren’t caught until a developer comes in with a plan.''
What’s more, noted counsel Koenig, developers also can and do revise their plans midway whenever they encounter a drainage, buffering or any other hidden or overlooked site problem. The current law balances the interest of builders who want certainty when they put together their plan and the interest of municipalities in protecting the public good. ''The public good should prevail,'' he stated, with the editorial adding, ''Even if the public has to squawk a little to be heard.'' 3/1/2010
Resource(s): http://blog.nj.com/ ; www.nj.com/
Warren County Chamber of Commerce Offers Green Program to Members
The Warren County Regional Chamber of Commerce has become the first business association in New Jersey to offer a Green Plus sustainability education and certification program to its members. The program is aimed at helping businesses become more sustainable while maintaining profitability. ''It’s a challenge for businesses to maintain their financial goals while incorporating 'green' initiatives,'' said Chamber President and CEO Robert Goltz. ''With this program, we can provide our members the opportunity to achieve both objectives in a way that makes sense for them.''
Green Plus is a program created by universities and chambers of commerce to provide smaller employers with affordable tools to improve sustainability and environmental awareness. The program’s three main goals are to reduce costs and become more competitive, differentiate an organization in a competitive marketplace and increase responsibility to employees, the local community, and the environment. The program is specially tailored to address the needs of small businesses in any field. 2/28/2010
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
Hoboken Loft Project Called Template for Green Development
The Garden Street Lofts project in Hoboken, New Jersey, has been awarded gold LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. According to this report in the Jersey Journal, the project is the first such mixed-use residential building in New Jersey to receive the LEED designation.
In 1919, the building was a storage warehouse and coconut processing factory for Hostess cupcakes, IN 2009, the project underwent a major rehabilitation to create an environmentally friendly development of 30 condominiums. The project achieved LEED certification by meeting a rigorous checklist of energy efficiency requirements. The building also has been recognized as a top green project by the Sustainable Building Industry Council.
Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise said the project ''should be a boilerplate for building anything from here on in.'' Several similar projects are under consideration in New Jersey. 2/2/2010
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
Governor Corzine Leaves Office with Mixed Environmental Record
On his last day in office January 19, Democratic Governor Jon Corzine made smart-growth advocates both seethe and cheer – first, by signing a bill to extend the July 2010 expiration date for frozen builder permits until July 2012, then by vetoing a bill to delay implementation of stronger water quality safeguards from this April to the next.
Stopped by the Permit Extension Act of 2008, reports Newark Star-Ledger writer Brian T. Murray, the expiration clock for permits that would otherwise have expired by January 2007 was set to resume clicking this July, with the expectation of sufficient economic improvements by then to spark construction and new jobs. Now it will remain idle for two more years. The business-based Smart Growth Economic Development Coalition’s founder Ted Zangari applauded the bill’s enactment. ''Developers and businesses spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and multiple years getting dozens of permits on their projects, only to be met by a terrible recession,'' he said. ''They are now going to be able to keep those approvals on ice until the first sign of life on the market, rather than have to start anew.''
New Jersey Environmental Federation (NJEF) Campaign Director David Pringle countered that lawmakers let builders ''take advantage of the economic mess'' by skirting any stronger environmental, public health and land use protections enacted since 2007. ''If it was just to protect projects hurt by bad economic times,'' he observed, ''they could have drafted a bill that would extend those permits for projects that meet any new environmental standards.''
Conversely, Governor Corzine’s rejection of the bill (S2985/A4345) to delay tougher water quality protection for another year buoyed all who urge change, with the Star-Ledger Editorial Board calling it a ''victory for smart growth.'' Beginning in April, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will implement its July 2008 regulations, which enable it to restrict development if proposed septic systems or sewer line extensions would affect wetlands, wildlife habitat or other fragile tracts. ''Smart growth depends on exactly this kind of planning. For too long, New Jersey has allowed haphazard development without concern for wetlands, brownfields or other environmentally sensitive areas. DEP, for its part, has responded to requests from individual counties for deadline extensions, and even provides $200,000 to help counties pay for planning costs,'' the Editorial Board pointed out. ''It’s time for county officials to live up to the goals of smart growth and start planning for the future.'' 1/20/2010
Resource(s): www.nj.com/ ; http://blog.nj.com/
Bill to Delay Stronger Water Quality Safeguards Can Undercut Smart Growth
''Smart growth has gotten a lot of lip service over the last 10 years,'' says a Newark Star-Ledger editorial, joining major New Jersey environmental groups in criticizing fast-track legislation to make the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) wait another two years to implement its already delayed 2008 water quality management rule. The rule would let DEP restrict development if the necessary septic systems or sewer line extensions encroached on wetlands, brownfields or other fragile sites.
DEP, noted Star-Ledger writer Brian T. Murray a few days earlier, has previously extended the rule’s initial implementation deadline from April 2009 to April 2010, to give counties time for updates of their wastewater management plans. Now Senate Democratic Deputy Majority Leader Paul Sarlo and others have quietly moved to set the deadline for April 2012. ''At this time, 20 out of 21 counties are nowhere near complete with their plans and cannot comply with the requirements,'' explained Senator Sarlo’s chief of staff Chris Ellert. ''They have to engage consultants and engineers to comply with these plans at a time when budgets are tight. This is another unfunded mandate.''
The business-based Smart Growth Economic Development Coalition doesn’t like the tougher DEP water management rule at all. ''We think it’s a terrible way to manage land use in this state,'' complained its founder Ted Zangari, ''to do so by determining where sewer service extensions are applied or not.'' In contrast, conservationists deplore any further delay of the rule. ''This legislation will freeze the water quality protections adopted in 2008 for three years,'' pointed out New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel. ''In the meantime, it’s business as usual to pave over New Jersey by letting developers run sewers everywhere. There also is a clause by which they will grandfather all projects coming in from now and until the freeze expires, creating more sprawl.'' He and other environmental leaders describe the timing of the bill as a ''stealth'' move that lawmakers expected to be overlooked during the holiday season.
The Star-Ledger editorial agrees that Senator Sarlo’s legislation can ''dumb down'' smart growth. ''Elected officials and developers shake their heads over vanishing farmland, congested roads and crowded schools, not to mention overtaxed water and sewage systems. They all vow to do better,'' it observers. ''So what happens when the state attempts to implement a rule to bring sense to haphazard development? Lawmakers – when they think no one is looking – kick it to the curb.'' 1/4/2010
Resource(s): http://blog.nj.com/ ; www.nj.com/
Paper Outlines Benefits of New Jersey Light Rail
“Each time someone rides the Hudson Bergen Light Rail (HBRL), they are voting with their feet to make New Jersey more energy independent,” said Environment New Jersey Transportation Advocate Rob McCullogh, paraphrasing the subtitle of its new On the Right Track analytic paper, which credits the 20.6-mile two-county line – conceived in the late 1980s and opened in 2000, with the final construction phase next year – for more than $5-billion in mixed-use development on the Hudson River’s west Gold Coast and for saving commuters 3.4 million gallons of gas last year alone.
Released November 23 in Jersey City, jointly with its Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, Democratic Congressman Albio Sires, Federal Advocate Ya-Ting Liu and Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC) Field Director Doug O’Malley, the paper focuses mainly on economic and environmental light rail benefits. “The HBLR makes the Gold Coast a more attractive place to live and work by providing easy access to New York City and Newark via multiple transit connections, in particular the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) transit service,” it reads. “Along its route, the HBLR has decreased automobile travel, improved the built and natural environment, fostered business development, increased employment, as well as raised property values and tax revenues.”
Mayor Healy attested to the benefits, stressing, “Jersey City has been the economic engine driving the state’s economy and one of the reasons for our success has been the Hudson Bergen Light Rail.” With light rail ridership up 8 percent nationwide in 2008, but 13 percent on the HBLR line, which also has reduced the area’s carbon emissions by more that 37,000 tons that year, TSTC Advocate Liu echoed her Environment New Jersey counterpart’s call for increased public investment in the region’s transit, with a greater share for light rail. “Transit riders save on average $9,190 a year,” she pointed out. “Public transportation is the lifeblood for many New Jersey families looking to cut costs, especially during these tough economic conditions. Now is the time for state and federal government to prioritize funding for public transportation projects that create the biggest economic bang for the buck.” 11/23/2009
Resource(s): www.nj.com/ ; www.environmentnewjersey.org/
TSTC Urges New Jersey Governor to Enact Complete Streets Policy
Not amused by the persistent regulatory gap between design for roads versus sidewalks and bike lanes – the former unlikely to end abruptly in grassy or impassable spots as the others often do – an advocacy coalition led by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC; New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) urged Democratic Governor Jon Corzine to enact a Complete Streets policy to reduce car dependency and make mobility safer, especially for pedestrians, 121 of whom have already lost their lives in traffic accidents this year, a 33 percent increase from the same period last year.
With Governor Corzine facing a tough re-election battle against his Republican challenger Chris Christie, the TSTC is calling on him to ensure Complete Streets is joined by the smart-growth New Jersey Future group, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Environment New Jersey, the New Jersey Chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), and Disability Rights New Jersey. Crediting the governor for improvements ensured so far under his 2006 initiative to invest $74 million over five years in pedestrian safety, including $15 million for the Safe Routes to School program and $5 million for the new Safe Streets to Transit program, TSTC Communications Associate Steven Higashide and NJ Future Policy Analyst Jay Corbalis noted in a joint post on their web sites that even if there’s “no guarantee that better streets infrastructure would have prevented the deaths of any of the 121 people” killed while walking this year, the routine transportation planners’ concentration on drivers, with needs of others just an afterthought, results in “incomplete streets that create dangerous conditions.”
Speaking on behalf of the six-group coalition, TSTC Executive Director Kate Slevin said, “New Jersey has made strides in recent years towards a more balanced transportation policy, but these (fatality) numbers prove that the state still has a long way to go before our roads are safe for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.” Others corroborated the urgency of action. “For a variety of reasons, a lot of people are walking, biking, and taking mass transportation in New Jersey, yet we are still building and upgrading streets with no sidewalks, no crosswalks and no bike lanes,” pointed out NJ Future Executive Director Pete Kasabach. “This has to stop.” And AARP New Jersey Chapter volunteer transportation advocate Janine Bauer stressed, “Older people deal with the effects of incomplete streets every day, and make up a disproportionate share of pedestrians killed by cars in New Jersey. The needs of seniors and other pedestrians must be taken into account when streets and highways are built and repaired.” 10/13/2009
Resource(s): http://www.tstc.org/
Green Building Task Force Proposed for New Jersey
New Jersey has already taken ''many strong steps to promote clean energy and combat climate change,'' and now need ways ''to infuse green building technology into projects throughout the state,'' said Democratic Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, introducing legislation to create the New Jersey State Building Green Building Technology Task Force.
The 13-member task force, says an Associated Press report carried by the Parsippany Daily Record, would include state commissioners of environmental protection, community affairs, transportation and education, the state treasurer, and the president of the Board of Public Utilities, along with seven governor's appointees from industries and public groups.
They would study and present environmental, economic, health and community benefits of green building technology; suggest improvements in state, county and municipal agency efforts to focus on those benefits; encourage state departments to incorporate green technology in construction, rehabilitation, maintenance and operation of state facilities; find how to help builders use the technology at projects in smart growth areas; and determine the best method to institute a green building program.
Within 18 months of its first meeting, the task force would be expected to submit a written report, including its findings, assessments and recommendations. -- Daily Record 8/9/2009
Resource(s): www.dailyrecord.com/
Workshop Outlines Transit Plans for White Horse Pike Corridor
''We must be sincere and unwavering in our commitment to grow around the rail stop consistent with best practices in smart growth community planning,'' said Galloway Township (Atlantic County) Economic Development Committee Chairman Stephen Moliver at a public workshop on plans for its White Horse Pike Corridor, expecting a local NJ Transit train station to be operational within two years and advising attendees to think regionally and plan ''around access to transportation'' since good connectivity cuts vehicle trips.
He told officials and residents, reports the area's Courant writer Steve Prisament, that the region's other five counties and Philadelphia will all grow around transportation and logistic centers, transit hubs, major highway interchanges and airports, cautioning them against missing the opportunity to link not only local residents to outside jobs, but also outside residents to local jobs.
''Think of Galloway as a mid-point between Atlantic City and Hammonton and one third of the way to Cherry Hill by train. Think about rail and bus service holistically: rapid transit, train, and bus routes,'' he pointed out. ''Everyone knows it takes less than 30 minutes to go east to Atlantic City on the train, but not everyone thinks about the fact that going west it conceivably takes less than 30 minutes to Camden County points, Camden city, Cherry Hill, Lindenwold and less than one hour to downtown Philadelphia.''
And once again stressing the need for coordination of the township growth plans with other jurisdictions, he put his advice in yet another context.
''Don't think of the Atlantic City rail line tracks or the White Horse Pike as a dividing line, but as a complementing bridge to connect zoning, villages, centers and clusters. Think about small compact thriving villages -- stand alone or inside of a metropolis -- and then conjure up a picture of the interwoven, vibrant communities there,'' he said. ''Always opt for green choices when feasible to reduce our carbon footprint. Don't make it an option; make it a requirement provided it doesn't substantially affect project costs and negatively impact growth. This will become easier in time as technology advances and economies of scale are realized in green technology.'' -- Courant 7/23/2009
Resource(s): www.shorenewstoday.com/
Smart Growth Thumbs Up, Down for Garden State Projects
As he broke ground for New Brunswick's $150-million Gateway Transit Village last month, Democratic Governor Jon Corzine said, ''This development is the epitome of Smart Growth and the future of transit operations, mixed with residential and retail space,'' but his statement earlier this month at a groundbreaking for the $2.7 billion New Jersey Turnpike Widening Project, which he called one of the state's ''major economic drivers,'' drew considerable criticism, with state Sierra Club Executive Director Jeff Tittel saying, ''This project in its current form is the opposite of smart growth; it is dumb growth and a huge waste of money.''
The turnpike, a major link between Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., carries an average 680,000 vehicles a day and often suffers multi-mile traffic backups both ways, report Trenton Times writer Erin Duffy and NewJerseyNewsroom online writer Tom Hester Sr., noting that once completed in 2014, the widening will add 170 lane miles along the 35-mile route between Interchange 6 in Mansfield Township and Interchange 9 in East Brunswick.
It will involve expansion of the turnpike's six lanes from Mansfield to Cranbury and 10 between Cranbury and East Brunswick to 12 lanes all the way.
''We will be putting to work 18,000 people in the next 12-18 months, day in and day out,'' Governor Corzine said. ''This is about stimulating the economy today.''
The Turnpike Authority, the online writer observes, plans to spend a total of $7 billion to widen the road over the next decade. -- Times, Sentinel, New Jersey Newsroom 7/2/2009
Resource(s): http://nbs.gmnews.com/ ; www.newjerseynewsroom.com/
Cherry Hill Township Joins ''Live Where You Work'' Program
Increasingly supportive of the state's smart-growth efforts and determined to become ''a sustainable community,'' Cherry Hill Township -- 72,000 residents, just five miles east of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- has now moved to join the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's (HMFA's) innovative ''Live Where You Work'' (LWYW) program, with Mayor Bernie Platt saying, ''Walking, biking, carpooling and public transit will become much more feasible ways for local employees to travel from home to work and back, as opposed to individual drivers motoring in and out of town.''
The program, reports Cherry Hill Courier-Post writer Adam Smeltz, helps outside commuters to settle near jobs, offering prospective first-time homebuyers low-interest mortgage rates, flexible loan-application reviews, and down-payment and closing-cost assistance up to five percent of the loan, an amount written off once the borrower lives in the house for more than seven years.
To qualify, households can earn up to $85,600 a year for one or two members, and up to $98,440 for three or more.
With the Council voting 6-0 to join the LWYW program, spokesman Dan Keashen said the primary goal is to ''provide incentives to home ownership and to building community'' as people ''tend to care more about their job and where they live'' when these two essential elements are in the same place.
''The whole idea of the program is smart growth,'' pointed out Council President Steve Polansky, confident it helps ''stabilize and -- if anything -- increase the value of homes in Cherry Hill.''
More about the township and its smart growth at www.cherryhill-nj.com/economic/vision.asp. -- Courier-Post 5/28/2009
Resource(s): www.cherryhill-nj.com/ ; www.courierpostonline.com/
State Smart Growth Chief Addresses West Windsor Town Meeting
With his Office of Smart Growth (OSG) responsible for a general land-use plan for the state, it's up to its 566 municipalities to choose the best local way toward sustainability, explained OSG Executive Director Ben Spinelli at a West Windsor town meeting, describing smart growth as ''putting the right thing in the right place'' -- high-rises in some areas, but open space safeguards in others -- and applauding West Windsor's recent mixed-use redevelopment plan for the train station area.
Invited to the meeting by Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, reports Princeton Packet writer Kristine Snodgrass, Director Spinelli pointed out that located in a state growth area -- along a train line, between major roads, and near Trenton and other job centers -- the township should prepare for more development.
''There is no way to stop growth in a place like West Windsor,'' he stressed. ''How it happens is the question.''
Due to preponderant single-use zoning in the past five decades, New Jersey became the ''poster child for suburban sprawl,'' and West Windsor ''was at ground zero for a lot of that,'' Director Spinelli said, noting that he doesn't mean to fault residents for their car dependence, but that this lifestyle is ''difficult to maintain'' endlessly, especially given the need to cut emissions and combat global warming.
''If you don't control vehicle miles traveled (VMT), you'll never meet your goals,'' he warned, calling car-dependency reduction one of the smart-growth priorities and encouraging local governments to overhaul outdated land-use laws and focus on redevelopment as Rahway, Perth Amboy, New Brunswick and some other municipalities have already done. -- Princeton Packet 5/4/2009
Resource(s): www.centraljersey.com/
DEP Approves Controversial Holland Township Project
Though their missions and goals overlap, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) reversed the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council's recommendation against a Huntington Knolls development of 116 age-restricted apartments and some commercial space on 84 acres in Holland Township as inconsistent with the Highlands Regional Master Plan draft, and approved the project for inclusion in the area's water management plan -- a first of its kind reversal, but sharply criticized by smart-growth advocates and found ''perplexing'' by a Newark Star-Ledger editorial. ''It's the wrong project in the wrong place,'' stressed New Jersey Sierra Club Executive Director Jeff Tittel. ''This is exactly the type of project the Highlands Preservation Act was supposed to stop -- sprawl development in the middle of nowhere, on steep slopes and in environmentally sensitive areas.''
With the 2004 act restricting development on 800,000 Highlands acres to preserve this crucial drinking water source for 88 towns in seven counties, and with Governor Jon Corzine tightening the restrictions through an executive order last September, reports Star-Ledger writer Brian T. Murray, New Jersey Highlands Coalition Executive Director Julia Somers called DEP approval for development in Holland Township contradictory and worrisome.
''We are extremely concerned about the precedent set here. This area has been defined as being in a water deficit area,'' she said. ''If the DEP and Highlands Council are not going to be working together, they will be wasting everyone's time to an extraordinary degree.''
DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura assured critics that the agency ''gave great weight'' to the Highlands Council analysis, but that the project design improvements alleviate its potential impact, and that the 28 affordable units among the 116 apartments made approval easier.
New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach cautioned that an excessive focus on whether a given project meets specific rules can undermine overall planning and make officials ''lose sight of what we're aiming for,'' but Highlands Council Chairman John Weingart said the council wouldn't appeal another state agency action, expecting the council and DEP to clarify mutual relations.
''One solution would be to set up a process for reconciling disagreements between the two state agencies,'' the editorial observes. ''A better one would give the council the last word on whether a proposal meets the standards set forth in the Highlands plan.'' -- Star-Ledger 4/20/2009
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
''Live Where You Work'' Program Helps Eleven Garden State Communities in First Year
Complementary to Governor Jon Corzine's community revitalization efforts, the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's (HMFA's) year-old ''Live Where You Work'' program has already helped its 11 partner municipalities increase affordable housing, take cars off the roads and foster a sense of community through low-interest 30-or-40-year fixed-rate mortgages, with buyers of homes in ''designated Smart Growth Areas'' also eligible for down-payment and closing-cost assistance equal to 5 percent of the first loan, and with that amount forgiven if a buyer lives in the house for seven years, write Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria and HMFA Executive Director Marge Della Vecchia in a Lyndhurst Patriot guest column, encouraging other municipalities to join the program and reap the benefits.
The central principle of ''Live Where You Work'' is less use of cars.
The program, they remind readers, takes into account the anticipated savings on commuting costs and offers homebuyers ''larger loans than they would otherwise be eligible for because the money they would have been spending on tolls and gas can now be invested in their mortgage.''
The maximum qualifying income for a family of four ranges from $94,070 to $111,205 a year, depending on house location and the related top price for a single-family home set between $320,625 and $429,619, with the higher purchase prices allowed in the Urban Target Areas.
''There are no downsides to ''Live Where You Work,'' as municipalities that have already entered the program can attest,'' the two state officials observe.
These municipalities -- Atlantic City, Bayonne, Carteret, Evesham, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Morristown, Neptune Township, Rahway, Trenton and Woodbridge -- are offering ''Live Where You Work'' homebuyer discounts at bicycle shops and appliance stores, with at least one municipality involving several local lenders to provide closing cost rebates for these new residents.
''Partnership opportunities with local businesses also exist in terms of marketing the program to their employees,'' the state officials stress. ''This program will benefit employees of all sizes from the corner grocery store to the Fortune 500 company by making it easier for their workers to find good affordable housing close to the job.'' -- Patriot 3/26/2009
Resource(s): http://leadernewspapers.net/
West Cape May Wins State Endorsement for Planning Efforts
Even though New Jersey governors have increasingly promoted smart growth since the late 1990s, the state Office of Smart Growth (OSG) formally endorsed planning efforts in only seven of the 556 municipalities so far -- which increases their eligibility for state grants and other aid -- the newest one being West Cape May, a borough of about 1000 year-round residents, its commercial district mixed-use overhaul plan praised by OSG Executive Director Benjamin Spinelli as among the better ones ''for a downtown'' he has seen.
Expected to spur economic revival, the plan envisages a pedestrian-friendly town center typical of a long-gone era -- free from strip-malls accessible mostly by cars, Director Spinelli observed at the borough's Planning and Zoning forum.
''It was a functional, efficient and sustainable way of living,'' he noted. ''In the last 50 years, we created a lot of damage to our state.''
The proposed ordinance, still under work, report Cape May County Herald writer Jack Fichter and Press of Atlantic City writer Richard Degener, encourages mixed uses, but apartments and professional offices would be allowed only above street-level commercial space, with extra-height or square-footage bonuses for affordable housing units, reserved for those earning up to 80 percent of the area's average weekly wage.
This, noted Mayor Pamela Kaithern, includes families with combined income of $60,000-$80,000 a year.
One of the new three district zones would have ''building form requirements'' for such features as storefront display windows, doors, facades and roof shapes.
To save the district's many historic homes, its parking requirements would be relaxed and owners could open businesses on the ground floors.
The new ordinance could also help ease residential property taxes, Mayor Kaithern pointed out, while asking residents ''to keep in mind that the physical changes to the commercial district will not happen overnight.'' -- Cape May County Herald, Press of Atlantic City 3/12/2009
Resource(s): www.pressofatlanticcity.com/ ; www.capemaycountyherald.com/
Planners Need to Address Living and Service Needs for Growing Senior Population
With the number of those 65 years old and older doubling to some 70 million by 2030 nationwide, including an increase from 53,000 to 107,000 in Burlington County, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, municipal planners everywhere must make sure the elderly can meet their shelter, mobility, service and social needs, reports Philadelphia Inquirer writer Cynthia Henry, citing smart-growth advocates, gerontologists and other experts who call for smaller housing units, elder-friendly interiors, walkable neighborhoods, and generally more hospitable outdoors.
''A lot of seniors are 'overhoused,''' says New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach, ''still living in the four-bedroom house where they raised their families,'' and struggling with maintenance, yard work or access to shopping, health care and recreation if they no longer drive.
Authors of a recent book, Re-creating Neighborhoods for Successful Aging, Medford-based landscape architect Jack Carman, his gerontologist wife Nancy and two collaborators -- California State University-Fullerton's Institute of Gerontology Director Pauline S. Abbott and University of Washington-Spokane social geographer-landscape architect Bob Scarfo -- explain the urgency of accommodating the wave of retirees and the elderly.
''Our neighborhoods were created for people in their 20s and 30s,'' observes Jack Carman, whose Design for Generations firm works on therapeutic gardens and landscapes for senior communities and health-care facilities, with Nancy Carman, Mount Laurel's New Life Management & Development Inc. marketing director, stressing, ''you don't want people to become prisoners of their own homes.''
In their book, the writer notes, they recommend municipal zoning and other changes to allow communal elder residences and in-law units, wider street crosswalks and longer green lights for pedestrians, and shaded pathways and benches.
They also advise developers to adopt universal design standards that incorporate ramps, handrails and wider doorways.
Officials of Jewish Family and Children's Services of Southern New Jersey are already working to make the lives of the area's elderly better.
Having set up a Cherry Hill office in the Towers at Windsor Park, whose concentration of the elderly qualifies as a ''naturally occurring retirement community (NORC),'' the writer reports, they help tenants of all faiths in their daily needs with nurse and social worker assistance, and with organization of social activities, including bowling, an art-appreciation group, and a weekly dinner.
''Assisted living is almost pass‚,'' points out Jewish Family Services Executive Director Jennifer Weiss, expecting quality nursing homes to become increasingly less accessible and more seniors to prefer staying in their homes. ''People want to own their own little piece of the world.''
Her director of senior services Gail Belfer sees the evidence of the trend every day.
''Our goal is to allow people to age gracefully, safely and independently in their homes,'' she says, adding, ''suburbia isn't set up for seniors.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer 1/21/2009
Resource(s): www.philly.com/
Housing, Community Development Experts Agree: Smart Growth Needed to Secure New Jersey's Economy
Anticipating dense, walkable, mixed-use communities near transit will hold ''the greatest economic advantages'' in the years ahead, industry and advocacy panelists at the Governor's Conference on Housing and Community Development in Atlantic City agreed the state must pursue Smart Growth to secure its economy and absorb its share of the country's new 100 million residents by 2035, reports GlobeStreet real estate online news writer Brianne Harrison, with New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach concerned that too many municipalities retain outdated zoning, but hopeful that his group's proposed Smart Housing Incentive Act will clear the legislature and encourage the change.
''The high price of gas and the economic slump can focus redevelopment and development where the infrastructure, jobs and transportation exist,'' he said. ''There may be 101 reasons why we shouldn't do this, but the reasons we should do it are far more important.''
Citing a Brookings Institution study, Capital Real Estate Group founder and principal Daniel Brenna highlighted several ''macro forces'' that work for higher densities.
They include an aging and growing population, increased urbanization, climate change and fuel costs.
''The forces are all in place,'' he observed, noting that half of what the nation will need by 2030 hasn't been built yet, including some 60 million housing units. ''You're not going to stop population growth. The important thing is to get these people back into the cities.''
Companies like Landmark Cos. LLC and towns like Collingswood, the writer reports, are doing what's needed.
Landmark Cos. principal Joel Schwartz told the conference how his company redeveloped parts of downtown Metuchen and Rahway into walkable mixed-use neighborhoods, and Collingswood Mayor James Maley described the town's economic turnaround since the mid-1990s, attributing it mainly to redevelopment of a depressed 1,000-unit apartment complex -- with a $4 million investment return now used for PRIDE grants to help residents make further improvements -- and outlining his current efforts to expand mixed-use development and spur it near a Speedline train station on a line to Philadelphia. -- GlobeSt.com 9/24/2008
Resource(s): www.globest.com/
Poor Roads, Lack of Funding Hampers New Jersey Bike Commuting Efforts
Three problems for the growing number of cyclists in the tri-county South Jersey area along the Delaware River southeast of Philadelphia, to which many commute, are drivers' disregard, bad roads and the lack of amenities, reports Cherry Hill Courier-Post writer George Mast, noting that accidents killed 12 cyclists last year statewide but already 11 by mid-July, and that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) apparently granted municipalities and other public entities just 6.4 percent of the money they requested for bike and walkway projects.
''Generally in South Jersey cycling isn't well received by the majority of motorists,'' said Outdoor Club of South Jersey official and bike commuter Tony Marchionne. ''A lot of people view it as something for recreation but not for transportation.''
Another bike enthusiast-commuter, Keswick Cycle shop worker Brian Santapau, was more direct. ''People just don't see bikes. They don't care to see bikes,'' he told the writer, concerned that bad roads will deter bike commuting, too.
Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia advocacy director John Boyle, a New Jersey resident who bikes across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to his city job each weekday, said that although Philadelphia cycling is up 15 percent this year, the city and much of New Jersey especially, are far beyond such prime cycling centers as Portland, Oregon.
''We just haven't seen too many of the local municipalities really embrace bicycling,'' he observed, pointing out that Portland has 270 miles of street bike lanes, bike boulevards and paved trails, and that the city requires bike parking in all development and redevelopment projects, and offer developer incentives for bike locker rooms and rider showers.
Officials emphasize what's already been done or is under way.
DOT spokeswoman Erin Phalon stressed the state is spending a record $30.5 million on bicycle and pedestrian safety programs in fiscal year 2009, plus about $20 million from the department's capital program.
Camden County's Division of Open Space and Farmland Preservation Director Jack Sworaski said the county is using a Smart Growth grant to fund a study of 10 central municipalities for joint creation of a multipurpose trail network, which would include designated county greenways whenever possible. -- Courier-Post 8/5/2008
Resource(s): www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Garden State Legislators Approve Revised Permit Extension Act
Proposed by the business-based Smart Growth Economic Development Coalition as necessary to revive the state's economy, fought by conservationists as a ''bailout'' for developers, and substantially revised on its way through committees, the Permit Extension Act passed the Senate and the Assembly on 31-2 and 70-9 votes, respectively, with New Jersey Builders Association Executive Vice President Tim Touhey calling it ''a sign both chambers realize the importance of economic development,'' and Sierra Club Chapter Executive Director Jeff Tittel commenting, ''We got about 75 percent of the bad out, so it is a bad bill but we did the best we could with it.''
A late compromise, brokered by Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Lisa P. Jackson, shortens the permit extension period from six to two years and relaxes development limits in six of 30 protected shore and wetland areas.
Specifically, reports Newark Star-Ledger writer Tom Hester, state and local building and environmental permits that expired after January 1, 2000 or would expire soon will be extended through July 1, 2010, with projects still unfinished by that date eligible for an extra six-month permit extension.
''Businesses struggling to survive the current economic slowdown shouldn't be forced to use limited vital resources to apply for new permits,'' explained Democratic Assemblyman Louis Greenwald. ''Businesses will continue to simply up-and-leave and take jobs with them without this relief.''
Coalition head Ted Zangari reciprocated, reports Asbury Park Press writer Tom Baldwin.
''It makes no sense,'' he said, ''to burden governmental agencies with repeating their review process for projects that have already been exhaustively vetted and approved.'' -- Star-Ledger 6/24/2008
Resource(s): www.app.com/ ; www.nj.com/starledger
Developer Proposals for Garden State Criticized for Failing Smart Growth Test
''When opportunity knocks, New Jersey's developers know they can get the state Legislature to open the door,'' wrote South Brunswick Post and Cranbury Press Managing Editor Hank Kalet, pointing out that a ''proposed blanket extension'' of developer permits either issued or expired after January 1, 2006 for another six years statewide ''fails the smart-growth test,'' a point implicitly admitted by the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee, which shortened the extension to two years and excluded the protected Highlands and Pinelands region before sending the bill to the floor.
''We compete for business. New Jersey has to stay competitive,'' said the scaled-back bill's Democratic sponsor, Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, with Republican Assemblyman Joseph Malone III, adding, ''This is not an environmental bill. This is about putting people back to work.''
Part of a 12-bill ''stimulus'' package crafted by a business-based coalition to jump-start the economy, the bill, called the Permit Extension Act (A-2867), continues to antagonize conservationists, reports Asbury Park Press writer Tom Baldwin, quoting state Sierra Club chapter director Jeff Tittel.
Having previously joined New Jersey Environmental Federation leader Dave Pringle in an editorial calling the bill ''one of the biggest giveaways to developers'' in the state's history, he said of its trimmed version, ''It is less bad. Two years forward is better, but it is still too broad.''
In an unusual turn of events, the writer observes, EPA regional administrator Alan Steinberg cautioned against potential risks of the ''stimulus'' package.
''I urge that before any action is taken on these bills,'' he wrote to committee, Assembly and Senate leaders, ''the New Jersey legislative and executive branch carefully analyze how the proposed law would square with federal environmental laws.''
A Senate committee, the writer adds, was slated to discuss the bill on June 16. -- Cranbury Press, Asbury Park Press 6/13/2008
Resource(s): www.packetonline.com/cranbury_press/front/ ; www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Developer-Sponsored ''Smart Growth'' Plan for Garden State Criticized
In unmistakable opening shots of a public opinion battle over regulatory changes sought by a coalition of developers and business leaders in their ''Smart Growth and Economic Development Stimulus Act of 2008, coalition lobbyist Ted Zangari announced, ''We're swearing off sprawl and encouraging smart growth,'' while New Jersey Sierra Club Executive Director Jeff Tittel stated, ''This, en toto, is as much about smart growth as Haagen-Dazs is to Weight Watchers.''
The lobbyist, reports Newark Star-Ledger writer Ian T. Shearn, acknowledged that the public saw developers as the villain in clashes with the environmental movement and that they usually just reacted to single events or bills without any common legislative strategy, an approach that has changed with the 12 bills of the newly devised act.
The bills, to be offered throughout the year, would concede some development boundaries in exchange for state concessions and incentives, the writer observes, noting that under the first proposal, introduced two weeks ago, state and local governments would grant developers a six-year extension for all already issued permits and approvals, including those that have expired.
Given its 40 co-sponsors, the writer expects the bill ''to sail'' through the Assembly, though the governor's office wants to see some compromise amendments.
After the coalition lobbyist called New Jersey ''the most ill-equipped state to deal with redevelopment issues'' and Mack-Cali Realty Chief Executive Mitchell Hersh described a related breakfast conversation with Democratic Governor Jon Corzine about the business climate as ''very meaningful,'' gubernatorial spokesman Jim Gardner declined to reveal specifics, saying only, ''The impact of the national recession in New Jersey remains a major concern and requires us to remain focused on growing the state's economy, but we must do so in an environmentally sound manner.''
With many of the financial incentives the coalition seeks dependent on new state revenue, lobbyist Zangari argued that even without such revenue ''the programs would at least spur smart growth beyond Hoboken and Jersey City to places like Newark that pay the same for labor, concrete and steel, yet don't fetch rents and purchase prices to make the construction numbers pencil-out.''
Sierra Club chapter director Tittel said the developers are invoking smart growth as a public relations ploy.
''If these bills get passed, it will be a coup d'etat for the builders of New Jersey. They're trying to use a downturn in the economy to push through their dream list,'' he warned. ''We're going to be closing schools and hospitals while we're making developers rich? It's going to be an interesting battle.'' -- Star-Ledger 6/4/2008
Resource(s): www.nj.com/business
Budget Cuts Could Weaken New Jersey's Environmental ''Safety Net''
To reduce the state's debt, Democratic Governor Jon Corzine trimmed its budget by $500 million to below $33 billion for FY 2009, with cuts for operations of the Pinelands Commission and the Highlands Council -- which protect 1.1 million acres in the south-central region and 800,000 acres in the northwest from random development -- decried by conservationists as a threat to the Pinelands and Highlands forests, ecosystems and drinking water supplies.
''What we're seeing is a dismantling of the environmental safety net,'' said Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter Executive Director Jeff Tittel. ''Staffing will be so low they won't be able to do their jobs.''
Created in 1979, the Pinelands Commission would have its budget cut by $780,000 to $2.6 million, reports Star-Ledger writer Joe Donohue; created in 2004, the Highland Council would lose $600,000 of its $3 million.
Pinelands Preservation Alliance Executive Director Carlton Montgomery said with less money than it received a dozen years ago, the commission would have find it harder to weed out bad projects, handle permit approvals, maintain the planning level, and help towns to enforce the regional plan.
''It is important that when comes to controlling development, mistakes are permanent,'' he warned. ''The loss of habitat, aquifer recharge and plant and animal life that comes with developing Pinelands forests is a loss forever.''
With the Highland Council preparing June approval of a regional master plan that will guide 51 of its area municipalities in their long-term development decisions, Chairman John Weingart echoed the concern, stating, ''This is a terrible time for the Highland Council to be cut back.''
Gubernatorial spokesman Jim Gardner assured conservationists that the governor remains ''a staunch supporter of preserving open space'' throughout the state.
''It's just a matter of economics,'' he said about the cuts. ''How much can the people of New Jersey afford?''
Nevertheless, the writer notes, pressed by other critics, the governor wants to restore $500,000 of the $750,000 he planned to take away from the Election Law Enforcement Commission, and former Governor Jim Florio, later a sponsor of a congressional bill to create the Pinelands Commission, is persuading him to scale back the environmental cuts, too.
''At a time with all the talk about smart growth,'' he stressed, ''this is particularly important.'' -- Star-Ledger 5/30/2008
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger
Congestion Fears Stoke Public Opposition Over Garden State TOD Projects
Offered $100,000 state grants and possibly more funds in the future, 19 municipalities have seized the opportunity to boost their housing stock and tax revenue through dense mixed-use development around their transit stations, but some residents see ''transit villages'' or ''smart growth'' as harbingers of worse traffic, overcrowded schools and similar risks, writes Trenton Times reporter Meir Rinde, contrasting the resentful public stance in West Windsor, Hamilton Township and Bordentown City with broad-based commitment in Trenton and Burlington.
''We try to avoid using the term 'transit village.' We try to use the term 'transit-oriented development','' said West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, a strong supporter of a proposal to build about 1,000 housing units and some offices near the Princeton Junction train station, a project scuttled last year by his suburban constituents, who think it would bring more state-mandated affordable housing, more schoolchildren, higher property taxes, and other urban problems.
The same public opposition halted construction around Hamilton's train station, with offices already built, but with a February 2007 repeal of its transit village ordinance blocking plans for stores, housing and hotel rooms, at least for now.
''We were dead against it,'' recalled Councilman Dennis Pone, one of three Republicans elected in 2005 on an anti-development platform. ''It appalled people. When they heard it, they said, 'The last thing Hamilton Township needs is any housing, let alone 1,000 units.''
In Bordentown City, hundreds of attendees at a recent town meeting get officials to remove ''transit'' references from a proposed land-use ordinance as suggesting density unwarranted for the small town of 4,000 residents.
''By labeling this 'smart growth,' they try and label anybody who is against it as not being very smart,'' complained opposition leader Jack Sade, considering the idea of development around rail stations and bus terminals conceptually ''fine,'' but not for his town. ''We live very close to each other down here. The yards are small and we have chronic parking problems,'' he explained. ''But it's a village-type atmosphere and everybody loves that.''
On the other hand, the reporter finds, Trenton is welcoming its train station area's prospects for three towers, with more than two million square feet of office space, numerous ground-level stores and almost 600 housing units.
And Burlington, which has had a rail-centered downtown for more than a century, is counting on the recent transit-village designation for the vicinity of the RiverLine light-rail station, opened in 2004, to spur further revitalization, housing construction, and business activity downtown.
That's what many municipalities need, pointed out Trenton-based PlanSmart NJ President Dianne Brake, concerned that some suburban residents who live closest to transit stations exert disproportionate influence on development decisions.
''We tend to discount the rest of the town, let alone the rest of the region that would benefit from transit-oriented development,'' the West Windsor resident said. ''Allowing a neighborhood to hold hostage a development that's actually a national resource -- there's something wrong with this system.'' -- Times 5/26/2008
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times
North Brunswick Workshop Focuses on Better Land Use to Cut Driving Needs
With a combination of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), mileage per gallon, and fuel carbon content making the U.S. responsible for 45 percent of global tailpipe emissions, the nation must cut these emissions through better land use, compact development and more transportation choices, or it won't be able to cut its total greenhouse-gas emissions by 15 to 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, being 20 percent above those levels now, said Smart Growth America (SGA) Communications Director David Goldberg at a North Brunswick workshop on the Urban Land Institute's study, ''Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change.''
Held jointly with SGA and New Jersey Futures by North Brunswick TOD Associates, a firm working on a local mixed-use transit village, reports the area's Sentinel writer Jennifer Amato, the workshop featured local and guest speakers, focusing on the study's key findings about the current impact and long-term effects of sprawl, traffic, and project design on the environment and climate, with director Goldberg cautioning that should the current trend continue, the number of miles Americans drive will rise 59 percent by 2030.
''Vehicle miles traveled are growing faster that population growth. We can get pretty close to our (emission cut) goal -- if we stop driving,'' he observed, stressing the importance of more and better market choices for vehicles, fuel, transportation, and overall mobility and housing locations.
He also pointed to an undersupply of attached and small-lot houses, with an oversupply of large lots, seeing an opportunity for change behind the general estimate that half of the 2030 housing stock and two-thirds of the 2050 inventory, respectively, still have to be built. -- Sentinel 5/8/2008
Resource(s): http://nbs.gmnews.com/
New Jersey Future to Present Smart Growth Awards on June 5
Propagating sound land-use planning and development through its prestigious Smart Growth Awards since 2002, the Trenton-based New Jersey Future statewide research and policy group will present the 2008 awards to winners in seven categories at a June 5 Newark Club event, expected to bring together more than 300 political leaders, civic activists and industry professionals, with introductory remarks by Newark Director of Community Development Toni Griffin.
This year's winners include Eleven 80, Newark, in the Historic Building Reuse category; Abbett Avenue Apartments, Morristown, in the Infill Affordable Housing category; Health Science Campus, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, in the Institutional Commitment to Community Revitalization category; The Heldrich Redevelopment Project, New Brunswick, in the Mixed-use Downtown Anchor category; Plainsboro Village Center in the New Town Center Development category; Rahway Town Center Master Plan in the Town Center Revitalization Plan category; and Park Square, Rahway, in the Transit-Friendly Downtown Redevelopment category.
Bestowed by an independent jury, says a New Jersey Future press release, the awards ''help promote our mission to secure economic opportunity, community vitality and quality of life for all New Jerseyans.'' -- New Jersey Future 4/25/2008
Resource(s): www.njfuture.org
Appointment of ''Fast Track'' Smart Growth Ombudsman Worries Garden State Environmentalists
In his electoral campaign before he took office in January 2006, Democratic Governor Jon Corzine criticized the state's 2004 ''fast-track'' law that speeds up development permits ''without allowing for a smart review of environmental considerations,'' but now he faces even sharper criticism from New Jersey Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Director Bill Wolfe, a former state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) analyst, who called the recent appointment of redevelopment-focused attorney Jong Sook Nee as Smart Growth Ombudsman, ''otherwise known as the Fast Track Czar,'' another move in a ''recent series of actions to short-circuit environmental protections'' for the sake of economic growth.
Having last month accused the Corzine administration of yielding to ''a concerted statewide drive by business lobbyists to blame the state's recent slumping economy on environmental safeguards,'' Director Wolfe said of builders in a PEER press release, ''It takes a lot of brass to suggest that the real culprit in the construction slowdown is not the recent financial collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market but is pollution standards and wetlands protections.''
He restated his concerns after the April 15 appointment of the new Smart Growth Ombudsman, who may practically veto DEP regulatory decisions, pointing out in a Trenton Ledger public opinion column that former Democratic Acting Governor Richard Codey responded to an outcry ''in opposition to rolling back environmental protections to promote more sprawl'' with a 2005 executive order suspending Fast Track law implementation.
''Fast Track needed to be put in dry dock because it violates federal environmental law, and thus would jeopardize hundreds of millions of dollars in federal environmental and transportation funding to New Jersey,'' Director Wolfe wrote.
''It is also fair to say that Fast Track is the polar opposite of smart growth,'' he stressed, concluding, ''On the environment, the Governor appears to be running against his own campaign promises.''
To help readers draw their own conclusions, he attaches key material links:
-- Ledger 4/17/2008
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
Editorial: Smart Growth-Transit Combo Is Best Choice to ''Green'' the Garden State
Although ''better land use planning that links 'smart growth' to transit'' is crucial for greenhouse gas reduction, ''most of the regulatory attention continues to focus on smokestacks and other 'point' sources in the industrial section because government officials often feel helpless to address the portion of emissions that comes from the growing number of car and truck trips,'' writes Trenton-based PlanSmart NJ (formerly Regional Planning Partnership) President Dianne Brake in an Asbury Park Press guest opinion, noting that the state's industries are responsible for 16 percent of its emissions, but vehicles for almost 40 percent.
Hybrid cars, HOV lanes, and tougher standards can help cut tailpipe emissions, but New Jersey ''must plan for increased use of transit by creating places that encourage more zero-car and one-car households and reduce the number and length of vehicle trips taken by everyone else.''
Calling the task ''doable,'' the guest writer advises a breakdown of recently legislated statewide clean-air goals into targets for each county and subsequent county-level work with communities on reaching local targets, with ''(t)ransit villages and other pedestrian-friendly Main Street-style communities'' ideal for reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT).
She cites research by her group and by Rutgers University, the first showing that Mercer County, around the state capital of Trenton, would need to cut about 25 million vehicle trips by 2020, or just 7 percent of its current number; the other finding that transit village residents own 10 to 20 percent fewer cars than others, with more people using transit or walking to work.
New Jersey's extensive transit network makes it second only to New York in the percentage of transit users, but its position at the forefront of national transit-oriented development, she continues, is weakened by a mismatch between the locations of the 19 communities in the state's 1999 Transit Village Initiative funding program and the locations of the projected job growth, with many of the largest employers now too far away from transit.
''In northern New Jersey, targeted state funding for redevelopment has little strategic connection with where the transit is,'' she points out.
The state ''needs to get its act together -- and soon'' to reduce the environmental impact of its ''sprawling auto-dependent communities,'' avert residents' flight from road congestion and a lack of affordable housing, and reach its clean air goals, she stresses, posing a simple question.
''In the end,'' she asks, ''wouldn't we all be better off if New Jersey invested in more transit villages and the expansion of a multi-modal transportation system that encouraged transit use from the major arteries in the rail-driven north, all the way down to the smallest capillaries in the rapidly growing south?'' -- Asbury Park Press 2/10/2008
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Tri-State Transport Campaign Asks Gov. Corzine to Reconsider Road Widening Plans
''Once and for all, New Jersey needs to move out of the era of wasteful road expansion projects and into an era of sustainability,'' said Tri-State Transportation Campaign (New Jersey, New York, Connecticut) Executive Director Kate Slevin as her public interest group and 26 others sent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine a letter urging him to take a fix-it-first approach and reconsider the inclusion of the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway widening and toll projects in his asset monetization plan, because in their current form they ''represent a leap backward for New Jersey, a state nationally recognized for its smart growth-oriented transportation policies.''
The governor, reports Gannett State Bureau writer Jonathan Tamari, wants to raise tolls eight-fold by 2022, to halve state debt and pay for the road widening.
With state consultants confident that higher tolls would sharply depress traffic, gubernatorial spokesman Jim Gardner expressed the administration's belief that the projects ''are critical to New Jersey's economic growth.''
He added that the governor agrees with some of the concerns raised in the letter and will soon elaborate on the environmental agenda in his financial restructuring plan.
Meantime, letter signatories were adamant in their opposition to widening of sections of the three highways, despite the projected tolls.
''It doesn't really matter where the money comes from, they're bad projects,'' pointed out state Sierra Club Executive Director Jeff Tittel. ''These projects promote sprawling development, will not ease traffic congestion and are incompatible with the governor's stated goal to reduce global warming emissions by 20 percent by 2020.''
New Jersey Audubon Society Conservation Ecologist Gylla A. MacGregor said, ''It's well documented that roads are the equivalent of a 'Berlin Wall' to wildlife species and the proposed road changes would not only further limit animal movement, but would result in additional habitat loss and disturbance that would adversely affect locally sensitive plant and animal communities.''
And New Jersey Environmental Federation Director Dave Pringle stressed, ''You can't build your way out of congestion. Instead of widening these highways and spurring sprawl through the Pinelands and coastal wetlands, we should increase capacity by investing even more in fix it first, rail, air, buses, HOV lanes, and congestion pricing.''
See the letter at www.tstc.org/press/2008/020708_NJletter.pdf. -- Courier-Post, Tri-State Transportation Campaign 2/8/2008
Resource(s): http://blog.tstc.org/ ; www.courierpostonline.com/
Gov. Corzine Outlines Plan to Tap Toll Roads to Pay Down State Debt, Fund Transportation Investments
''For nearly 20 years both parties bonded, begged, and borrowed money from every pot we could find to fund a growing appetite for spending,'' not all equally warranted, with $32 billion in bonded debt making New Jersey residents the most indebted nationwide and a decade-long gap between the average annual increases of 2-3 percent in revenue and 6-7 percent in outlays now resulting in an almost budget $3 billion deficit, said Democratic Governor Jon Corzine in his State of the State speech on the crisis, presenting a four-point ''restructuring proposal to end the era of financial imbalance and fiscal mismanagement, once and for all'' -- by freezing spending at this year's level, not letting it exceed recurring revenue growth in the future, using toll roads to pay down half of state debt and ''fund statewide transportation investment for a generation,'' and require voter approval for all new debts without dedicated revenue sources.
The public no longer trusts the state's borrowing judgment, the governor warned lawmakers, telling them that the defeat of stem cell research and the narrow approval of open space was ''a wake-up call'' for him, as it should be for them.
''Make no mistake, medical research and open space were not the problem ... lack of confidence in financial management of the state was,'' the governor stressed, focusing on the most controversial point of his restructuring proposal -- the toll road or ''asset monetization'' plan.
He called it ''simply the best available option,'' one which will halve the state's $32 billion bonded debt and provide a long-term funding source for its ''broad, multi-modal'' transportation network.
''We are a densely populated corridor state that is absolutely dependent on our transportation network for our quality of life and our economic well-being,'' he noted, stressing the need for almost $40 billion to resurface some 10,000 miles of highways in the next 10 years, repair 700 bridges, and expand mass transit ''to get cars off the roads and carbon out of the air.''
As ''a thirty year veteran of financial markets,'' the governor told lawmakers that since ''no investment comes without cash,'' his plan ''involves significant toll hikes.''
Predictable and fair, they will reflect ''increases in the cost of living . . . past, present and into the future,'' with a 50 percent increase in 2010, and the other 50 percent raised in four-year intervals by 2022, aside from annual cost-of-living adjustments.
Under his proposal, the cost of an average three-exit trip on the New Jersey Turnpike will go up from $1.21 now to $2.05 in five years and to $5.80 in 10 years.
To halve the state bond debt, maintain the Transportation Trust Fund for 75 years and make the necessary transportation improvements without the proposed higher tolls, he pointed out, would require a permanent 20 percent increase in income taxes or a 30 percent increase in the sales tax or a 45 to 50 cent increase in the gas tax or annual recurring $2.5 billion spending cuts, the later damaging ''the ability of the government to fund schools, provide property tax relief, or public safety and welfare.''
Ready to discus all options at 21 planned town hall meetings, in 21 counties, and with lawmakers over the next two months, Governor Corzine said his unique plan seeks formation of a ''public benefit corporation,'' PBC, to manage the day-to-day road operations, with nothing sold, leased or otherwise assigned ''to a for-profit or foreign operator.''
Under the plan, ''any future financial benefits from the roadways stay exclusively in New Jersey to be used for benefit of the citizens and motorists of New Jersey,'' he pledged, noting that the PBC ''will borrow funds based on the identified and dedicated revenues of tolls,'' but it won't be state borrowing or state bond debt ''in any way, shape, or form.'' 1/8/2008
Resource(s): www.state.nj.us/governor/index.shtml
Transit Hub Tax Credit Could Spur Redevelopment in New Jersey's Urban Areas
Designed to promote smart growth and economic development around train stations in nine cities, the state's Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Act -- sponsored by Senate Democratic President Richard J. Codey, and passed 28-8 in the Senate and 53-22 in the Assembly -- is offering companies investing $75 million and employing at least 250 people in their facilities near those stations full investment credit, which may be taken in 10-percent annual write-offs and applied against their business tax, insurance premium tax or gross income tax liability.
Facility tenants may also qualify for credits if they occupy space representing at least $25 million of the capital investment and employ at least 250 workers there, explains Senate Majority Office spokeswoman Jennifer Sciortino, stressing that the bill will ''foster development that does not rely on auto travel, but rather rail and pedestrian modes of transportation.''
Under the bill -- currently applicable to Camden, East Orange, Elizabeth, Hoboken, Jersey City, Newark, New Brunswick, Paterson, and Trenton -- the New Jersey Commerce Commission will designate areas in the commuter rail stations' one-half mile radius as ''urban transit hubs,'' where the state wants to spur business and employment.
The selected cities, pointed out Senator Codey, have sufficient infrastructure for additional population growth, with high-density residential and intensive commercial development.
''This bill will help break the logjam that often occurs in urban redevelopment and stimulate sizeable job growth,'' he said. ''Sometimes, despite the best efforts of a municipality, it's just impossible to attract investors to a property if they don't see the potential for profit. That's sound business sense on their part. This is sound policy on our part.'' -- Daily Journal 1/7/2008
Resource(s): www.thedailyjournal.com/ ; www.politickernj.com/
''Live Where You Work Program'' Offers Financial Help for N.J. Home Buyers
Advancing Democratic Governor Jon Corzine's urban revitalization and sustainability goals of a greener environment, transportation access and affordable housing, the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and its affiliated Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA) launched a landmark Live Where You Work (LWYW) incentive program, with solid financial help for first-time buyers who work and live in municipalities within the state's Smart Growth Areas or who commute but detest traffic and want to live where they work.
Announced by DCA Commissioner Joseph Doria, HMFA Executive Director Marge Della Vecchia, and Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer at Liberty Street Townhomes in Trenton, the first of 42 eligible municipalities to seize the opportunity, reports Trenton Times writer Andrew Kitchenman, the Live Where You Work program offers qualified borrowers 5.75 percent fixed-rate mortgages for 30 and 40 years and down payment assistance of 5 percent of home prices, all according to federally-set income limits dependent on household sizes, and purchase price limits dependent on unit types and specific locations.
The limits differ by county both for Smart Growth Areas in all of the state's 21 counties and in the 15 counties included in the LWYW program, with buyers of housing in the ''urban target'' areas of the 42 eligible municipalities qualifying for larger mortgage loans.
For example, an LWYW participant in Mercer County can earn up to $85,400 and $98,210 for a one- or two-person household and three-plus-person household, respectively, to buy an at most $395,595 single-family home or a $624,623 four-family dwelling in Trenton as a city fully in a county Smart Growth Area, but if that housing was in the three quarters of the city specially targeted for growth, he or she wouldn't need to a be first-time buyer and, depending on household size, could earn $102,480 or $119,560 and buy a $483,505 single-family home or a $763,428 four-family residence.
In this last instance, the LWYW contribution of 5 percent of the purchase price would reach $38,171.
In Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic and Union counties, the 5 percent state aid for purchase of the most expensive homes in urban target areas is capped at $50,049.
In addition, GMAC Mortgage is ready to reduce closing costs under the program, the writer reports, quoting GMAC emerging markets development manager Glenda Serrano, who promises a roughly 25 percent cut.
Announcing the program, DCA Commissioner Doria stressed, ''Live Where You Work will be a key component in maintaining the vitality of our communities as well as assisting those in the middle class who are seeking homeownership opportunities.''
Excited about the launch of the program in the state capital, HMFA Director Della Vecchia expressed hope that other eligible municipalities will follow Trenton soon.
And Mayor Palmer said, ''With lower interest rates and assistance with down payments and closing costs, Live Where You Work is for current city residents as well as commuters who would move here. The goal is to attract middle income wage earners -- and the initiative has the potential to be a key aid in helping our city be able to hold onto some of the millions of disposable dollars that are generated here. Of course, a secondary benefit is a possible reduction in the high density rush hour traffic on New Jersey roadways.'' -- Trenton Times 1/5/2008
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times/ ; www.trentonnj.org/
Removing Obstacles to Compact Development Would Help Cut New Jersey's Carbon Emissions
Just released by the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute and Rutgers University at a joint New Brunswick conference, their Energy Sustainability Project research data prove the need for aggressive action to cut state carbon emissions by 13 percent over the next 13 years, with University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Professor Reid Ewing advising federal outlays to help localities overhaul sprawl-era land-use planning and zoning rules that hinder the growing trend toward mixed uses, higher densities and less car dependency.
He pointed out, reports Asbury Park Press writer Kirk Moore, that both car and land use have been three times faster than population growth in recent decades, and that cars and light trucks are now responsible for 45 percent of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide.
''All of that has a lot to do with our land use patterns. We just drive so much farther,'' he observed, noting that it took the nation some 50-60 years ''to get into this mess,'' and that getting out of it may take just as long.
With ever-larger demographic groups preferring urban living and the industry turning to compact development, the professor urged local governments to facilitate rather then obstruct the trend as old housing stock gets replaced, saying, ''we already have enough large-lot, single-family detached housing on the ground, right now, to meet demand in 2025.''
Bloustein Institute's Voorhees Transportation Center Director Dan Chatman said builders ready to pursue compact pedestrian-friendly development are often stymied by lot-size minimums, off-street parking requirements, and frequent neighborhood opposition.
''We're zoning out all kinds of things we ought not to,'' he stressed. ''Maybe the answer is to get out of their (builders') way.'' -- Asbury Park Press 10/30/2007
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Upper Freehold Mayor Says New Regulations Will Hinder Farmland Preservation Efforts
''It is ironic that while Smart Growth goals are intended to maximize preservation of large tracts of farmland by promoting compact design, recent regulations and guidance have imposed far too much cost uncertainty in the process,'' said Upper Freehold Mayor Stephen Fleischacker, especially concerned that an increased state Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) bank role in buying and selling land credits may frustrate local landowners, who prefer private transactions.
The problem, reports area Examiner writer Jane Meggitt, was signaled two weeks ago by Township Planner Mark Remsa, who advised its board against implementation of a TDR program, complaining that the state now makes Smart Growth efforts ''extraordinarily difficult.''
According to Mayor Fleischacker, the planner referred to the regulations and guidelines recently issued by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
They include new endorsement procedures for local compliance with the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (SDRP), recently proposed water quality regulations affecting the township's wastewater management plans for new village areas, restrictions on septic discharges and on sending TDR density allowances from noncontiguous land to designated receiving areas.
Although the rural township's master-plan update draft overlooks Smart Growth principles, the writer reports, the mayor isn't concerned, saying ''(t)he larger context is to limit growth in the farming communities and redirect it to cities and older suburban areas.''
He pointed out that the township needs state endorsement for its updated plan, because without such endorsement it can't set up a new wastewater management area, without which ''there cannot be a center-based village.''
On the other hand, he observed, it's ''unlikely landowners would become willing buyers and sellers in the state TDR bank process,'' because they ''shun government intervention in the private sector.''
DCA spokesman Chris Donnelly commended the mayor and the township for pursuing equitable preservation strategies and saving farmland, promising the Office of Smart Growth's full support for their effort ''to manage future growth and to preserve that rural agricultural character however we can.'' -- Examiner 10/25/2007
Resource(s): http://examiner.gmnews.com/
Sustainable Communities Planning Service to Help Bergen, Hudson County Towns Reach Smart Growth Goals
To ensure the environmental and economic future of its 19,500-acre district as an integral part of the Hudson River estuary and one of the largest blocks of wetlands and open space in the highly developed New York metropolitan region, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) created a Sustainable Communities Planning Service, which will help 14 municipalities in Bergen and Hudson counties attune their master plans to the New Jersey State Plan, with NJMC Acting Chairman and Department of Community Affairs Acting Commissioner Charles Richman saying the service ''will go a long way toward achieving our goals for smart growth.'' Thanks to this free planning service, pointed out NJMC Executive Director Robert Ceberio, the ''critical gains made through this agency's support of strong municipal policymaking can now be better sustained.''
Once they align their planning with the state's smart-growth goals and obtain endorsement of their master plans, municipalities can receive its financial and technical incentives for plan implementation.
These incentives, says a MJMC news release, ''include enhanced scoring for grant funding, low-interest loans, tax credits, and streamlined regulatory review.''
In addition to its master planning assistance, the new NJMC service will help the 14 district municipalities in pursuing green construction practices, spurring downtown revitalization and seeking state certification for their affordable housing plans. -- New Jersey Meadowlands Commission 7/25/2007
Resource(s): www.meadowlands.state.nj.us
ULI Says Public-Private Partnerships, Sharing Municipal Facilities Are Keys to Success for Revitalizing Somerset County Towns
They may face fiscal and environmental constraints, but older towns can both refurbish their business districts and meet increased service needs by forming public-private partnerships and sharing services throughout their areas, with Urban Land Institute (ULI) Northern New Jersey District Council leaders telling Bridgewater Courier News editors that the success of urban revitalization efforts ultimately depends on mixed use, sustainable design and smart growth.
''Real mixed use integrates residential, office, and commercial elements cohesively,'' said outgoing Council Chairman Richard F.X. Johnson of the Matrix Development Group. ''And well-developed density around transit centers reduces dependence on the automobile. The key is vitality and people on the street -- that's what directs economic feasibility.''
For the best mixed-use downtown redevelopment projects in the region, reports Courier News writer Lois Heyman, he applauded Somerville -- greatly helped by the public-private Somerset County Business Partnership -- Princeton in Mercer County and South Orange in Essex County. All three towns have incorporated rail stations in their redevelopment plans, with ULI data showing that property values near transit villages generally increase about 30 percent.
With district council member Thomas Jay Hall pointing out that outdated single-use zoning is detrimental ''to good long-term planning,'' also undercut by ''the current system of local property taxes'' that discourages regionalism, incoming Council Chairman Lawrence F. Jacobs, an environmental law attorney, stressed the need to encourage regional sharing.
''State, county and municipalities sharing facilities makes sense,'' he stressed, ''and we want to see more of it.''
He also agreed with council member Kris Bauman, who said the next driving force in both new construction and restoration will be sustainable design, or ''green friendliness.'' Such design ''minimizes the impact on the environment while maximizing the use of natural resources,'' the latter observed. ''It relates well to the surroundings and uses resources economically and efficiently.
Chairman Jacobs concurred, saying, ''In a couple of years, sustainable design will be the standard.'' -- Courier News 6/18/2007
Resource(s): http://c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Belmar Seaport Village Honored at New Jersey Future Smart Growth Awards
Spotlighting individuals, businesses and organizations ''with the vision to approve or build projects that resist status quo growth patterns and encourage smart growth values and designs,'' the New Jersey Future research and policy group presented its 2007 Smart Growth Award to Gale Belmar LLC, a Mack-Cali Realty Corporation subsidiary, for the first phase of the $500 million mixed-use Belmar Seaport Village complex in the borough of Belmar on Monmouth County's popular ocean coast.
Approved for 800 Main Street in February and named East Light, the first-phase construction will provide 38 condos/townhouses, 9,500 square feet of ground floor retail, and 76 covered parking spaces.
The Belmar Seaport Village preparatory process, says the company's press release, ''has been a model public/private partnership with an open and community-led planning effort to obtain consensus on the needs and goals of the entire Belmar community.''
Several public design workshops have resulted in the village's Design Guide, a Green Design program, a Retail Master Plan, and a comprehensive analysis of traffic, parking and utility issues.
Belmar has also embarked on a wide Sustainability Plan, to ensure the borough's ''long-term economic, social and environmental viability,'' with the Seaport Redevelopment Plan designed to strengthen its tax base, build upon the state's Smart Growth strategy, and enhance local and regional environmental assets.
Key Belmar Seaport Village design principles ensure better land reuse, lower car dependency, higher interior and exterior air quality, reduced storm-water runoff, and frugal use of natural resources -- all guided by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System.
In related news, the state Department of Community Affairs announced a total of $1.3 million in Smart Future Grants for seven towns in northern and central New Jersey.
''Smart growth principles are an essential component to ensuring a high Quality of life in New Jersey,'' said Democratic Governor Jon Corzine in a statement. ''These grants will incorporate new development into a larger community plan to help save time, resources and precious open space.'' -- The Paramus Post, The Star-Ledger 6/14/2007
Resource(s): www.paramuspost.com/ ; www.nj.com/starledger
Editorial: Build School Facilities for After-School Hours Too
''Combining classes and after-school recreation at school sites is a smart way to build for the future,'' says the Cherry Hill Courier-Post, stressing that especially in these ''tight fiscal times, it makes sense to build facilities that can more completely meet community needs'' and praising Camden for construction of the Cato School together with a Boys and Girls Club at Dudley Grange Park.
Under separate administrations, the school and club will share the $77 million building, including its Olympic-size swimming pool, auditorium and cafeteria, ''not only during school hours, but also during the important time after school when children are most likely to get in trouble.''
Noting that the innovative joint-use approach, taken by the state Schools Construction Corp., has recently won a New Jersey Futures smart growth award, the daily concludes, ''This concept, of combining school and after-hours recreational space, should be given preference as the state invests in improving school facilities in poor districts.'' -- Courier-Post 5/20/2007
Resource(s): www.courierpostonline.com/
New Leader Named for Garden State Office of Smart Growth
For the second time since he took office in January 2006, Democratic Governor Jon Corzine has chosen an environmentally friendly Republican to lead the Office of Smart Growth, naming Chester Township Mayor Benjamin Spinelli to the post vacated last month by former Lebanon Township Mayor Eileen Swann, a nomination reflecting the governor's steady commitment to bipartisanship in land use and development decisions.
Mayor Spinelli has worked in the office as counsel and policy director for the past year, reports Newark Star-Ledger writer Tom Hester, quoting Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin.
''His experience in environmental protection and smart growth principles,'' she said, ''make him an ideal choice to head up the division as we continue our efforts towards well-planned, well-managed growth that adds new homes and creates jobs, while preserving open space, farmland and environmental resources.''
Coming from the state's Highlands, the former chairman of the Morris County Open Space Trust Fund and Chester Environmental Commission, Mayor Spinelli was honored by the Highlands Coalition with its 2004 Champion of the Highlands award.
In his new job, the writer notes, he will help shape the state master plan for the 800,000-acre Highlands region of seven counties -- Sussex, Morris, Hunterdon, Somerset, Warren, Bergen and Passaic -- to protect its water supplies for more than 5 million residents.
The office of Smart Growth ''must review the development and conservation proposals that will ultimately go before the State Planning Committee,'' observed Highlands Council Vice Chairman and Morris County Freeholder Jack J. Schrier. ''He will play a role in determining whether growth proposed for the counties fits the term smart growth and the Highlands planning area and preservation area.'' -- Star-Ledger 5/4/2007
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger
Salem County Residents Rally Against Changes in Land Designations by New Jersey Office of Smart Growth
Although the state had earlier accepted Salem County's aim to develop about 10 percent of the land in its seven-mile Smart Growth corridor along I-295, parallel to the Delaware River just a few miles northwest, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) wants to give some of the corridor's tracts a higher environmental sensitivity grade (PA5 instead of PA2), which could keep another 11,000 acres from future development.
Many residents of the nearby Oldmans, Carneys Point and Pennsville townships blame the state Office of Smart Growth (OSG) for the move, reports Salem Today's Sunbeam writer Colleen P. Moore from a rally outside the Salem County Vocation Technical School, where officials held a public hearing on the proposed change.
Their T-shirt and poster messages crying ''Don't Steal Our Farmland'' or ''Fight NJOSG -- Office of Stealing Ground,'' the writer notes, the dozens of protesters feared an economic failure in the state's poorest county.
''What I'm most concerned about is what will happen to our county if we lose Smart Growth,'' said Carneys Point resident Ann Marie Bauman, whose 200 acres lay outside the proposed PA5 area expansion, but who sympathizes with her affected neighbors.
''People are very emotional because we're talking about millions of dollars we'll lose,'' she explained, believing the change would reduce property values, limit farmers' ability to borrow against their farm equity or to sell development rights, and stem economic and population growth.
Another unaffected Carneys Point resident, retired farmer Clarence Johnston, said, ''Carneys Point is going to be shut down. We need some commercial development in the county to put our ratables up.''
One of the affected farmers, Oldmans Township Planning Board Chairman Jay Perry, whose 400 acres would be reclassified as PA5, called the prospect ''eminent domain without compensation'' and promised a fight.
''It would be devastating to us,'' he told the writer. ''We're not going away. We're gonna keep at 'em until they do the right thing. That's to leave us alone.'' -- Today's Sunbeam 4/18/2007
Resource(s): www.nj.com/sunbeam/
Jackson Township Residents Critical of Developer's Clear-Cutting Plan, Influx of Residents for Pinelands Project
With nearly half of Jackson Township land located in the ecologically fragile Pinelands and about 10 percent of its 42,800 residents already settled there, many of them are resisting an Orleans Homebuilders proposal for 493 single-family homes on the 303-acre Grawtown Estates in the Pinelands' regional growth area as certain to bring in at least 1,700 more newcomers.
Critical of the proposed clear-cutting of almost the entire site, reports Asbury Park Press writer Fraidy Reiss, Jackson Planning Board member Blanche Krubner told Orleans lawyer Raymond F. Shea Jr., ''You're leaving the trees on the perimeter and cutting down everything else,'' to which he retorted, ''The trees are being cut down to allow American families to move in.''
The problem is, said neighbor Nancy Thompson earlier, that ''builders come in, make millions of dollars and leave,'' with longtime residents having to pay for extra school space and other township services the newcomers need.
Three years ago, the writer observes, Jackson Residents for Smart Growth scuttled a proposal for a 400-home subdivision on the Pinelands site, with the developer unsuccessfully appealing the township board's denial in Superior Court.
With the state Pinelands Commission allowing 4.5 housing units per acre in the Pinelands growth areas, the Jackson Planning Board will continue its hearings on the current project on May 21. -- Asbury Park Press 3/6/2007
Resource(s): www.app.com/
State Policy Choices Complicate New Jersey's Smart Growth Efforts
''If current growth patterns continue apace, the Garden State will be completely built out in 20 to 50 years, the first state in the nation to do so,'' warned New Jersey Future Executive Director George Hawkins at its second Redevelopment Forum in Trenton, stressing, ''The answer is smart growth, highlighted by urban redevelopment.''
Although various New Jersey municipalities were able to redevelop their blighted areas and protect adjacent open space, he told an audience of municipal officials, builders, civil engineers, educators, conservationists and others, the state is holding up progress with some unfortunate policy choices.
He mentioned, reports Asbury Park Press writer Tom Baldwin, extension of the sales tax to parking garages as an incentive for development of blacktop lots.
He noted that eminent domain reform and environmental cleanup rules might unintentionally have discouraged brownfield and abandoned commercial property redevelopment.
Facing too many regulations, developers tend to avoid the mid-size and small cities that most need revitalization, he observed, saying, ''Redevelopment hop-scotches right out of the state and goes elsewhere.''
On the other hand, he credited the Trenton-Camden light-rail River Line, some 30 miles long, with attracting developers and revitalizing cities like Bordentown, Burlington County.
''The River Line has, in fact,'' he said, ''improved things at every stop along the way.'' -- Asbury Park Press 2/22/2007
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Mayor of Model Smart Growth Town Seeks Promised State Aid
On the state's ''front lines of Smart Growth for more than a decade,'' Washington Township, just a few miles east of Trenton, opened its award-winning Town Center to the first residents in fall 2001, proved that people accept small backyards if given common areas, and helped the county save 2,300 acres from development, but the state ''didn't live up'' to its aid promises, writes Mayor Dave Fried in the Asbury Park Press, telling readers his township's fate ''should alarm any town that considers Smart Growth in the absence of sustainable property tax reform.''
Planned from scratch ''in an era of stable taxes,'' Mayor Fried explains, the town center's mixed housing stock initially attracted families, along with single adults and empty-nesters, but the township was drawn into a much less ''competitive'' legislative district and lost $2.2 million in 2002 ''in core curriculum aid without explanation'' or restitution.
''Taxes started rising. Empty-nesters stopped coming,'' the mayor writes. ''Elsewhere in town, seniors started leaving. And the houses, in Town Center and elsewhere, filled with more and more schoolchildren.''
School enrolment went from 1,462 to 2,423 and taxes jumped by 78 percent.
People ''with back yards the size of postage stamps pay $10,000 or more in taxes, some of their children will attend classes in trailers next year, and state-ordered property reassessment notices next month ''will stop a few hearts.''
The state has also changed its mind on ''funding a bypass that would create our downtown.''
The ratables ''that might have brought some balance'' haven't materialized, with builders feuding over who would pay for the road, permits endlessly delayed, and the south side of Main Street still boarded up.
''Smart Growth has many long-term benefits, but communities will not embrace them if the short term brings unexpected twists and rising taxes with no end in sight,'' the mayor cautions, perplexed to learn that ''the Office of Smart Growth has no enforcement power over the rest of state government'' and is unable to restore school aid or speed up the permits for ratables.
Consequently, he made one of his hardest decisions, asking attorneys ''to explore condemning the majority of the unbuilt housing in Town Center,'' because the township can't afford it.
''Condemnation will not be cheap or easy,'' Mayor Fried acknowledges, ''but it may save millions in the long run.''
Then he concludes, ''New Jersey still can save its Smart Growth poster child. Start sending school aid to towns that do the right thing. I don't want any more awards. My residents need tax relief, and they need it now.'' -- Asbury Park Press 2/2/2007
Resource(s): www.app.com/
New Jersey Court Deals Developer Third Rejection in Bid for Berkeley Township Housing Project
''We need smart growth. We must take every aspect of the community into concern, not just the amount of money a builder can make,'' said Berkeley Mayor Jason J. Varano in a statement hailing Superior Court Judge Eugene D. Serpentelli's rejection of a K. Hovnanian Homes challenge to the township's affordable housing numbers, the third decision within five years against the company's plan to build some 4,800 units, including 20 percent below market rates, off heavily congested Route 9.
''We will not allow money-hungry developers to destroy the quality of life we have come to appreciate here,'' the mayor promised, fearing the project would have a ''devastating'' traffic and environmental impact on Berkeley's proposed town center, with its moderate development and preserved open space.
Nevertheless, the township's Council on Affordable Housing litigation attorney Jeff R. Surenian doubts the company has learned its lesson yet.
''The town has won another major battle against a developer who continues to try to bully us into submission,'' he observed. ''Hovnanian has made it clear that it will continue its attacks at every opportunity at every level.''
The company began to fight when Berkeley turned down its request to rezone the 834-acre site for a 1,600-home retirement community back in the 1980s, reports Asbury Park Press writer Bonnie Delaney, with a court ruling for the township in 1994 and giving it immunity from affordable-housing suits -- allowed against municipalities under the state's so-called Mount Laurel legal ''fair-share'' doctrine of 1975 and 1983 -- until October 2001.
Subsequently, the company expanded its proposed project from 1,600 to 4,800 units, but having lost a claim that Berkeley neglected the necessary steps to extend its Mount Laurel protection from suit, challenged a 2000 township survey that qualified more than 500 of its household units as affordable to less affluent residents.
And this was the latest challenge that Judge Serpentelli dismissed. -- Asbury Park Press 1/23/2007
Resource(s): http://njlegallib.rutgers.edu/ ; www.app.com/
N.J. Futures Director Says Smart Growth Could Help State Overcome ''Ratables Chase''
Having outlined smart-growth solutions to the state's property tax crisis in his Princeton University course on environmental law and in Governor Jon Corzine's office, where he roused ''great interest,'' New Jersey Future Executive Director George Hawkins presented them to the Bridgewater Courier News Editorial Board, pointing out that since sprawl doesn't pay for itself, communities should focus on transit-oriented development to end ''the ratables chase,'' lower property taxes, save land, balance jobs, and spur affordable housing.
With local service and school costs higher that residential property tax revenue, reports Courier News writer Celanie Polanick on his presentation, municipalities prefer commercial development, and housing for seniors and singles or luxury houses on big lots.
The former -- shopping centers, office parks and hotels -- ''can suck people and resources out of town and city centers;'' the latter contribute to the family-housing shortage, and both worsen road congestion, air pollution and the property tax burden.
As municipal housing stock ages, the shrinking tax base pushes rates up, which ''chases away prosperous residents and businesses,'' impoverishing localities and making their residents pay the highest tax rates.
To break this ''self-perpetuating cycle,'' Director Hawkins urges lawmakers to encourage transit-oriented development, which would reduce car travel, gas consumption, gridlock and the depletion of city economies, while strengthening local communities.
At the same time, enactment of a statewide property tax would free municipalities from competition for commercial development, because the state would redistribute its tax revenue ''among municipalities and counties to pay for local services according to size and population needs.''
Alternatively, groups of jurisdictions could agree on regional tax revenue sharing to accomplish the same goal.
The state also should follow the example of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and some other states in consolidating municipal services, with struggling municipalities helped by more affluent neighbors and with counties responsible for education, police and other services to ''spread the burden around and prevent wealthy municipalities from walling themselves off from the rest of the region.''
In addition, the state should consolidate school districts, boost transit and help pay for students in transit villages.
Director Hawkins is confident that ''an investment of even $50 million could cover the new school spending associated with tens of thousands of housing units'' and that with smart growth, the state could ''overcome the ratables chase.'' -- Courier News 12/25/2006
Resource(s): http://c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Tax Reform That Promotes Better Land Use, Not Short-Term Tax Fixes, Needed to Boost Smart Growth in Garden State Communities
Although tax credits ''can provide immediate relief for the needy,'' the state must have tax reform ''which specifically addresses the bad land land-use decisions that arise from the chase for commercial ratables,'' writes New Jersey Future Executive Director George Hawkins in a Cherry Hill Courier-Post opinion, commending Democratic Governor Jon Corzine for his refusal of short-term tax fixes.
Since commercial development promises higher revenues and fewer service demands, municipalities often ''zone out housing for families with kids because residential property taxes fail to cover the costs of schools.''
The chase for commercial projects, he points out, is greatly responsible for the state's sprawl, the lack of affordable housing, the loss of open space at the rate of almost 50 acres a day, and the nation's third worst average commute time of 30 minutes each way.
''If New Jersey hopes to remain economically competitive,'' director Hawkins concludes, ''we need tax reform that promotes smart growth and better land use by eliminating the ratables chase.'' -- Courier-Post 12/17/2006
Resource(s): www.courierpostonline.com/
Morris County Students Get Involved With Wharton's Safe Routes to School Pilot Program
Selected by the Morris County Division of Transportation (MCDOT) for a two-year Safe Routes to School pilot program last year, the Wharton school district has been involving children in a variety of classroom and outdoor activities to win them for walking and biking, with MacKinnon Middle School Principal Christopher Herdman saying more then 70 percent of his students did that on a Walk to School Day last October and expecting them to set a new record next month.
Many of these children and others walk or bike to school on most days, reports Parsippany Daily Record writer Tien-Shun Lee, quoting Wharton student Sage Mitchell, 13. ''It's fun because you can listen to music when you walk, or I'll be walking with my friends,'' he says, mentioning his iPod. ''I like it more than riding a car to school.''
Schoolmate Jess Darling, 13, agrees. ''We learned how to safely get to school,'' she stresses. ''And it keeps you in shape, too.''
Among other events last year, the district organized a bike rodeo, a community workshop, and a walkability study, planning to add this year a Halloween Campus Walk, an Election Day Walk to the Polls, Walking Wednesdays in March, April and May, and a Last Day of School Parade in June.
In the walkability study, 23 MacKinnon students from a pre-algebra class evaluated three school routes designated safe by the borough police. ''They divided us up into three groups and we each took a different route to school,'' recalls Sage Mitchell. ''We calculated the total distance, and figured out how much gas and emissions were saved.''
Mike Reynolds, 14, explains that teachers gave them a mathematic formula and ''(w)e calculated how long it would take us in miles to ride to school and back, and then we calculated the emissions.''
Documented with photographs, student descriptions of the routes, sidewalk conditions and other features that affect route safety will be incorporated in a Safe Routes to School report by Morristown-based RBA Group consultants. ''When we receive a draft of the report,'' says Wharton Borough Administrator Jon Rheinhardt, ''absolutely we will use it when we are seeking funds for capital projects.''
The borough's investment of some $500,000 to repave a street near the MacKinnon school and Marie V. Duffy Elementary School earlier this year, with addition of a sidewalk segment, says Principal Herdman, is ''just going to encourage more kids to walk.'' -- Daily Record 9/18/2006
Resource(s): www.dailyrecord.com/
Morris County Hopes ''Safe Routes to School'' Program Will Help More Students Walk and Bike to School
In the 1970s, some 70 percent of children age 7 to 15 walked or biked to school, while now most go on school buses or in their parents' cars, the latter accountable for 20 to 30 percent of all New Jersey morning traffic last year, a situation the Morris County Division of Transportation tries to alleviate locally through its ''Safe Routes to School'' program, with a new outreach campaign of 10 informational bulletins, the first, entitled ''It's not cool to drive to school,'' advising community measures to help students walk and bike to school.
''The reasons most cited for the dramatic decline in children walking or bicycling to school is traffic, lack of sidewalks or crosswalks, weather, crime and school policy,'' the bulletin reads. ''These conditions are a result of land use and transportation decisions made over the last 40 years.''
A typical example can be Randolph Township, where lack of sidewalks necessitates extensive mandatory and courtesy busing, notes Randolph Reporter writer Claire Knapp, explaining that the state requires busing for children living more than two miles from a school and lets localities decide on that courtesy for those inside a two-mile school radius.
Although the Randolph Township School District had to cut $3 million from its 2006-07 budget, officials feel they must continue courtesy busing despite higher gas and personnel costs because there are no sidewalks.
''Eliminating courtesy busing in Randolph wouldn't save that much money,'' observed School Board President Chris Carey, ''and the safety of the children has to be considered.''
The district's business administrator Michael Neves said some children are walking or biking to school along parts of the township's 16-mile-long interlinked hiking trails, ''but that is a limited option'' since many go through wooded areas. ''The trails were built for recreational use, not as an alternative to having sidewalks,'' pointed out Township Manager John Lovell, adding that their meandering routes ''would make the walk longer.'' -- Randolph Reporter 7/19/2006
Resource(s): www.randolphreporter.com/
Parsippany School Board Trims School Bus Routes; Editorial Emphasizes Health Benefits of Exercise for Students
Although New Jersey law mandates busing for students who live more than 2.5 miles from a high school and more than 2 miles from a middle school, many districts also have ''courtesy busing'' for students within those limits at least until fund shortages require officials to scale it back, says a Parsippany Daily Record editorial, not surprised that the local school board trimmed some township bus routes after taking a $500,000 budget cut, but concerned that some parents of the 600 affected students don't want their children to walk and would be ready to pay extra to have them bused.
''Personal feelings aside, from what we can tell, busing is being eliminated in places where there are sidewalks and where walking is feasible,'' the editorial states. ''We're confident the school board is not going to make students walk in dangerous areas. We hope some of the critics realize that walking to school is good exercise for students, which is something studies say many do not get enough of.'' -- Daily Record
07.09.2006
www.dailyrecord.com/
7/9/2006
Resource(s): www.dailyrecord.com/
PATCO Study Looks at Land-Use Potential With Goal of Increasing Ridership, Creation of Transit Villages
Opened by the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) of Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1969, the 14.2 mile Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) High-Speed Line, with four stations in Philadelphia and nine in Camden County, had attracted some development alongside, but its ridership declined for the past 10 years until it went up 3 percent this year, with DRPA officials readying release of a land-use-potential study as a blueprint for construction of transit villages near the county's PATCO stations.
The study, by Wallace Roberts & Todd of Philadelphia, ''looks at the PATCO property and the property immediately adjacent,'' said PATCO assistant general manager Cheryl Spicer, to determine what kind of development would be best to spur transit ridership. Camden County Improvement Authority executive director Jeffery Swartz mentioned dry cleaners, small bakeries and other businesses, while stressing, ''We have to go up not out. It has to be a vertical mode, multifaceted parking, retail and housing.''
With two 2003 studies, by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the Philadelphia-based Kise Straw & Kolodner architectural and planning firm, also including such recommendations, reports Philadelphia Inquirer writer Edward Colimore, developers know what to expect and propose.
Having received an early state designation as a transit village and $200,000 for street improvements, bicycle paths and the PATCO station upgrade, Collingswood, some five miles east of Philadelphia, is already building its transit-oriented Lumber Yard complex of 119 condos and townhouses, and 19 stores. ''Having a sea of parking does nothing to anyone,'' observed Mayor James Maley, pointing out that the transit village ''is the most logical way'' to increase the tax base, and adding, ''It helps the trains, it helps businesses, and helps the town overall with more vibrancy.''
Camden County Improvement Authority planning director and Collingswood planning board vice chairman Ed Fox feels the same. ''Transit villages tend to attract people with disposable incomes,'' he said. ''People are looking for a downtown living environment that they can walk to, and that means patronage of the local businesses and participation in civic and cultural activities. They add life to the downtown districts.'' -- Inquirer 6/21/2006
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
''Consensus'' Legislation to Limit Eminent Domain in Garden State Could Face Summer Vote
Though several other proposals to limit the use of eminent domain for private redevelopment found little support among lawmakers, Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee Democratic Chairman John Burzichelli expects they will vote this summer on his ''consensus'' legislation, under which municipalities couldn't condemn a property as simply ''underused,'' but would have to prove its deterioration is ''detrimental to the safety, health or welfare of the community,'' conduct more studies on the necessity of condemnation, expand public hearings and the notification process, compensate homeowners for the highest possible value of their land and offer the displaced a priority for new housing units.
''What we have done here,'' said Chairman Burzichelli, ''is make it very difficult to use eminent domain.''
Still, report Philadelphia Inquirer writer Elisa Ung and Gloucester County Times writer Terrence Dopp, this ''consensus'' legislation is praised by the New Jersey State League of Municipalities and builders, but criticized for various reasons and to a varied extent by property owners, Republicans and state Public Advocate Ronald Chen as too weak to stop eminent-domain abuse.
The public advocate, who argued in a report last month that the state should make eminent domain harder to use, welcomed the tougher blight standards and new compensation rules, but wished it included provisions for affordable housing and better ethics, the latter to keep the so-called ''pay-to-play'' notion out of redevelopment decisions.
''When redevelopment occurs,'' he wrote in a statement to the committee, ''there is a tremendous amount of money at stake, the government assumes awesome powers, and pay-to-play reform is essential to eliminate even the appearance of impropriety.''
Republican Assemblyman Guy Gregg hoped the proposal ''is just the first throw out,'' and property owners' public relations representative Thom Ammirato thought ''the developers did a good job of writing it.''
On the other side, New Jersey State League of Municipalities Executive Director William Dressel said they ''did not get 100 percent of what we wanted,'' but the proposal is ''fair,'' and New Jersey Builders Association official Joanne Harkins added that it ''gives the opportunity to reuse land in New Jersey while still providing extensive protection to property owners.''
Calling the issue very difficult and ''polarizing,'' New Jersey Chemistry Council Director Hal Bozarth commented, ''You're going to have extremes who are not interested in getting to the middle ground.'' And Chairman Burzichelli made the crucial point. ''A place like Montana doesn't have to (condemn land). But in New Jersey we have to constantly reinvent ourselves,'' he stressed. ''We're going to become the first built-out state. So there is always going to be a need for some kind of redevelopment.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer, Gloucester County Times 6/13/2006
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/ ; www.nj.com/gloucester/
Newly-Elected Hamilton Township Councilmen Move to Scale Back High-Density Transit Village
In contrast to the new or increased bi-partisanship on smart growth sometimes reported elsewhere in the country, the three Republicans elected to the five-member Hamilton Township Council last November are trying to torpedo a mixed-use high-density transit village near a commuter rail line, but their first ordinance to cancel the 2004 redevelopment plan was immediately vetoed by Mayor Glen Gilmore last month and the currently sought changes to limit its scope is challenged by New Jersey Transit.
In a letter to the council, transit agency senior Director of Real Estate James Zullo stated: ''We believe that the proposed amendments are in opposition to the principles of transit-oriented development and smart growth, and will negatively affect and possibly prevent the project's development.''
As envisioned by agency officials, reports Trenton Times writer Darryl R. Isherwood, the transit village would include 125,000 square feet of retail, 200,000 square feet of offices, a 200-room hotel, 100-long-term-stay suites, a 1,280-car garage, and 300 townhouses. But the three Republican council members want to restrict redevelopment to a part of the site, limit commercial buildings to four stories and mixed-use and residential ones to three stories, increase the number of parking spaces per home from 1.5 to two, and preclude the use of eminent domain in the area.
Noting that reducing the redevelopment size would allow construction of only 200 townhouses, the writer again quotes from director Zullo's letter. ''We think the density that is proposed in that area is pivotal to the success of the overall project,'' he wrote. ''Without people living in this community, it loses the benefit of the vibrancy and disposable income and it takes away the customer base for the retail portion.''
Democratic council members Ed Pattik and Shannon Cenci oppose the changes, which means the Republicans would lack the four votes necessary to overturn the mayor's veto. With their proposal sent to the township planning board, which has 45 days to render an opinion needed for another council vote, mayoral spokesman Rich McClelan offered this comment. ''We've been consistent so far on what we have been looking for and what the public expects this project to be,'' he said. ''If there are changes that come out of responsible planning bodies we would entertain them, but we are not going to entertain things that will kill the project.'' -- Trenton Times 6/9/2006
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times/
Gov. Corzine Pledges to Fight for Housing Aid in New Jersey's Budget Request
With the U.S. Census Bureau finding New Jersey the most expensive state for homeowners and the third most costly for renters, and Democratic Governor Jon Corzine's administration estimating that 38 percent of the former and 47 percent of the latter spend more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing, the governor not only put in the budget an additional $27.5 million for rental assistance and shelter for the homeless and those otherwise affected, but also reiterated his key 2005 electoral pledge at a meeting of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, stressing, ''We are going to build or preserve 100,000 units of affordable housing in this state over the next 10 years.''
The network's Acting Executive Director Paige Carlson-Heim, reports Gannet writer Gregory J. Volpe, hailed the governor as an ally in anti-poverty initiatives, saying her statewide organization of nonprofit developers and community development groups will push for his budget in the legislature.
Although lawmakers are looking for ways other than a $1.9 billion tax increase to narrow a $4 billion-plus gap in his proposed $31 billion budget, reports Associated Press writer Tom Hester Jr., the governor considers the housing aid nonnegotiable. With a budget approval deadline on July 1, the governor said, ''I think we ought to be able to hold the issue, and we're going to fight for it.''
Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin promised an assessment of the state's affordable housing programs this month, with another report by the end of the year including a plan for construction and restoration of the 100,000 affordable units. 6/8/2006
Resource(s): www.app.com/ ; www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Editorial Cites Reports on Urban Poverty, Need for Affordable Housing in Outlining Steps to Better Quality of Life for New Jersey Residents
If its growing population is to enjoy a better quality of life, New Jersey needs more towns with strong neighborhood schools, transit access to jobs, varied-type affordable housing and ''open space a bike ride away,'' says a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial on a new Brookings Institution's report ''Prosperity at Risk: Toward a Competitive New Jersey,'' which reinforces economic, land-use and smart-growth recommendations from New Jersey Future's ''Four Ways to Genuine Prosperity'' 2005 electoral agenda, both decrying ''the concentration of extreme poverty in the state's cities, including four of the poorest in America.''
To reverse policies that cost the state high-wage jobs, drive up housing prices, lengthen commutes, concentrate poverty and hurt the first-ring suburbs, the daily advises at least three urgent steps. The state should channel grants to the depressed communities and assist them in planning and permit process improvements; expand across-the-board housing affordability by stopping wealthy community buyouts from affordable housing obligations and making all communities design 20 percent of new housing as affordable; and ''discourage a culture that burns a gallon of gas to buy a gallon of milk'' and continue promoting ''village development around transit stops.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer 5/7/2006
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Mount Laurel Eminent Domain Case Heads to New Jersey Supreme Court
In another tricky eminent domain case likely to have national implications, Mount Laurel officials gave MiPro Homes LLC final approval for its 23 single-family homes just south of Mount Laurel State Park in May 2002, but a few weeks later seized the 16-acre parcel for open space, with the lower court ruling for the township, the state Supreme Court just hearing further arguments, and builder attorney Jeffrey Baron convinced that any decision will go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The attorney acknowledged that officials have offered $2 million for the parcel, which is now worth much more, but accused them of ''bad faith'' for seizing it after approving its development, with preparatory work already under way, reports Gannet writer Anna Nguyen, quoting his question to the court, ''If the condemnation can take place without any planning, what would stop a municipality from taking any property because they don't like the use?''
But township solicitor Michael Mouber pointed out that officials warned the developer about possible condemnation and acted properly by using the state's Green Acres program to put the parcel into the Open Space and Recreation Plan.
''The court,'' he said, ''should not decide when a municipality has enough (open space).'' Mayor Peter McCaffrey stressed, ''We try to do what's best for the community. We have to protect the public.''
Still, New Jersey Future deputy executive director Susan B. Farber said her smart-growth advocacy group is uneasy. ''Whether eminent domain is used for development or preservation, it's important the process be fair and transparent,'' she explained. ''This is a case where the process is a concern to us.'' -- Asbury Park Press
5/2/2006
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Court Upholds High-Density Town Center Designations in Four Sussex County Municipalities
In a well-balanced unpublished opinion that makes both sides celebrate, the New Jersey Superior Court's Appellate Division upheld the State Planning Commission's approval for high-density town center designations in four Sussex County municipalities targeted for growth in the State Plan, while agreeing with the Sierra Club that the state can't dilute environmental protection rules in such urban areas.
''Today's decision is truly a victory for the State Plan,'' said state Office of Smart Growth Executive Director Eileen Swan in a statement. ''This reinforces the State Planning Acts' mandate to create a vision for the future of our state.''
In a parallel statement, the Department of Community Affairs asserted that the town center designation ''will result in lower public service costs, more efficient use of infrastructure, greater community identity, and protection and reduced consumption of natural resources.''
Speaking for the Sierra Club, which had challenged the designation for Montague, Sandyston, Sparta and Vernon as bad for environmentally sensitive farmland nearby, club chapter director Jeff Tittel was equally upbeat. ''The State Plan cannot be used as an excuse for overdevelopment or to weaken environmental protections,'' he said. ''People should have the same protections whether they live in rural, suburban or urban areas.''
Exemplifying the issue, he told Newton New Jersey Herald writer Brendan Berls that the center designation in Sandyston could have been used to justify construction of a sewage-treatment plant for a massive development despite its potential impact on the environment, but the court ruling averted that risk.
''We won the major policy debate, even though we didn't win on getting the designations overturned,'' he pointed out, ''but we didn't expect to win on those.'' -- New Jersey Herald, Daily Record
3/5/2006
Resource(s): www.njherald.com/index.php ; www.dailyrecord.com/
Mayor Calls Pennsauken Mart Redevelopment Plan ''Real Breakthrough''
Long targeted by the Camden County Improvement Authority for mixed-use redevelopment, the 35-acre site of defunct Pennsauken Mart at Routes 73 and 130 had attracted Atlanta-based Beazer Homes, which plans for it about 700 condos and townhouses, many with offices on the ground floor, some 150,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, an upscale hotel, a conference center, an amphitheater, a lake and a boathouse -- the smart growth design, noted county Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr., enhanced by a shuttle to a nearby River Line rail station.
Construction will likely start next year and take three to five years, reports Philadelphia Inquirer writer Edward Colimore, quoting Beazer land-acquisition manager Brian Geissler, who said the housing will be geared to young couples, singles and seniors.
That makes Pennsauken Mayor Greg Schofield especially happy, because the township feared a major impact on its school system, while the planned project, coupled with proposed waterfront development, promises it ''a real, real breakthrough.'' It will help strengthen the township tax base, create jobs and become a destination point.
''One of the things we're particularly excited about,'' the mayor stressed, ''is that not only is this a viable community in and of itself, but this is a community that will have something to offer to all the residents of Pennsauken, as well as all the residents of Camden County.'' He also expects it to boost home values in adjacent areas. -- Inquirer
2/9/2006
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Making a Safer Route 206: Princeton Area Residents Urged to Speak Out on Plans to Modify Local Route
''All good planning begins with public involvement,'' said Glatting Jackson (Orlando, Fla.) consultant Ian Lockwood at a Princeton Township meeting held by the Citizens for a Safer Route 206 advocacy group, describing ''road design as a method of traffic control'' and crosswalks, roundabouts, islands and narrow lanes as ingredients of smart growth.
Spearheaded by Township Committeeman Bill Hearon in response to public concerns over the route's ever heavier truck traffic, hazardous crossings, blind corners and frequent speeding, but also over proposals to widen parts of it and build a transload facility nearby, reports Princeton Packet writer Rachel Silverman, the group wants to make its three-mile local stretch more usable for bikers and pedestrians and to protect the character of adjacent neighborhoods.
Accordingly, the Orlando-based Glatting Jackson group and the Philadelphia-based Urban Engineers firm will conduct a $100,000 study, funded by the state Department of Transportation, to identify what can best ensure these results.
''What we try to do is to match the design with the context,'' the consultant said, explaining that context-sensitive design for urban areas may include wider sidewalks, on-street parking, higher-grade road materials and lower speed limits, while in rural areas it may allow wide shoulder lanes and dirt paths.
He also underlined the value of a street network, which prevents the so-called ''fence effect,'' or break-up of a neighborhood into car-dependent parcels.
Committeeman Hearon urged greater public input into the planning process. ''Each of us can have a voice in what's going to occur with Route 206,'' he told the audience. ''Now's the time we can stop complaining and actually be engaged.'' -- Princeton Packet
11/29/2005
Resource(s): www.princetonpacket.com/
Strong Commitments to Smart Growth Help Sen. Corzine Win Governor's Office in Garden State
They both endorsed the eight smart-growth goals from New Jersey Future's Four Ways to Genuine Prosperity policy document and outlined steps to meet these and other state needs, but Democratic gubernatorial candidate Senator Jon Corzine made stronger commitments than Republican businessman Douglas Forrester, and voters -- also offended by the latter's increasingly mean campaign -- gave him an easy 10-point victory, his numbers highest in urban areas and among blacks, Hispanics and women statewide.
In his pre-election response to New Jersey Future's questions on smart growth, Senator Corzine said he would pursue incentives and remove regulatory obstacles ''to spur redevelopment efforts consistent with the State Plan;'' advance his ''comprehensive housing plan,'' to create or preserve 100,000 affordable units for middle and low-income families within 10 years; seek consistency of ''all state capital investments,'' including open space and farmland programs, with the state plan; invest in the state park system; ensure adequate funds for transportation repair and upgrades, in line with ''the needs and priorities of New Jersey drivers and rail passengers;'' and require ''an analysis of the effects of proposed developments on the regional transportation system, so that the benefits generated by the state's transportation investments are not negated by sprawl-inducing or traffic-generating land uses.''
He would also require municipal studies of the regional impact of their ''sprawl-inducing projects,'' including large outlet malls. And asked if he supports creation of a State Planning Department, which would incorporate the state Planning Commission and its Office of Smart Growth, to ensure effective coordination of State Plan implementation efforts, the senator-elect stressed that he spoke ''about the need to reinvigorate the state's capital planning process'' in one of his first major policy addresses.
''We need to analyze all state capital planning from a variety of perspectives, such as transportation, school construction, higher education facilities, open space and other spending programs,'' he stressed.
As to the State Planning Commission and its place in the government, he said, ''I am open to discussing your concerns and proposals to make it a more effective process.''
Having endorsed Senator Corzine on the basis of his legislative record of opposing ''reckless tax cuts,'' highlighting the insecurity of American ports and denouncing the genocide in Darfur, The New York Times says in a post-election editorial: ''The new governor will need all the strengths of his Wall Street track record to deal with Trenton's precarious finances on both the revenue and spending side.'' -- The New York Times, Star-Ledger
11/8/2005
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/ ; www.nytimes.com/
Waretown's Mixed-Use Town Center Could Be Next Jersey Shore Smart Growth Project
Spared the residential eruptions that changed so many coastal communities in the past 20 years, Waretown, midway between Long Branch and Atlantic City, is an unspoiled ''blank canvas'' for smart growth -- its $35 million to $50 million mixed-use town center project receiving initial state ''Plan Endorsement'' and Mayor Daniel Van Pelt promising, ''This is going to be a one-stop shop where people can live, work and play all in one place.''
Expected to get final plan approval in December, reports Asbury Park Press writer John Vandiver, Waretown will join Asbury Park -- given such a priority designation for its redevelopment plan in May -- as only the second municipality to win access to state smart growth grants.
Anchored by a ShopRite grocery and perhaps a Barnes & Noble bookstore, the writer notes, the town center will architecturally transform Route 9 and Volunteer Way, with a variety of brownstone commercial buildings, several topped by loft-style apartments, and some traffic lights likely to be replaced by roundabouts.
Excited about this ''really groundbreaking'' project, Office of Smart Growth Executive Director Maura McManimon expects it to become a model for other communities and an example of state support for higher-density urban redevelopment.
A frequent vacationer before he settled permanently in 1973, Land Use Board member Ralph Avellino, 77, says of the planned town center, ''It's one of the best things that's ever happened to Waretown.'' -- Asbury Park Press
10/23/2005
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Garden State Traffic Woes Compounded by Rapid Rise of Multi-Car Households
Fast catching up with the least-populous, wide-open Western states in this troublesome statistic, densely populated suburban New Jersey saw the number of households with at least three cars go up by almost 20 percent -- to 578,723 -- between 2000 and 2004, which proportionally worsened its long-resented traffic congestion, stretched out work, school and other travel times and cemented most parents' fate, as Smart Growth America Communication Director David Goldberg puts it, to spend much of their lives as chauffeurs.
''There is no greater liberation,'' he observes, ''than when their first kid turns sixteen and there is another person in the house who can help ferry others around.''
This sprawl-propelled vicious circle gradually accelerates as more and more children reach the driving age and parents free themselves from chauffeuring by buying the third, fourth or fifth car, which those who can afford do.
Some make such a move even earlier, report Newark Star-Ledger writers Steve Chambers and Robert Gebeloff, citing South Orange residents Kathryn and Andrew Timpson. Owners of an SUV and a pickup truck, with their oldest child still in grammar school, they ''feel a little embarrassed about having three cars,'' Kathryn says, pointing out that they bought the third for a 19-year-old nanny in ''appreciation of a teenager's freedom'' and her child-pickup duties, and in ''recognition that she needs to be able to get around in a nonwalking society.''
The Beversluis family of five, on a quiet cul-de-sac in East Hanover, has four vehicles, the writers continue, noting that the parents started with one and then two Volkswagens, replaced by station wagons and a van as three children arrived and grew up, with the configuration now including a ''workhorse'' Jeep, a BMW for the mother, a Mazda for the daughter and a pickup truck for the son -- both college students, plus a Mercedes the parents bought as their 25th wedding anniversary gifts and use ''mostly for weekend golf outings.''
University of British Columbia Professor Lawrence Frank, the author of ''Health and Community Design'' and other planning studies, tells the writers both social and mobility needs drive up the number of households with three or more cars.
''It's about status, and they're fun'' he says. ''It can be a hobby for a lot of people, but it's also a hobby with expenses that car owners aren't necessarily paying,'' he stresses, adding, ''There are much better ways to move people with less energy, so you don't need two tons of metal around you to get a loaf of bread.'' -- Star-Ledger 9/27/2005
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
New Jersey Future Outlines How Garden State Can Move Toward Smart Growth
Although state policy makers, including recent governors, have only put smart growth on the public radar screen, and the state that gained a lot more ''McMansions'' than multi-family units over the past decade still loses some 50 rural acres to residential construction a day, people long for traditional neighborhoods and ''(t)he prevailing notion of living on a cul-de-sac in a spread-out development is disappearing, in part because it's a painful way to live -- you have to drive everywhere,'' said New Jersey Future Executive Director George S. Hawkins, as he, Deputy Director Susan Burrows Farber and Research Director B. Timothy Evans briefed Bridgewater Courier News editors on the group's forthcoming ''Four Ways to Genuine Prosperity'' position paper for the gubernatorial campaign.
Withholding details until its release in October, reports Courier News writer Stefanie Matteson, New Jersey Future leaders made clear that the paper recommends policies and practical measures to reach behind the state's prosperity ''facade,'' address ''a host of ills that threaten its social and environmental welfare,'' and move toward real smart growth. This requires the state to meet the growing demand for urban redevelopment, affordable housing, transit improvements and property tax reforms, said Director Hawkins, calling the property tax structure the main impediment to smart growth.
Since New Jersey relies more heavily on property taxes than most states to fund local education and other services, municipalities choose commercial and age-restricted residential projects and shun affordable and multi-family housing, afraid that increased school enrolment may force them to increase the property tax burden.
''The core of the community is family,'' he pointed out. ''But nobody wants children anymore. There ought to be a way to spread the cost out.'' Seeking tax reform, the group also wants the state to reduce deficit spending, partly by sharing services, and to eliminate ''fiscal gimmickry,'' including tax rebates.
''I can guarantee you that things will change and evolve,'' Director Hawkins stressed. ''And it will be because we're on the case.'' -- Courier News 9/26/2005
Resource(s): www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Washington Township Pedestrian-Friendly Town Center in Jeopardy Due to New Jersey Traffic Rules
The state's inflexible traffic mitigation rules may undercut smart growth efforts statewide by imposing the same road-width norms everywhere, which could stifle pedestrian-friendly town center projects, said Washington Township officials and developers, afraid that this may happen with their plan to turn both sides of a local Route 33 stretch eight miles west of Trenton into a walkable shopping district surrounded by more than 1,200 houses and apartments, reports Trenton Times writer Andrew Kitchenman, citing signals that the Department of Transportation (DOT) may decide to widen the entire route from three to five lanes.
''Five lanes on (Route) 33 completely destroys the whole town center concept,'' commented Mayor David Fried on private talks about the issue. ''This is an utter disgrace, as far as I'm concerned, to the whole state smart growth plan.''
Township Administrator Mary Caffrey shared the view, stressing that ''Route 1's rules don't work in Town Center and never will'' and suggesting a separate set of rules for roads through town centers.
Others were equally critical of the route widening, the writer observes, noting that since 1996 local planners have proposed an area bypass to make through-traffic skirt the township. State Republican Senator and Roma Bank President Peter Inverso -- the bank headquarters just opened as the first business in that section of Route 33 -- said the widening ''would be devastating'' for Town Center, driving away businesses and making his bank building suddenly too close to the curb.
Sharbell Development Corp. Vice President Tom Troy, whose firm has already built more than 300 homes on the route's north side, pointed out that no developer would start on the south side as long as the route may be widened, because it ''can't be a cute downtown next to an interstate highway.'' And Township Councilman Larry Schneider, a Town Center resident, added that people who bought those new homes counted on a walkable shopping district nearby.
According to DOT spokesman Brendan Gill, the decision on Route 33 in the township area will be taken after a traffic study is completed in November. With a bypass is still in cards, he said, state officials are expecting to work with their township counterparts on the right solution. -- Trenton Times 9/22/2005
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times/
''Community-Friendly'' Plan Will Transform Part of Echelon Mall Into Mixed-Use Main Street Project
Its plan for Wal-Mart as a redevelopment anchor at the troubled Echelon Mall in this densely suburban area southeast of Philadelphia fiercely opposed by Smart Action for Voorhees and Echelon (SAVE) and the Voorhees Environmental and Recreational Alliance (VERA), the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) took up their own town-center concept and is now willing to transform the demolition-slated portion of the mall into a mixed-use Main Street, with a supermarket and apartments atop shops.
With the rest of the mall -- including two department stores and a food court -- unchanged, the new plan would add underground parking, provide fountains and preserve trees, reports Philadelphia Inquirer writer Edward Colimore, quoting Mayor Michael Mignogna, who says, ''PREIT has obviously listened to concerns of residents.''
At their township rallies and in a protest petition, the writer observes, Wal-Mart opponents decried the prospective traffic and noise increases, harm to local businesses, and the destruction of trees. SAVE co-chair Marylee Margolis is thrilled ''that Wal-Mart is not coming,'' noting that the new plan ''shows more creativity and vision, and is much more community-friendly.''
VERA president Lori Volpe finds the mixed-use plan ''consistent with the principles of smart growth,'' which ''beats a big box,'' doesn't overwhelm the neighborhood, and promises to revitalize the entire mall area.
''I don't know how many people have been successful in chasing Wal-Mart away,'' she adds, ''but PREIT deserves some credit for changing their minds about what would work there and responding to public sentiment.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer
9/13/2005
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Builders Say Zoning Regulations, Real Estate Middlemen Keep Them from Building Smart Growth Communities
Disturbed by the perception of builders as preferring ''to build large homes on large lots,'' Builders League of South Jersey president and J.S. Hovnanian & Sons construction director Patrick D. Bunn assures Philadelphia Inquirer readers that most area home builders ''would prefer to build communities according to smart-growth concepts,'' but rarely find it possible and in the end ''build only what zoning and regulations allow them to.''
The approval process, he writes in his opinion piece, ''has become so cumbersome and fraught with uncertainty that many builders can no longer assume the risk of buying 'raw land''' and depend instead on new ''industry of real estate middlemen,'' who purchase land, acquire permits ''as quickly and easily as they can'' and profit from parcel sales.
''The process encourages 'by-right' design, where these middlemen hire design professionals and instruct them to design specifically to the zoning ordinances in place for the parcel, avoiding the need for variances or changes to the master plan,'' he writes. ''If the zoning is not creative, the design will not be creative. True smart-growth principles will be largely ignored.''
Home builders, he continues, would like to be more involved in creation of community master plans and zoning ordinances ''that meet the housing needs of residents across the broad economic spectrum while being sensitive to the sustainability of schools, infrastructure, businesses, open space and culture.''
To make it happen, the league president offers municipalities its own Growth Fit Management that could rein in ''sprawl-inducing, large-lot developments,'' help preserve open space, farmland and environmentally sensitive areas, and reduce the long-term tax burden, all based on mandatory minimum county densities of 2.5 units per acre. -- Philadelphia Inquirer
8/8/2005
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Garden State Gubernatorial Candidates Work on Plans to Protect Landowners from Private Property Seizure
The recent U.S. Supreme Court split (5-4) decision that under the Fifth Amendment local governments may also seize private property for private development projects has unexpectedly brought both top New Jersey gubernatorial candidates close on this widely controversial issue, with Republican Doug Forrester naming a task force to recommend protections for owners threatened by eminent domain, and Democratic Senator Jon Corzine already proposing several state law changes to prevent abuse of the condemnation process and to compensate for losses above home fair market values.
The Republican candidate, reports Trenton Times writer Tom Hester Jr., voiced concern over eminent domain proceedings at Petty's Island, on the Delaware River in South Jersey, where officials, ''including influential Democrats,'' seek redevelopment while environmentalists call for preservation.
Senator Corzine introduced his proposal with this statement, ''There should be no taking of homes for economic development except in rare and exceptional circumstances and then only with adequate safeguards to ensure that the process is fair and transparent.''
Besides generous owner compensation, the writer reports, the senator proposed to limit government's ability to take homes for economic development; require municipalities to explore alternatives; delay condemnation until after a trial and appeals; eliminate no-bid and campaign-donor contracts; require residential and commercial redevelopment projects to offer affordable and senior units; and give the state public advocate authority to monitor eminent domain. -- Times
7/15/2005
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times/
Gov. Codey Suspends Fast-Track Permitting Process
Three days before the July 15 expiration of a seven-month moratorium on the so-called ''fast-track'' project-permitting process in designated growth areas -- a measure divisive even for Democrats and their environmental allies, without prospects for a wide compromise on its improvement -- Acting Democratic Governor Richard J. Codey issued an executive order suspending the law indefinitely, with state Smart Growth Ombudsman Patrick Gillespie saying, ''The governor recognized that we all have a big job ahead of us. It's more important for us to get the job done right.''
The law's key sponsor, Democratic Senator Stephen Sweeney, report New York Times writer David W. Chen and Newark Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, expressed disappointment, because his recently introduced legislation promised important modifications. But conservationists were elated. The acting governor, said Sierra Club chapter director Jeff Tittel, ''stood up to the special interests and political bosses to do what's right for the people of New Jersey ... and stopped fast-track in its tracks.''
But Business and Industry Association vice president Jim Sinclair offered a different view. ''The reason the legislature hasn't been able to come up with an alternative is because it's just a really good bill,'' he asserted, adding that environmentalists' ''knee-jerk reaction revealed them to be anti-growth.''
Observers note that the matter is moot until after the November gubernatorial and legislative election, and that both gubernatorial candidates, Democratic Senator Jon Corzine and Republican Doug Forrester, voiced reservations about the fast-track bill.
Senator Corzine welcomed the suspension order, saying the bill, which passed ''without adequate review, thwarts municipal planning and speeds up development literally right next to our state's drinking water reservoirs.'' He also restated his commitment to new legislation that would help urban revival.
The Republican candidate's spokeswoman Sherry Sylvester said he sees ''the problems with fast track,'' but backs the concept of faster development in the right areas, adding, ''We don't want people bogged down forever.'' -- New York Times, Star-Ledger 7/13/2005
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/ ; www.nj.com/starledger/
Garden State's DEP Will Wait for Legislative Action on ''Fast Track'' Before Drafting or Reviewing Regulations
In the latest twist of the constant public debate over the 2004 legislation alternatively called the ''smart-growth'' or ''fast-track'' bill, which would have sped up project permitting in the state's urban and other designated areas had it not been suspended until July 9, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell pointed out that since Acting Governor Richard Codey and most lawmakers have said the statute ''needs to be either fixed or repealed,'' he intends ''to wait and see whether the Legislature changes the law before we begin drafting regulations or seeking EPA review of these regulations.''
State smart-growth ombudsman Patrick Gillespie observed, ''We are trying to keep our options open, and it will be up to the governor how and if we proceed,'' reports Bridgewater Courier News writer Tom Baldwin, while Newark Star-Ledger writer Alexander Lane quotes him as also noting, ''We're a nation of laws ... My perspective from here is we simply can't ignore this.''
Instrumental in its fast three-day passage last summer, Democratic Senator Stephen Sweeney said, ''I wholeheartedly admit I made mistakes in the bill,'' even if ''it's not as bad as they say it is,'' crediting the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, U.S. Senator Jon Corzine, for persuading him to ''fix'' the law.
Senator Corzine's spokeswoman, Ivette Mendez, confirmed his view that until it's changed, the senator ''supports a moratorium on the implementation of the bill.''
Republican contender Doug Forrester's spokeswoman, Sherry Sylvester, said the candidate thinks ''expediting permits is important because time is money,'' but agrees the bill ''needs some significant changes,'' because ''fast-track was based on a response to the Highlands legislation and based on back-room deals, not good government policy.''
Both writers note that should the state delay the bill's implementation rules, the construction industry would probably take it to court. -- Bridgewater Courier News, Star-Ledger
6/18/2005
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/ ; www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Garden State Environmental Groups Seek Repeal or Delay of Fast-Track Permits
While they applaud Democratic Acting Governor Richard Codey for his green agenda, focused on air and water quality improvements, the New Jersey Environmental Federation and the Sierra Club wish he would agree to repeal the so-called ''smart growth'' law with its ''fast-track'' permit process for projects in designated growth areas, or at least to extend its suspension beyond July, until a new governor is elected in November and takes office next year.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Senator John Corzine favors a repeal, reports Associated Press writer Jeff Linkous, and Republican contender Doug Forrester believes the law should be revisited because it was passed in haste last summer.
The acting governor opposes a repeal, but his spokesman Sean Darcy stresses, ''He is certainly open to discussing ways to reform the smart-growth legislation.''
Sierra Club state chapter director Jeff Tittel's comment is as usual straight and direct. ''Delay it another year; that gives us a chance to get it repealed,'' he says. ''Otherwise, we have to go to court.''
6/13/2005
Resource(s): www.bergen.com/
Asbury Park Applies Smart Growth Principles to Redevelopment Plans, Earns First Urban Center Designation from State Planning Commission
Finding Asbury Park's master and redevelopment plans well attuned to the state's anti-sprawl and urban-revival policy, the New Jersey State Planning Commission designated the city an urban center, making it the first municipality eligible for more grants, faster permit reviews and increased technical assistance, with Democratic Acting Governor Richard Codey stating, ''Asbury Park showed real commitment to applying smart growth principles in its plan for the future, and we appreciate the work they did to achieve plan endorsement.''
Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin echoed the statement, praising the Atlantic coast city for a ''winning strategy to bring back the days when the beach and the boardwalk attracted so many summer visitors.''
City Manager Terence Reidy expressed pride and satisfaction, reports Asbury Park Press writer Nancy Shields, quoting his rhetorical question. ''Here's Asbury Park with all of its problems and challenges, and who's the first municipality in the state to step up with a cohesive planning approach in sync with the state's master plan and smart growth?'' -- Asbury Park Press 6/7/2005
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Garden State's S.G. Ombudsman Says Fast Track Key to Promoting Growth in Designated Areas
''Perhaps, it is a sign of our times that the debate on growth issues in New Jersey has grown so polarized and polemic, just as the debate on so many issues in Trenton and Washington has,'' writes New Jersey Smart Growth Ombudsman Patrick M. Gillespie in his Asbury Park Press guest opinion on the Fast Track construction permitting controversy, stressing on behalf of Acting Governor Richard Codey the need for ''a consensus to advance the policy goals embodied in the State Plan for Development and Redevelopment.''
Adopted in 1992, he writes, the plan encourages growth ''in the state's Metropolitan Planning Areas, designated centers and older suburbs,'' with the other part of the equation discouraging policies and investments ''that promote the development of the state's rural and environmentally sensitive areas.''
Convinced that the state must find more incentives for growth in designated areas to avert rapid consumption of open space and farmland, the ombudsman explains, ''The intent behind streamlining permits in growth areas is to provide some regulatory incentive to lure developers away from the rural areas and back to the growth areas.'' He sees the current controversy as stemming ''from context rather than content'' and having more to do with ''the legislative process than the policy goals that underlie the law.''
Coming on the heels of the Highlands preservation bill, he continues, the Fast Track created the perception that ''state policymakers were on one hand preserving thousands of acres from development while on the other hand permitting the rampant over-development of the rest of the state.'' Pointing out that ''(t)he Whitman and McGreevey administrations took deliberate steps to curb sprawl by using the State Plan to limit state investment and permitting decisions that promoted growth in the fringe planning areas,'' the ombudsman stresses, ''The logical extension of that policy is to have official state policies that promote growth in the places the State Plan has designated for growth.''
He agrees that many aspects of Fast Track ''could be changed and improved,'' and regrets that the important debate on the subject is delayed as ''both sides continue to bash each other.'' -- Asbury Park Press
5/11/2005
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Garden State Budget Shortfall May Threaten Habitat Protection and Park Repairs; Funds for Fast Track Permits Remain for Now
As the state struggles against a potential $4 billion-plus 2006 deficit, environmentalists and officials are at odds over the planned reduction of its environmental budget to $347.1 million, including $20 million for the Division of Smart Growth to implement the controversial 2004 Fast Track construction permit law.
Still suspended through this month, the law is targeted by Acting Democratic Governor and Senate President Richard J. Codey for substantial revisions, but by 58 of 120 lawmakers from both parties for repeal.
According to the state Sierra Club, the New Jersey Audubon Society and the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, reports New York Times writer Tina Kelley, the state cut the environmental budget by a third, providing too little for critical habitat, wildlife protection enforcement and clean air, and nothing at all for repairs in state parks, while misusing money to help developers through the fast permitting process.
Even though 58 lawmakers urged the acting governor to repeal the law, said Sierra Club chapter director Jeff Tittel, ''his response is to put in money for 165 people to implement Fast Track.'' He called it ''outrageous that we have $20 million to fund Fast Track and destroy open space.''
But according to Environmental Protection Secretary Bradley M. Campbell, the environmentalists' budget calculations are wrong and their charges unwarranted. He told the Assembly Budget Committee that his budget was cut by only four percent, and that it still would ''provide better service to New Jersey residents and the regulated community, and stronger protection of the environment and natural resources.''
He also noted that the Fast Track application would be limited to ''a few programs initially,'' that the bond-financed Garden State Preservation Trust Fund will invest more than $10 million in parks, and that the state will invest money recovered from polluters in Bayonne's park and waterfront and in Liberty State Park. -- New York Times
5/7/2005
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
It's a Slow Road for Repeal of Fast-Track Construction Law in Garden State
Cutting across party lines and traditional alliances, the controversy over the ''fast-track'' construction permit law, signed by then-Governor James E. McGreevey last summer, but suspended before his November resignation till May, is heating up, with 58 of 120 state lawmakers -- 32 Democrats and 26 Republicans -- sponsoring repeal legislation and calling for quick floor votes, but with Assembly Democratic Speaker Albio Sires non-committal and Acting Democratic Governor, Senate President Richard Codey, against any hasty action.
Gubernatorial spokesman Sean Darcy says the governor ''is open to discussing measures to reform this smart growth law.'' But critics think the law is too flawed to be reformed. The Senate Republican Minority Leader calls fast track ''an abomination'' that ''allows developers to pay to pave.'' Democratic Assemblyman Robert L. Morgan observes, ''No more compromises with special interests can be made.'' And New Jersey Environmental Federation campaign director David Pringle stresses, ''The greatest threat to our environment this year is fast track,'' with the Save New Jersey Coalition promising a lawsuit should the state continue work on final fast-track guidelines in June.
Democratic Senator Stephen Sweeny, the fast-track law sponsor and the one most involved in its passage last summer, doesn't mince his words either. ''This is (the Sierra Club) trying to scare every legislator out there by saying it doesn't matter how strong your record is; if you disagree with them once, they will destroy your reputation,'' he asserts, vowing to fight attacks from ''wisdom-resistant, no-growth zealots.''
The fast-track law, note Gannett writer Sandy McLure in the Asbury Park Press and Express Times correspondent Terrence Dopp, requires three key state departments -- Community Affairs, Transportation, and Environmental Protection -- to accept special developer fees and review growth-area project applications for completeness within 45 days, with another 45 days for ruling; failure to meet either deadline would allow construction by default. In contested cases, the law gives power for final decisions to a state smart-growth ombudsman.
Senate Environment Committee Democratic Chairman Robert G. Smith thinks there's ample time to amend the law, which is not likely to take effect until early next year, saying its intent is to prevent lengthy project delays in urban areas. -- Asbury Park Press, Express Times
4/21/2005
Resource(s): www.app.com/ ; www.nj.com/expresstimes/
Edison Township Official Outlines Faults in New Jersey's Fast Track Permitting Act in Preparation of Repeal Push
As the Sierra Club gathers public support for its resolution urging state lawmakers to repeal the Fast Track Permitting Act -- passed in three days in July to accelerate development in ''smart growth'' areas and currently on hold -- Edison Township Council President Parag Patel explained the council's unanimous approval of the resolution late last month, saying, ''I am not against smart growth and appropriate land use policies. But Fast Track law leads to quick and dumb growth.''
The act, notes Edison-Metuchen Sentinel writer Elaine Van Develde, gives state agencies 45 days to act on developer applications for projects in areas targeted for growth; otherwise developers get the green light by default.
This isn't workable, points out the Sierra Club, because the state's Development and Redevelopment Plan shows that the growth areas account for 40 percent of the state, which would mean application surges too widespread for agencies to handle on time, consequently letting developers do as they please.
That's a key point for municipal officials like Edison Council President Patel. ''The Fast Track law is bad for the public input process and risky both for the environment and for local control over zoning and service extension,'' he stressed. ''Under the Fast Track law, sprawl could worsen and be sped up.'' -- Sentinel 3/8/2005
Resource(s): http://ems.gmnews.com/
Groundbreaking for Cherry Hill Mixed-Use Project Expected in Weeks
Long a big South New Jersey attraction, the 223-acre former Garden State Park and racetrack in Cherry Hill -- opened in 1942, locked for post-fire repair between 1977-85, and closed in 2001 -- awaits the bulldozers and cranes that will launch its transformation into a mixed-use complex, with one of the builders, M&M Realty Partners development vice president Rich Fernicola describing the $500-million project as ''probably the finest example of smart growth in New Jersey,'' allowing people to ''work, shop and live in the same neighborhood.''
Led by Florida-based Turnberry Associates, in cooperation with M&M and D.R. Horton companies, reports Burlington County Times writer Christopher Bishop, the project will include 1,659 varied-type and price-range housing units, a ''lifestyle'' town center, and a million-square-foot office park.
D.R. Horton division president Al Garfall promises groundbreaking for 608 age-restricted condos in the northern portion of the site within weeks, planning to sell them for $269,000 to $420,000 over five years.
M&M commercial leasing vice president Joseph Morris expects to start work on the town center in the spring, with several retail tenants already signed up, others certain to follow, and completion of 691 luxury apartments and 360 condos and town houses slated for 2007. The office park schedule, the writer adds, has yet to be worked out. -- Burlington County Times
2/16/2005
Resource(s): www.phillyburbs.com/
Garden State Has New Smart Growth Ombudsman to Oversee Growth-Area Project Permits
As lawmakers from both parties signal readiness to amend or even repeal the 2004 Permit Streamlining in Smart Growth Areas Act -- the ''fast track'' law under suspension till May -- Acting Democratic Governor Richard J. Codey named Senate Democratic Office Deputy Director and Old Bridge Township Councilman Patrick M. Gillespie as the state's new Smart Growth Ombudsman.
Created by the fast-track law and first held by Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin, the ombudsman post ensures one person's oversight of builder application-processing for growth-area project permits by three state departments -- Community Affairs, Environmental Protection, and Transportation.
Naming the new ombudsman, Governor Codey said, ''He brings a keen understanding of the principles of smart growth and the need to balance development and redevelopment with efforts to preserve and protect our open spaces.''
The appointee noted that his work as a Senate staffer and a township councilman has given him the advantage of seeing ''land-use policy from both the state and local government perspective.''
The New Jersey League of Municipalities and environmental groups applauded the appointment. New Jersey Environmental Federation spokesman David Pringle called Patrick Gillespie a ''friend of the environment,'' adding that the fast-track law ''needs to be replaced with real smart-growth legislation.''
Sierra Club chapter president Jeff Tittel concurred. ''His job is to carry out a bad law,'' he said. ''I hope the job goes away very shortly and the law gets repealed.'' -- Asbury Park Press, WNBC.com
2/9/2005
Resource(s): www.app.com/ ; www.wnbc.com/
Brownfield Remediation Act to Keep Pressure on Polluters, Encourage Redevelopment of Blighted Sites
In another effort to spur post-industrial cleanup and advance economic growth, Acting Governor Richard J. Codey signed the Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act, which protects developers who bought property on or after January 6, 1998 from liability for natural resource damage (NRD) at brownfields sites, off-site pollution, and the cost of cleanup of migrating contamination, provided they are not responsible for any of the hazardous discharge and meet other statute provisions.
''This new law,'' said Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell, ''rightly puts the costs of injuries to our ground water supplies and other natural resources on the backs of polluters, while encouraging cleanup and redevelopment of blighted sites.''
Noting that commercial developers are becoming increasingly interested in brownfields, Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee Chairman John McKeon stressed that their redevelopment not only helps ''create jobs and new economic opportunities,'' but also offers municipalities new source of property tax revenue.
Senator Henry McNamara added, ''This law will encourage companies that specialize in redeveloping old industrial sites to work with local officials and the state to rebuild cities and older suburbs rather than contributing to sprawl.'' -- New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
2/2/2005
Resource(s): www.nj.gov/dep/srp/brownfields
Alternatives to Garden State's Fast-Track Development Bill Sought as Repeal Legislation Looms
Although state Democratic Senator Stephen M. Sweeney says he is ''a believer in balanced growth, smart growth'' and his so-called ''fast track'' development approval bill -- passed last June within 72 hours but later suspended by an executive order until spring -- is ''not a blanket to cover everything,'' many groups and lawmakers from both parties call it irremediably flawed and observers consider its repeal almost certain.
Joining his party colleague Robert L. Morgan in sponsorship of a repeal bill, Democratic Assemblyman Michael J. Pander said in a press release he respects ''the efforts of those seeking to amend this legislation, but at some point repairs become so extensive that a replacement is more appropriate.'' Thus, he continued, ''we're calling on the Legislature to make a fresh start by repealing the 'fast-track' measure and exploring alternatives that would serve businesses and the public alike.''
Requiring state agencies to act on project applications in growth-targeted areas within 47 days or grant them by default, the fast-track law is being fought as bad for the public input process, and risky both for the environment and for local control over zoning and service extensions.
''Under this law, sprawl will be exacerbated and sped up,'' said New Jersey Environmental Federation executive director Amy Goldsmith. ''We're not against good land use policies, but this doesn't fit into that.'' -- Examiner, Sunbeam
2/2/2005
Resource(s): http://examiner.gmnews.com/ ; www.nj.com/sunbeam/
Freeholder Boards Consider Suit to Overturn Highlands Water Preservation and Planning Act
Eager to sue the state over the Highlands Water Preservation and Planning Act as bad for home rule, property values and tax revenues, Hunterdon and Warren county freeholders want to assure themselves and possible municipal allies that such a lawsuit is winnable, deciding first to spend $10,000 on the Leggete, Brashers and Graham consulting firm's query ''whether good science was used'' in drawing the region's growth boundaries.
The two freeholder boards promised to cover the entire legal costs, but Warren Freeholder John DiMaio is not seeing any municipal ''groundswell'' for the suit yet. In Hunterdon County, three towns agreed to join the suit and three decided against, with most remaining uncommitted, reports Star-Ledger writer Joe Tyrrell, quoting Freeholder Marcia Karrow, who says some towns, ''especially those outside the Highlands,'' don't understand the ramifications.
''The growth that doesn't occur in the Highlands has to go somewhere else,'' she argues. ''Raritan Township, Readington Township, they are in jeopardy and they don't realize it.''
But Lambertville Mayor David DelVecchio explains its council's vote against joining county officials in these words: ''I don't want to support a lawsuit that by their own admission is a difficult row to hoe.''
Lambertville resident and state Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel is adamant. ''I don't want them to waste my tax dollars,'' he stresses, pointing out to federal and state precedents that confirm the state's power to create planning and land-use authorities, and calling on county freeholders to join instead the fight against the fast-track permit law that shortens the environmental review and public input process for many risky projects and also constrains home rule.
Both Freeholder DiMaio and Freeholder Karrow consider county involvement against the currently suspended fast-track law possible. The law, says Freeholder DiMaio, is ''as dangerous or more dangerous than the Highlands bill itself.'' -- Star-Ledger
1/20/2005
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Builders Flood Garden State Development Offices With Waiver Requests for New Highlands Projects
Under a Highlands Water Preservation and Planning Act waiver provision for projects that won at least two permits by last March, developers have flooded the state with more than 100 waiver requests, two of which alone may bring a total of 1,035 new homes to Wanaque and West Milford in the protected Highlands core, eliciting starkly contrasting municipal responses.
Wanaque officials welcomed the proposed 755-unit senior housing complex, while West Milford Mayor Joseph DiDonato and the Township Council called on federal, state and Passaic County officials to help block the 280-unit Eagle Ridge townhouse project by K. Hovnanian Cos.
''This project is a nightmare we will never wake up from,'' said Councilman James Warden. ''It's going to be a water disaster, a tax disaster and a school disaster.'' The council unanimously approved a resolution stressing all these points, notes a Bergen Sunday Record editorial, but ''Hovnanian apparently doesn't get the message.''
Company spokesman Doug Fenichel called the project an example of smart growth, pointing to the 48-acre site's high-density zoning and its infrastructure, and citing the township's earlier development permit.
''But how smart can the development be if the town does not want it?'' the editorial asks. ''All of West Milford is in the core protection area of the Highlands,'' it adds. ''Good corporate neighbors know when to back off.'' -- Sunday Record, Asbury Park Press
1/17/2005
Resource(s): www.bergen.com ; www.app.com
Future of Garden State's Fast-Track Permit Streamlining In Doubt
The fast-track Permit Streamlining in the Smart Growth Areas Act -- passed just six days after its introduction in June, severely criticized by environmental, housing and labor groups as too hasty, and suspended for at least seven months by Governor James E. McGreevey before his November resignation -- will be extensively amended or repealed and replaced with more thoughtful, transparent and comprehensive smart growth legislation.
Acting Democratic Governor and Senate President Richard J. Codey would prefer to fix the act through amendments, saying, ''Over the next few days and weeks we will be working very hard to come up with that compromise.''
But a bipartisan group of 18 lawmakers in both chambers, led by Senate Republican Minority Leader Leonard Lance and Democratic Senator Shirley K. Turner, introduced a bill to repeal the act as simply irreparable.
''The fast-track legislation is flawed legally, constitutionally, democratically and substantively,'' declared Senator Lance. ''It was a rushed judgement without a full airing of what would occur.'' Senator Turner added, ''It's important that we start this process all over again.''
That's exactly what New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel was pushing for. ''You can't save the Titanic,'' he said. ''This is the kind of bill I think unified everyone in the state who is dedicated to preserving the future.''
Part of a last-minute deal to make southern New Jersey lawmakers support the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act for the northwestern part of the state, as all involved admit, the fast-track bill triggered such broad opposition because it reduced the state permitting process for most construction to 45 days once developers submitted complete applications and paid higher administrative fees, and because it gave one person, in the newly created role of smart-growth ombudsman, the ultimate power to make final decisions on all projects for an area of some 1.5 million acres.
12/14/2004
Resource(s): www.app.com/ ; www.nj.com/gloucester/
Residential Builder Named for Meadowlands Mixed-Use Project
Having long planned a $1 billion mixed-use development of 700 acres, including six landfills, just southwest of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, North Carolina-based EnCap Golf Holdings LLC announced that one of the nation's largest builders, Michigan-based Pulte Homes, will do the project's residential part through its Jersey Meadows LLC subsidiary, with EnCap president Bill Gauger stressing, ''The housing is going to be dense and it's going to be a model of smart growth.''
Specifically, reports Star-Ledger writer Ana M. Alaya, Pulte will cluster 1,980 homes on some 75 acres, beginning with 200 active-adult units in Rutherford and locating all others -- half of them for seniors -- in Lyndhurst. Pulte Northeast Area president Richard D. DiBella noted that this innovative project will create ''a world-class community'' and great housing within a 30-minute distance from New York City.
For its part, EnCap will dredge 8 million cubic yards of sediment from New York Harbor to cap the landfills, lay a four-mile green buffer along the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95), and proceed with construction of four golf courses, two hotels, and a total of 1.55 million square feet of commercial, office and retail space.
In response to environmental concerns, EnCap promised extraordinary safety precautions, allowing homes only over 6-to-8-foot-deep trash, covered with a 20-foot-thick layer of fill, and planning seven miles of containment walls against water infiltration and 80,000 wick wells for siphoning groundwater from the clay, trash and cap layers.
New Jersey Meadowlands commission spokesman Chris Cole is impressed with the planning. ''A solid collaboration between these two businesses,'' he said, ''can turn these dumps into an asset rather than a liability for the communities.'' -- Star-Ledger
11/30/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Critics Say Housing Plan Updates Will Create More Sprawl, Cause Affordable Housing Shortages
Often central to growth polemics since its inception in 1985, the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) revamped its complex 1987-99 formula for municipal affordability obligations, unanimously adopting new rules that should ensure rehabilitation of 24,000 housing units and construction of another 53,000 within 10 years -- including more units for the poorest -- neither of which brought it instant accolades.
COAH Chairwoman and Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin, report Asbury Park Press writers Nina Rizzo and Joseph Picard, pledged to work ''with towns, nonprofit groups and faith-based organizations'' toward implementation of the still-voluntary affordable-housing directives, and New Jersey State League of Municipalities senior legislative analyst Michael F. Cerra responded in kind, but others mentioned possible lawsuits.
According to key environmental and planning groups, the writers note, the changes understate the affordable housing needs by some 500,000 units and undercut smart growth initiatives by separation of that housing from work places, which will force lower-income residents to continue their long commutes.
''Put simply,'' wrote Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions official Sally Dudley on behalf of its 14 member-groups, ''these rules are pro-sprawl, pro-smog and anti-open space.''
Coalition for Affordable Housing and the Environment executive director Paul Chrystie found it illogical that COAH required municipalities to build 10,000 affordable units a year under previous rules, but will require only about 5,000 under new ones. Nevertheless, COAH officials are confident that if challenged in the court, the rules will be upheld.
Based on a growth-share model created by Rutgers University's Center for Urban Policy Research co-director Robert W. Burchell, the rules will became effective December 20, requiring towns to provide one affordable unit for every eight new market-rate units and another one for every 25 new jobs. Professor Burchell said his growth-share model will let COAH secure two times more affordable units than were built over the past decade and still more if the population growth is higher than anticipated. -- Asbury Park Press
11/23/2004
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Community Meetings Set for Review of Garden State's Long-Term Development and Land Protection Plan
In the process of reviewing a new state plan and its color-coded maps, which together will guide the long-term development and land protection in all 566 municipalities, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs launched a series of community meetings throughout the state to gather public input on the proposed drafts, scheduled for completion and adoption next September.
The local meetings are hosted by the respective county planning and economic development agencies, with Burlington County Freeholder Jim Wujcik saying the input offered by residents of the county's 40 municipalities ''will also guide the freeholders as we move forward with our regional 'smart-growth' planning efforts.'' 11/22/2004
Resource(s): www.phillyburbs.com/
Incoming Gov. Codey Pledges to Curb Sprawl, Promote Urban Redevelopment
Replacing Democratic Governor James E. McGreevey for his term's last 14 months, state Senate Democratic President Richard J. Codey said he will be both an acting and ''an active'' governor, focused on the state's almost $5 billion deficit, ways to rein in property taxes and replenish transportation funds, and efforts to curb sprawl, ensure land conservation and promote urban redevelopment.
Gov. Codey told New Jersey Herald writer Lynn Olanoff that he will put another official on the smart growth ombudsman post currently held by Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin, because he doesn't think ''someone should have both of those positions.'' He agreed with Governor McGreevey's decision to suspend the so-called ''fast-track'' development bill for at least seven months, pointing out that even though the bill was passed in three days after its introduction on his Senate watch, he has ''always said we need to revisit that.''
The writer notes that the bill -- letting developers in designated growth areas pay fees to have their environmental applications approved within 45 days or get a green light by default -- is seen as a trade-off for the passage of the Highland preservation act, which protects some 400,000 acres in that fragile area from sprawl and secures drinking water supplies for the state's northwestern region residents.
The acting governor stressed he wants to balance preservation with the need for housing elsewhere. ''Nobody has to worry about my support for the Highlands,'' he said. ''It's McGreevey legacy, but it's my job to make sure it does what it's meant to do.'' -- New Jersey Herald 11/15/2004
Resource(s): www.njherald.com/
Open Space Campaign Victory Means Nearly Half of Garden State's Municipalities Have Land Acquisition Funds
Point Pleasant resident Fred Lochenmeyer and his group of friends spent some $1,600 on their campaign to increase the local tax rate by a penny and set up a $2.7 million open space acquisition fund, winning 58 percent of the votes on Election Day and placing the town among the 280 of 566 New Jersey municipalities that have similar measures on the books, notes state Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel, stressing, ''People are willing to pay more to see sprawl disappear.''
In an Associated Press interview, he disputes builders' claims that such measures hike up housing costs. ''Builders don't want to build affordable homes. They want to build starter castles and McMansions,'' he observes, saying they can find ''plenty of room'' for housing renovation, redevelopment and infill in cities and older suburbs.
Coldwell Banker vice president for new homes David Schoner responds that urged by conservationists and growth-management advocates, builders are increasingly turning to cities like Asbury Park, Camden, Elizabeth, Long Branch, Newark, Paterson and Trenton. Still, he insists that home prices go up as towns protect land and demand outstrips supply, with open space referendums making taxes ''a key issue, particularly for the active adult community,'' whose members are ''looking at a fixed income.''
New Jersey Builders Association CEO Patrick J. O'Keefe says the public already owns 1.5 million acres of parks, open space and protected rural land, but is neglecting funds for access and maintenance. ''When money is being spent to buy freckles all over the state without a comprehensive strategy,'' he declares, ''the dollars are being used to ambush housing opportunities without an eye to preserving our environmental gems.''
State Sierra Club director Tittel considers such assertions spurious, pointing out that land conservation measures ''will actually help towns stabilize their taxes, because by buying open space, they won't have to spend money on new roads and new schools.''
11/14/2004
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Fast-Track Building and Permitting Law Put On Hold
In an executive order applauded by growth-management advocates, Democratic Governor James E. McGreevey halted the November 10th implementation of the controversial ''fast-track'' building and environmental permitting law for at least seven months, to allow real public input on its wording and agency work on practical details, after which another series of public hearings could take perhaps a year.
The order also stresses that the final rules must give the public time for comments on fast-tracks permits and match federal standards for some environmental programs, reports Newark Star-Ledger writer Alexander Lane, both clauses making observers think the agencies' 45-day permitting deadline may be extended for some projects and various others may not qualify for fast tracks.
Passed in June within three days of its introduction, the writer notes, the law lets builders in urban and other state-designated growth areas pay fees to make state agencies act on their applications in 45 days or grant them by default, allows a new one-judge court to hear permit denial appeals, and creates a Smart Growth Ombudsman post in the Department of Community Affairs, with power to reject any state regulation seen by that official as bad for smart growth.
National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) state chapter spokesman Mike McGuinness worries that the law's suspension may become indefinite and K. Hovnanian Homes predicts it will prolong the state's ''acute housing crisis.'' But New Jersey Business and Industry Association vice president Jim Sinclair sees the suspensions as an opportunity for better planning and New Jersey Builders Association CEO Patrick O'Keefe repeats in a statement that ''the state's permitting process is dysfunctional'' and promises to work with the new governor -- state Senate Democratic President Richard Codey, taking office November 15 -- ''to address the substantial need for repairs to the process.''
Relieved that the Sierra Club won't need to challenge fast tracks in court, its state chapter director Jeff Tittel says the suspension order ''shows that the governor knows how bad the law is.'' -- Star-Ledger
11/8/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/ ; http://1010wins.com/homepage/
Strong Support for Garden State Passenger Rail Plan
With NJ Transit about to complete its Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) on the proposed $500 million Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex (MOM) passenger rail line, a broad public-private Say Yes to MOM Coalition from these three counties held a press conference in Lakewood, urging the transit agency to chose the preferred route now, with Ocean County Freeholder Director James F. Lacey stressing, ''The MOM rail line is a smart growth, pro-environment and business-friendly project that will improve the quality of life of residents throughout the project area for years to come.''
The choice of the preferred route is necessary to qualify the project for millions in federal dollars, notes Howell Tri-Town News, quoting several area officials and activists who told the state to seize that opportunity.
Lakewood Mayor Raymond Coles called rail an important part of the township's history and asked the transit agency to conclude the DEIS with a recommendation for a locally preferred South Brunswick route alignment.
''Unless this is done now, there will be further delays and very little to show for all this effort,'' warned state Senator Andrew Ciesla, while Monmouth County Freeholder Deputy Director Theodore Narozanick emphasized the region's need for relief from congestion, calling the MOM line the only solution ''that holds the promise of reducing traffic and improving the quality of life.''
Similar arguments came from New Jersey Environmental Federation executive director David Pringle and New Jersey Alliance for Action president Phil Beacham. In addition to the statewide environmental group and the consortium of business, labor, government and academic leaders, the daily notes, the MOM rail backers include several chambers of commerce, worker unions and industry associations. -- Tri-Town News
10/6/2004
Resource(s): http://tritown.gmnews.com/
Changes to New Jersey's Development Plan May Prompt Review of High-Density Morris County Project
Having reviewed New Jersey's newest environmental, agricultural and infrastructure data, the Office of Smart Growth and the State Planning Commission made a series of changes in the state development plan map, including reclassification of some tracts in Mine Hill Township, Morris County, from ''metropolitan planning area and suburban planning area'' (PA1 and PA2) to ''rural/environmentally sensitive planning area'' (PA5), which may require Canfield Business Associates, a division of Kushner Companies, to scale down its high-density project of more than 700 townhouses.
Also suggested during earlier hearings by the Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority, local officials and residents from nearby townships, all concerned about the lack of sewers in this part of the watershed, the Mine Hill reclassification is opposed by the developer as unwarranted.
Ready to ''pursue whatever avenues we have to,'' Canfield attorney Glenn Geiger would want the township to intervene on the company's behalf.
Township Administrator Barry Lewis promises neutrality, telling The Randolph Reporter that ''Mine Hill is not obligated to fight the state on behalf of Kushner, but we won't oppose their petition.'' Meantime, the township has accumulated $10.6 million in grants, hoping to buy the Canfield tract for possible preservation.
Commenting on the situation, Department of Community Affairs official W. J. Miranda noted that the state plan is voluntary and its implementation is a local choice. The official added, ''From the standpoint of promoting regional planning for smart growth across the state, it is our goal to provide as many incentives for counties and municipalities to participate in the state planning process'' as possible and to concentrate growth in metropolitan and suburban planning areas (PA1 and PA2) and designated centers. -- The Randolph Reporter 9/8/2004
Resource(s): www.randolphreporter.com/
Jersey City's Redeveloped Downtown and Waterfront Now a Top Urban Location
Inspired by political leaders and helped by state subsidies, large developers continue the amazing transformation of old downtown Jersey City and its long-blighted waterfront into one of the top urban locations more attractive than the farther suburbs.
The city's population jumped by 11,500 to 240,000 over the past decade; the light-rail line takes commuters north to Hoboken and south to Bayonne; commuter PATH trains and the Holland Tunnel provide easy access to Manhattan; and the restored once-$7,500 brownstones now fetch up to $1 million.
''The market is so strong that it just adapts and continues to grow,'' former city economic director Mark Mulney tells Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers. ''Jersey City is a great story because it's the private sector initiating development.''
A case in point, the writer notes, is the waterfront's Newport section, with some 4,000 residential units and 6 million square feet of commercial space just south of the Holland Tunnel entrance, where the third generation of the LeFrak family is planning several more residential towers.
Young families like this area, says developer Jamie LeFrak, pointing out that new restaurants, along with a private primary school that opened last year and just-added kindergarten and first-grade classes to meet demand, help expand ''the social fabric that keeps a city vibrant.''
Nearby, the writer adds, Goldman Sachs & Co. is moving in 3,000 employees to its new 40-story headquarters, and developer Peter Mocco is planning redevelopment of an 80-acre garbage-strewn lot into a mixed-use neighborhood of 6,000 residential units and several 20-story commercial buildings, his project designed with the help of New Urbanism founder Andres Duany. -- Star-Ledger 8/30/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Municipal Tax-Sharing Plan Could Help Garden State Move Away from Wasteful Development Patterns
Having moved away ''from both the compact urban and open rural densities'' since the 1950s, New Jersey is wasting too much land, infrastructure money and commuter time, warns New Jersey Future research director Tim Evans in his ''Race to the Middle: The Homogenization of Population Density and What's It's Costing New Jersey'' report, calling the solution simple, ''but politically challenging,'' because it involves ''down-zoning in some places and up-zoning in others,'' multiple changes in the Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL), and a combination of local impact fees with a proposed ''smart growth tax credit bill.''
With New Jersey's population of about 8,414,000 in 2000 expected to grow by another million within 20 years, the present development pattern is not only wasteful, but unsustainable, he stresses, pointing out that while ''older, compact communities like Princeton could theoretically house the entire state's population using only 15 percent of its land, exurban places like Montgomery, Raritan and Harrison Township would require two to three times the state's land area to house the same population.''
To illustrate the concurrent disparity in cost of services and infrastructure, the researcher notes that while ''in densely populated Hudson County only one mile of road is required to serve 1,000 residents, it takes 11 miles of road to serve 1,000 residents in sprawling Hunterdon County.'' Since land available for development shrinks daily, ''as both low-density subdivisions and open space preservation programs take more of it off the market,'' zoning changes are also necessary ''to allow more housing units to be built on the remaining supply of land and thereby reduce upward pressure on home prices,'' he writes, reaffirming ''the wisdom of building higher-density, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use communities.''
As a model for the state's action, he cites ''the land-stewardship vision of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan,'' approved by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in January 1981 as obligatory for the entire Pinelands National Reserve created by Congress in 1978. Keeping crucial ''preservation areas'' free from development, and establishing a 40-acre minimum lot size in ''agricultural production areas,'' the researcher observes, the plan ''calls for increasing densities to between one and 3.5 units per acre in 'regional growth areas,' and it 'allows traditional development under certain rules' in the seven Pinelands towns, essentially meaning that some new developments can take place in the Pinelands' handful of pre-existing mixed-use centers, provided the new development retains the compact character of the existing town.''
Among his several recommendations that would set such policies statewide, he includes one to reform the property tax system. ''Without substantial reform of today's tax system, local officials will continue to favor commercial and low-density McMansion-style housing in an attempt to keep the demand for local services low, and property taxes down,'' he writes. ''A regional solution, such as tax-sharing between municipalities, could help eliminate this problem.'' -- New Jersey Future 8/30/2004
Resource(s): www.njfuture.org/
Mercer County Groups Hope to Head Off Fourth Wal-Mart Store
Just in initial planning, a possible fourth Wal-Mart store in Mercer County has already mobilized strong opposition across its prospective target area, with community activists, union leaders and residents from Lawrence Township, Ewing and Trenton in the ''LET's Stop Wal-Mart'' coalition hoping their campaign will raise awareness of mega-stores' economic, environmental and other impacts, and spur state legislation that would set stricter rules for their construction.
In solidarity with the local Halo Farm dairy and convenience store, which collected 2,569 signatures against the planned Wal-Mart, reports Trenton Times writer Krystal Knapp, the LET's coalition gathered another 500, and more than 100 of its members rallied along Route 206 before packing a standing-room-only meeting of the Lawrence Planning Board's advisory screening committee. Their posters and shirt slogans read ''Support Small Businesses, Stop Wal-Mart,'' Wal-Mart No, Halo Farm Yes,'' ''No Slave Jobs, No Traffic Jams,'' and ''Wal-Mart, Sprawl-Mart.'' However, the writer reports, the opponents weren't able to vent their Wal-Mart frustrations and concerns fully, since committee members felt the company might need variances, which would start its application process in the zoning instead of the planning board.
''If the application is not in the planning board's jurisdiction,'' said planning board lawyer David Roskos, ''the comments would be wasted.''
Board Chairman Tom Wilfred and Township Manager Bill Guhl promised Wal-Mart opponents ample opportunity to voice their views at appropriate public hearings in the future. -- Times
8/20/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times/
Controversial Highlands Preservation Bill Signed Into Law
Governor Jim McGreevey signed the Highlands preservation bill on August 10. The bill provoked a major controversy because some critics saw it as a trade-off for a bill that fast-tracked construction in areas designated for growth in the State Plan.
Some environmental groups boycotted the bill-signing ceremony in protest and are planning to sue to have the fast-track bill overturned. Some local governments also plan to sue, saying that the Highlands bill takes away their home rule.
Other groups were more optimistic. Star Ledger reporter Steve Chambers quoted Michele Byers of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation as saying ''We've been working on saving the Highlands for 15 years, and this is a great bill.''
New Jersey home builders are concerned that the Highlands plan will not allow enough houses to meet demand in the area. -- Star Ledger
8/10/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Levin Named Smart Growth Ombudsman for Garden State
The new New Jersey Smart Growth Ombudsman, Susan Bass Levin, was named Friday. The new position is part of the recent legislation signed by Governor James E. McGreevey that allows for a guaranteed expedited reviews of builder applications when the development is located in designated growth areas.
Levin is the former mayor of Cherry Hill, and has been the commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs since January 2002. -- Gloucester County Times, Philadelphia Inquirer
7/17/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/gloucester/ ; www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Gov. McGreevey Signs Fast-Track Growth Review Bill Despite Protests
Mindful of strong objections among conservationists, labor leaders and his other political allies, Democratic Governor James E. McGreevey signed the business-lauded ''fast-track'' builder-application review bill for growth-designated areas in private, noting in a written statement, ''The effort to promote redevelopment and the right kind of development is critical to our economy but also to the protection of pristine and sensitive environmental areas.''
Nevertheless, reports Trenton Times writer Tracey L. Regan, New Jersey Environmental Federation official Amy Goldsmith repeated a warning to the governor, ''You're going to get a black eye over this -- don't think we'll sit back,'' while the bill's Republican critic, Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, agreed with his frequent foes, saying, ''It violates federal law and due process and 45 days is not enough time to review these permits.''
Newark Star-Ledger writer Alexander Lane adds that New Jersey Council of Watershed Associations chairman George Hawkins described the bill as ''a backroom deal;'' that the Interfaith Community Organization told religious leaders across the state that the bill will hamper toxic cleanups; and that the 70-group Work-Environment Council called it anti-labor due to its impact on industrial regulations.
On the other hand, both writers note, New Jersey Business and Industry Association lobbyist Jim Sinclair found the bill ''excellent'' for speeding up the bureaucratic process. ''The governor had a bad reputation with the business communities,'' he declared, ''and this is a message that he is more balanced than he originally presented himself.''
The bill's sponsor, Democratic Assemblyman and West Orange Mayor John McKeon, has already introduced ''refinement'' legislation, reports the Times writer, to reduce the fast-track review's scope by exempting pollution cleanup and some discharge application permits, while expanding the protected Highlands areas. -- Times
7/10/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times/ ; www.nj.com/starledger/
Environmental, Social Action Groups Want Gov. McGreevey to Veto ''Fast-Track'' Permit Bill
Always supportive of his strong anti-sprawl stance, leaders of more than 25 environmental, social justice and civil rights groups from across the state parted company with Democratic Governor James E. McGreevey on the recently passed Permit Streamlining in Smart Growth Areas bill, telling him in a letter ''(t)he bill will severely weaken environmental protections in the state, accelerate sprawl and add more pollution into areas that are already suffering the effects of too much pollution,'' and launching a major campaign against its implementation with a call for his veto.
The so-called ''fast-track'' bill, reports Camden Courier-Post writer Lauren O. Kidd, requires the departments of Community Affairs, Environmental Protection, and Transportation to act on developers permit applications for projects in designated growth areas within 45 days, or permits will be automatic. This applies to some 43 percent of the state's developable areas, with about 85 percent of its residents.
The writer cites five of the critics' 14 reasons for a gubernatorial veto: the 45-day response deadline is too short, automatic approval is misguided and risky, communities that faced pollution won't be better off, backlogged applications will be summarily approved, and public input stops.
The bill passed both chambers without debate three days after coming from committees, the writer notes, quoting New Jersey Environmental Federation spokesman David Pringle, who doesn't think ''anybody, even today, understands the ramifications.''
New Jersey Public Research Interest Group representative Doug O'Malley agreed. ''Mayors and local citizens don't know about it, and legislators barely had time to read it,'' he observed. ''It was rushed so much. It has legal flaws through the roof.''
Gubernatorial spokesman Micah Rasmussen took exception, saying the smart growth bill was overwhelmingly approved ''to promote redevelopment of New Jersey's urban centers and cut bureaucratic red tape.'' He added, ''The governor has advocated for more than two years that the best way to ensure growth doesn't happen in the wrong places is by encouraging growth in the right places. Over the past two years he has also told builders in no uncertain terms that they cannot build near our streams, reservoirs as well as in the Highlands.'' -- Courier-Post
6/30/2004
Resource(s): www.courierpostonline.com/
Fast-Track Permit Bill Worries Legal Scholars, Environmentalists
Intended by the administration and most lawmakers to speed up the builder permit process in areas already developed or targeted for development, the newly passed fast-track bill makes legal experts uneasy about its broad permit definition, which could cover numerous environmental issues; its 45-day decision deadline, which could thwart public input; and its ''smart-growth ombudsman's'' power either to veto any regulation judged incompatible with the state plan or to put the matter in the hands of state-certified private professionals.
Passed with no debate as obvious compensation for growth restrictions in the week-earlier Highlands protection bill and in the 1979 Pinelands Act for southern New Jersey, the bill takes aback Rutgers University environmental lawyer Tom Borden, who says, ''When you go through this bill with a fine-tooth comb, there are all kinds of things that make absolutely no sense.''
Community Affairs Secretary Susan Bass Levin, whose department will set up the smart-growth ombudsman office, considers the problem overstated. ''Everyone's purpose was to expedite permits for development projects, not expediting permits overall,'' she explains. ''The regulation process will clarify this.''
Attorney Henry Hill, who often represents builders, reports Newark Star-Ledger writer Alexander Lane, expects the bill both to make the Department of Environmental Protection staff act fast on permit applications that now languish months or years, and to help mid-level managers resist pushy lawyers and reject bad projects more frequently without fear of lawsuits. But environmentalists feel differently. ''Prior to this legislation, the governor had an environmental record second to none,'' says New Jersey Environmental Federation spokesman David Pringle. ''This legislation would wipe all that out and then some.'' -- Star-Ledger
6/23/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/
Fast-Track Permitting Bill Draws Scorn from New Jersey Conservationists
A week after the fast approval of the long-negotiated Highland preservation bill, the New Jersey Senate and Assembly skipped the usual debates and passed 26-10 and 48-23, respectively, a much more controversial bill, one that gives three state departments -- Environmental Protection, Transportation, and Community Affairs -- only 45 days to act on builder permit requests in designated growth areas and that creates a Smart Growth Ombudsman office with authority over any new development-related regulations or contentious issues.
Agreed upon behind the scenes as a precondition to the Highland bill -- hailed by environmental groups for protecting the region's vital water supplies through sharp curbs on development in its 395,000-acre core -- the fast-track permitting bill drew conservationists' scorn, reports Newark Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers. State Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel said, ''If this was the deal to save the Highlands, it was the worst trade since the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth.''
He promised a lawsuit once the bill is signed by Governor James E. McGreevey.
Blaming the Democratic majorities in both chambers, New Jersey Environmental Federation lobbyist Amy Goldstein told Trenton Times writer Tracey L. Regan, ''The Highlands victory last week has been bulldozed by passage of this fast-track permitting bill.'' She was echoed by Republican Senator Leonard Lance, who even called upon the governor ''to veto this legislation.''
On the other hand, both writers note, business and municipal officials praised the bill.
''For too many of the opponents, smart growth means no growth,'' commented New Jersey Business and Industry Association first vice president Jim Sinclair.
With state officials sometimes taking years to decide on projects, New Jersey League of Municipalities executive director William Dressell noted, ''We are adversely affected by the delays. They cost us time and money, and, inevitably, the developer leaves the project. We often lose economic development through the state permitting process.''
Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin, whose department will host the Smart Growth Ombudsman office, pointed out that giving builders a quick ''yes'' or ''no'' doesn't weaken environmental protection. ''It will be a challenge to implement this bill,'' she acknowledged, but it will benefit cities and older suburbs ''that are struggling to redevelop.''
Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon, who sponsored both the Highlands and the fast-track permitting bills, said while the three departments are drafting the latter's implementation guidelines over the next four months, he and his colleagues ''will look to work toward refining it.'' -- Star-Ledger
6/18/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/ ; www.nj.com/times/
Garden State Legislators Approve Highlands Preservation Bill
It took both the New Jersey Senate and the Assembly only hours to vote 34-2 and 69-10 for the Highlands preservation bill, released just three days earlier after weeks of tense negotiations in committees, with Governor James E. McGreevey telling elated environmentalists in his outer office, ''Local and state officials along with members of the public have sought protection for the Highlands for years, and today, this administration and this Legislature got it done.''
Some Assembly Republicans, ''the so-called mountain men,'' blamed Democrats for rushing ''a deeply flawed bill'' through, reports Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, but Republican Senator Robert Martin observed, ''Perhaps, given their opposition, they should no longer be called mountain men but supporters of sprawl.''
Critics argue that the bill may defeat its purpose by increasing development pressures outside the 395,000-acre Highlands preservation core and exposing towns to builder lawsuits. Smart growth and regional planning advocates reply the bill finally offers a true chance of implementing a state plan designed to concentrate growth in cities, older suburbs and designated town centers.
Highlands Coalition executive director Tom Gilbert praises lawmakers for the right approach, stressing, ''You can always go back and develop land you have protected. Once you develop it, you can't undo that. Today, the Legislature protected the water supply for half the state.'' -- Star-Ledger
6/11/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Highlands Preservation Bill Set for Vote; Would Protect 400,000 Acres, Future Water Supplies
In a victory for Democratic Governor James E. McGreevey, the Senate Environment Committee and the Assembly Appropriation Committee finally broke a ''political logjam'' and cleared a Highlands preservation bill for the floor in both chambers, with Senate Democratic President Richard Codey expecting its approval on June 10, and Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon telling his Republican colleagues that the bill will secure sufficient water supplies for some 4.5 million people in the northern and central parts of the state.
The New Jersey Builders Association still criticizes the bill for a lack of balance, reports Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, quoting from its brief statement, ''As yet another 16 percent of New Jersey is declared off limits to middle-income households, we are left to ask: Where will the people live?''
Protecting almost 400,000 acres, mostly around reservoirs in the seven-county Highlands region, the writer notes, the bill provides for a regional council to devise its master plan and identify some 15,000 acres for dense development, where municipalities will be able to charge builders impact fees of $15,000 per unit.
Democratic Senator Stephen Sweeney, who delayed the bill to win some concessions for his southern Pinelands region, is satisfied, reports the Associated Press. He says, ''We achieved greater equity for South Jersey, put controls on property taxes, protected the rights of homeowners and improved the long-term effectiveness of the Highlands plan.''
Plan proponents have reportedly also agreed to consider a bill that would require the Department of Environmental Protection to act on certain builder applications in growth areas within 90 days. ''We've seen the quid, and now we're waiting to see the pro quo,'' says state Sierra Club director Jeffrey Tittel. However, he adds, ''It's the strongest and most comprehensive environmental bill the Legislature has done since the Pinelands (Act) 25 years ago.'' -- Star-Ledger
6/8/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/ ; www.nj.com/statehouse/times/
$1 Billion Plan for Pennsauken Waterfront Redevelopment Announced
Chosen from among 15 bidders to redevelop seven miles of the mostly vacant and polluted Delaware River waterfront in Pennsauken across from Philadelphia, North Carolina-based Cherokee Investment Partners envisions 500,000 square feet of office, retail and commercial space, and 2,650 homes, townhouses and condos in five clusters, with Cherokee CEO Thomas Darden stressing the $1 billion plan ''balances conservation, development principles and smart growth.''
Two clusters of a 332-unit total, plus a hotel-conference center and an 18-hole golf course, report Philadelphia Inquirer writers Frank Kummer and Kaitlin Gurney, will be built in the project's final phase on 292-acre Petty Island, its old Citgo refinery site cleaned up and kept as open space, to preserve habitat around the nest of two bald eagles.
Future waterfront residents will benefit from the River Line light rail several streets away, with the possibility of having a spur and small station even closer some day.
Crediting the project type and scope to five-year-long efforts by Democrat-led Township Committee, Mayor Rick Taylor and local legislators, the writer quotes state Democratic Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, who expects it to turn the Pennsauken riverfront ''into a destination site.''
A township economic consultant, reports Courier-Post writer Bernie Mixon, Public Solutions Inc. president Louis Bezich says that under agreed-upon smart growth principles, ''Development should be directed toward existing development areas and our guiding land-use policy should be more so toward redevelopment than development.''
The writers note that Cherokee Investment Partners will be also redeveloping an adjacent three-mile waterfront stretch in Camden, where earlier this month planners approved the company's $1.2 billion proposal for 500,000 square feet of retail space, a marina, a golf course, and 6,000 housing units. -- Philadelphia Inquirer
5/28/2004
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/philly/ ; www.courierpostonline.com/index.html
South Jersey Lawmakers Seek Revisions to State's Smart Growth Policy
Viewing Governor James E. McGreevey's smart-growth policy as too restrictive, mainly for the southern Pinelands area, some southern lawmakers are holding back his Highlands preservation bill, which would curb development in half of that environmentally sensitive northern region to protect its sources of water for millions of residents.
''I'm not a zero-growth person,'' said Democratic Senator Stephen Sweeney, calling himself ''an environmentalist at heart'' but wishing that the earlier Pinelands preservation measure had ensured more ''balanced growth'' for his mostly rural region. To this, gubernatorial spokesman Micah Rasmussen responds, ''We just want growth in the right places.''
In private negotiations with the administration, reports Trenton Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, southern lawmakers propose legislation under which the state Planning Commission could veto all new regulations and the Department of Environmental Protection would have to act on builder applications within 90 days or the permits would be automatic.
Officials, environmentalists and other lawmakers involved in the negotiations consider the demands clearly inspired by builders, the writer reports, quoting one source, who tells him, ''It's just ludicrous. It's the most pro-development, pro-sprawl bill I've ever seen.''
For a building industry representative on the Planning Commission, Dave Fisher, who first suggested the commission should review all new regulations a year ago, all this is about balance. He hopes the Highlands bill negotiations will let both sides ''strike some kind of balance and come up with consistency.''
But state Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel says, ''This is all about helping builders. The governor bent over backward to meet their concerns and still remain a solid champion of environment. At the end of the day, they stabbed him in the back.'' -- Star-Ledger
5/24/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Garden State's TDR Program Grows in Popularity
Contrary to some wishful thinking about its early demise, New Jersey's ''smart-growth plan flourishes,'' reports USA Today writer Martha T. Moore from Washington Township (Mercer County), where officials worked on transfer of development rights even before the legislature passed the TDR law in March, and where Sharbell Development principal Tom Troy is ready to pay some $2.7 million for rights to build 90 homes on 190 rural acres in an area designated as future Washington Town Center.
The township, which has already spent $3 million in other preservation funds to protect almost 3,000 of its 13,000 acres -- getting $2 million back from the state -- will use the developer's money to save more farmland.
Local farmer Paul Keris tells the writer ''all farmers would like to be in the preservation (programs),'' but developers pay more for land. The township offered him $1.2 million to preserve his 55 acres, while a standing developer offer is $3.5 million. ''All I'd have to do is call him up,'' he says, ''and he'd be here.''
To help municipalities compete with developers, the state set aside $20 million to buy development rights and resell them to developers later, the writer notes, quoting Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin, who stresses ''the farmer doesn't have to wait for the town to set up the (transfer) program.''
Also, points out National Resources Defense Council smart-growth expert Deron Lovaas, New Jersey's law goes farther than TDR programs in 17 other states, making local governments show they preserve land successfully or the state will tell them to revamp their programs.
Smart growth advocates like New Jersey Future official Susan Burrows say TDRs keep land protected, let developers build, and put towns ''in the driver's seat about where and how development happens,'' so, ''Everybody wins.'' But New Jersey Farm Bureau official Peter Furey sees complications since prime farmland is often zoned for two-acre lots, while developers buying development rights will build denser housing on smaller lots.
The writer relates the issue this way: ''Those houses sell for less money than a mini-mansion would. So how many smaller houses in a growth area equals one mini-mansion that doesn't get built on farmland? And who is going to decide?'' -- USA Today
5/13/2004
Resource(s): www.usatoday.com/
New Jersey's TDR Program: Put Development in Chosen Areas, Keep Farms in Business
As New Jersey administrative staff drafts legislation that will let counties implement the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program, Secretary of Agriculture Charles M. Kuperus told agricultural and community planning officials from across the state, ''(t)he Smart Growth Plan is an opportunity to work together'' to concentrate development in chosen areas and keep farms in business.
''We have the resources for planning and development,'' the secretary said at a forum in Hopewell Township, Mercer County, ''and we are willing to use these resources to put the tools needed at the communities's disposal, to protect the quality of life and maintain economic viability.''
Invited by BJ Farms owner Frank Baitinger, a member of the state agricultural development committee, reports Bridgeton News writer Kay Rudderow, the secretary pointed out that since most homebuilding in rural areas takes plots ''too big to mow, too small to plow,'' the TDR program will facilitate cluster development in some farm sections and preserve others for agriculture.
Such agriculture-friendly zoning, the writer notes, will help agribusiness while deflating the potential for rural homeowner nuisance suits. -- Bridgeton News
5/11/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/bridgeton/
Perth Amboy Brownfield Ready for Transformation to Mixed-Use Waterfront Neighborhood
Once hosting a box factory and a Naval Reserve center, which closed nine years ago, a recently decontaminated and improved eastern waterfront tract in historic Perth Amboy will become within four years the Landings at Harborside, a $600 million mixed-use neighborhood of 2,100 condos, 150,000 square feet of retail space, three parks, playgrounds and a landscaped esplanade.
Mayor Joseph Vas, also a Democratic state assemblyman, fully supportive of Governor James E. McGreevey's anti-sprawl and urban revitalization policy, reports New York Times writer Antoinette Martin, calls the waterfront ''an exceptional site for a New Urbanist design,'' convinced it ''will quickly become one of the most desirable places to live in the state.''
The project was master-planned and designed by the New York-based Liebman Melting Partnership, with architect Ted Liebman saying New Urbanism is ''really about providing people with the kind of lifestyle that preceded today's overdependence on the automobile,'' and the Landings at Harborside is ''about creating a real urban community with pedestrian-friendly streets, trees, recreation areas and an accessible downtown.''
His partner, Alan Melting, points out that plans and designs are attractive to empty nesters, families with children, and other buyers, observing, ''Most people will not have experienced this kind of lifestyle, this sense of community and security, in any other setting in which they have lived.''
The neighborhood is being built by the Kushner Companies and its Westminster Communities, the writer notes, quoting Kushner Companies vice chairman and managing partner Jeffrey Freireich, who calls it rewarding to be welcomed into a city ready to redevelop blighted areas. Mentioning the companies' similar projects in Asbury Park, Cranford and Atlantic City, he says, ''Sometimes we take risks other developers will not take. We like to think we're in the forefront of trends toward redevelopment in the state of New Jersey.'' -- New York Times
4/18/2004
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
Better Year Predicted for New Jersey's Revised Smart Growth Agenda
Aimed at saving about 1.1 million acres in the Pinelands National Reserve in New Jersey's southern counties, another 350,000 in the Highlands to the north, over 200,000 along some 3,000 miles of protected streams and rivers, and thousands more chosen by municipalities for the new Transfer of Development Rights program, Governor James E. McGreevey's revised smart-growth agenda will fare better this year, asserts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell, ''because the Legislature has recognized that New Jerseyans care about the impact of sprawl on the environment.''
The view is shared by Rutgers University economist, head of Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Professor James Hughes, who says the willingness of many towns to spend more for open space shows ''(p)eople are also skeptical that new development will bring down property taxes.''
Nevertheless, the governor's agenda still faces obstacles, reports Trenton Times writer Tracey L. Regan, mentioning objections from developers and likely planning difficulties on the municipal level.
The New Jersey Builders Association has filed initial court papers against the stream protection rules, its CEO Patrick O'Keefe ascribing to the governor an intent to ban development on 80 percent of the state's remaining buildable land, and K. Hovnanian Companies regional president Joe Riggs being the Highlands task force's only member to vote against its protection plan as an unbalanced document that includes ''mandated protections ... but no growth areas and no incentives for growth.''
Also, state Republican Senator William Gormley, who supports the Highlands plan, would like the governor to promise similar financial aid in the Pinelands plan, especially for fast-growing towns, or cancel its growth areas in the name of ''equal treatment.''
New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel agrees that the state should offer tax incentives to help builders pay for growth area infrastructure, the writer notes, adding, ''It remains to be seen whether New Jerseyans embrace the flip side of these conservation measures -- growth in the states's older industrial areas.'' -- Times
4/5/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times/
New Jersey Future Founder Sees Renewed Focus on Open Space Preservation With Enactment of TDR Law
Having fought ''environmentally irresponsible'' development long but with little success, New Jersey Future founder and executive director Barbara L. Lawrence finally sees a better future heralded by Governor James E. McGreevey's enactment of the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) law, telling New York Times writer Chris Hedges, ''We no longer talk about whether we will change our practices. Indeed, we know how to wage this war, and we are working on building the political consensus it will take to win.''
A daughter of working-class parents, since her childhood a voracious reader and Time magazine subscriber who ''can still recite the names of almost everyone in President John F. Kennedy's cabinet,'' she earned degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, worked for the New Jersey government and for a New York regional planning group, the writer notes, quoting her as saying, ''I wanted to change the world. I still do, although I chose to bite off this little piece of it called New Jersey.''
She celebrated the TDR victory with a champagne reception at the New Jersey Future office, but without indulging in overconfidence, the writer reports, finding her aware that ''(t)he powers that preserve status quo are strong'' and ''(t)he power of those who want to protect open space is meager.'' But although her teenage son programmed the ''Mission: Impossible'' theme song into her cellphone, she also tells the writer, ''Don't forget, the good guys always won on 'Mission: Impossible.' '' -- New York Times
3/30/2004
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act Placed on Legislative Fast Track in New Jersey
As Governor James E. McGreevey signed the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) bill, stressing it will steer developers ''toward the village centers and away from farm fields,'' state Democratic Senator Bob Smith and Republican Senator Robert Martin, along with Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon, took another step to advance his smart-growth policies, by introducing the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, to curb development in almost half of that ecologically fragile region, that is on some 350,000-390,000 acres, about a third of them in private hands.
Anticipating resistance from developers, who want to know where they can build to meet the demand, especially strong in the Highlands, gubernatorial counselor Eric Shuffler said the governor is working with lawmakers on the Highlands bill to ensure ''the proper balance between preservation and appropriate growth.''
Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin also advised a stronger focus on incentives for construction outside the ''core'' preservation areas, noting that lawmakers are facing ''a very complex intertwining of smart-growth initiatives,'' but moving in the right direction. New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel, who said the new TDR law finally lets municipalities ''set growth boundaries so we can have preservation areas where we before couldn't,'' called the Highlands bill ''one of the most far-reaching'' ever, adding, ''It's about protection of the water and the natural resources.''
Put by sponsors on a fast track, with a series of legislative hearings already under way, reports Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, the bill would establish a 15-member regional council, which could veto any major project in the Highland core preservation areas, whose map will be ready by May 1. In the next 18 months, the council would draft a regional master plan -- to be updated every five years -- obligatory for core areas, but voluntary outside. Also, the bill would immediately expand the regulatory authority for the Department of Environmental Protection, giving it the right of first refusal on property sales in the preservation core, with each Highlands project of more than an acre dependent on a special permit.
The process, the writer notes, would ban development on steep slopes and within 300 feet of streams and forests, while tightening restrictions on water withdrawal, septic tank construction and impervious surfaces. -- Star-Ledger
3/30/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
Garden State Ready for Transfer of Development Rights Bill
In a victory for Governor James E. McGreevey's anti-sprawl campaign, the state Senate quickly followed the Assembly and passed the long-negotiated Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) bill, which lets municipalities save open space in designated mandatory growth sending areas, where owners will keep land intact and be paid by developers, who then may be able to build more densely in receiving areas, set up locally or even elsewhere.
The bill, reports Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, is supported by the League of Municipalities, and by environmentalists, farmers, and builders, with the last ones getting aboard after securing an economic assessment provision, which requires outside consultants to agree that a town plans sufficient growth to make TDR viable.
Applauding the bill, Sierra Club chapter director Jeff Tittel called it the first one that gives towns a chance to grow in the right places and protect ecologically fragile areas. This especially applies to the 1,250-square-mile seven-county Highlands region, which provides drinking water to the northwestern half of the state, the writer observes, quoting League of Municipalities director William Dressel, who says, ''With concerns about helter-skelter development in the Highlands, this (bill) is a tool towns can use to concentrate growth and satisfy environmental concerns.''
Noting that a Burlington County TDR pilot program helped Chesterfield save 10,000 rural acres and limit growth to 572 acres, the writer also quotes one of the bill sponsors, Democratic Senator John Adler, who says, ''The experience of Chesterfield gives us a lot of hope that TDR can work in right communities.'' -- Star-Ledger
3/23/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
N.J. Assembly Passes TDR Bill; Senate Approval Expected
Fourteen months after Governor James E. McGreevey urged lawmakers to join his fight against sprawl, the Assembly finally passed the first piece of smart-growth legislation, voting 65-10 for a transfer of development rights bill, which will let municipalities divert growth from undeveloped to designated areas and reward developers with higher densities for moving away from open land.
The governor, who holds builder lobbyists responsible for the slow legislative pace of anti-sprawl measures, including his proposed residential impact fees, lauded the Assembly vote on the bill, expecting the Senate to approve it possibly in a week.
Requiring interested towns to pass local ordinances and get the State Planning Commission's approval for their master plans, the bill is conceptually rooted in a successful Burlington County program that preserved more than 10,000 acres around Chesterfield and Lumberton in the past ten years, reports Philadelphia Inquirer writer Kaitlin Gurney, quoting County Freeholder William Haines, who says, ''What's intriguing about transferring development rights is that you reduce sprawl and save farmland at no cost to the taxpayer.''
In contrast to other parts of the gubernatorial growth-management program, builders backed the bill, says Builders League of South Jersey executive vice president Rick Van Osten, because it still gives them ''opportunities to build,'' while preserving ''the rural character of towns,'' which is ''a smarter use of the land.''
Pinelands Commission chairman, former Governor Jim Florio, agrees. ''This is the essence of the smart growth the governor has been talking about,'' he tells the writer, who notes that the New Jersey Future group credits the commission's program for saving more than 37,000 acres from development. But, chairman Florio adds, such a program's ''workability outside the Pinelands depends on areas being willing to take on enhanced growth in exchange for preservation elsewhere.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer
3/16/2004
Resource(s): www.philly.com/
Highlands Task Force Urges Preservation of 390,000 Northwest N.J. Acres; Points to Need for Effective Regional Planning
Confirming that the state's 800,000-acre ecologically sensitive northwest region is threatened ''by current trends in population growth, construction and sprawl,'' Governor James E. McGreevey's 19-member Highlands Task Force released its action plan, urging lawmakers to designate up to 390,000 acres -- half already protected and about a fifth already developed -- as a ''preservation area,'' to definitely block construction on more than 100,000 acres still open to development.
Presented during a news conference at the Wanaque Reservoir, the nonpartisan task force's report notes that the Highlands population growth is 50 percent faster than the statewide rate, that the region lost 25,000 acres to sprawl between 1995 and 2000, and that many of its natural resources depend on private landowners and disparate planning by 90 municipalities.
''Unless these trends are altered and an effective regional approach to the Highlands adopted,'' The Express-Times quotes from the report, ''the harm to the Highlands will be severe and permanent.'' With Highlands reservoirs providing drinking water for 2.1 million residents, the report warns that further development would spoil the water, whose treatment would cost the state $30.3 billion by 2054.
Prior to the report release, Star-Ledger writer Lawrence Ragonese quoted Morris County Freeholder Jack Schrier, who said of his colleagues in the task force, ''We came together from many points of view and reached a consensus that required all sides to give up a little on what they wanted,'' adding, ''No one group will be 100 percent happy,'' but the towns and five counties got what they wanted, ''a place at the planning table.'' -- The Express-Times, Star-Ledger
3/14/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/expresstimes/ ; www.nj.com/starledger/
Smart Growth Advances in N.J. as TDR Legislation Moves from Committee to Full Chambers
In an overdue policy shift, state Senate and Assembly committees sent transfer of development rights legislation to the full chambers, with New Jersey Future assistant director Susan Burrows announcing, ''It really advances smart growth in New Jersey,'' and Sierra Club chapter director Jeff Tittel stressing, ''It's the most important tool a town can have to save open space and to stop sprawl.''
The legislation, reports Express-Times writer Terrence Dopp, would let municipalities pass local laws and steer development to service areas, while granting builders permissions for greater densities in exchange for preserving open space. Highlands Coalition chairman James Tripp sees transfer of development rights as a boon to his region, saying, ''Municipalities in the Highlands, like all municipalities in New Jersey, would have this important and potentially powerful tool to preserve land and resources.''
Noting that transfer pilot programs are under way in two Burlington County communities, a Courier News opinion urges quick approval of the legislation, ''especially considering builders' apparent acceptance of the plan.'' -- The Express-Times, Courier News
3/10/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/expresstimes/ ; www.c-n.com/c-n/
Cherry Hill Citizens Want Long-Range Master Plan to Focus on Redeveloping Vacant and Blighted Sites
After almost two years of further scrutiny and community input, the 2002 Cherry Hill revised long-range master plan had its first public hearing by the planning board, with township community development director David Benedetticq saying, ''The overall emphasis is to use redevelopment where it is appropriate and apply smart growth techniques where we have an opportunity,'' which also ''updates issues of wetlands, traffic, and open space needs.''
With the 70,000-resident township having only 1,100 of its 15,552 acres undeveloped, reports Cherry Hill Courier-Post writer Bill Duhart, citizens made sure that the idea of widening congested Route 70 and razing its grassy median was dropped, while the focus on redeveloping vacant and blighted sites across the area strengthened. The revised plan, the writer adds, also calls for redevelopment zones along several corridors in the township's western part, where businesses could qualify for loans and other incentives. -- Courier-Post
3/3/2004
Resource(s): www.courierpostonline.com/index.html
Redevelopment Plans for Site of Edison Ford Plant Said to Be Forthcoming
With the closure of the Ford assembly plant in Edison scheduled for February 27th, Township Mayor George Spadoro assured residents at a press conference attended by state and local officials that the site redevelopment plans are quite advanced, stressing, ''Having over 100 acres of prime real estate on Route 1 gives us a unique opportunity for a creative mixed-use project.''
The township, reports Globest web page writer Eric Peterson, has hired the Baltimore-based RTKL firm to draw a specific site redevelopment plan, with about 20 national developers already interested in the future construction job. Once approvals and an environmental cleanup are completed, the site may be ready for groundbreaking early next year.
The writer adds that Ford is closing the Edison plant and several others nationwide to trim a production overcapacity of a million cars and trucks. -- GlobeSt.com
2/12/2004
Resource(s): www.globest.com/
Proposed Utility Rule Would Make Developers Pay for Utility Extensions Into N.J. Farmland Projects
Augmenting Governor James McGreevey's arsenal against sprawl, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) wants to make developers pushing into farmland bear the full cost of gas, electric and water line extensions by 2007, but also to help those in cities, older suburbs and other designated growth areas with faster reimbursements and even permits to skip the contributions if towns or utilities lay the lines on their own, at a cost of several thousand dollars a house.
Currently, reports Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, builders negotiate the amount they contribute to gas, electrical and water line extension on a case-by-case basis, and usually get reimbursed for more than half of these contributions as new utility customers come on line, while the total cost of service expansion to new subdivisions is subsidized by ratepayers in cities and older suburbs. Conservationists and smart growth advocates consider this system unfair and support the proposed remedy as a necessary part of the governor's anti-sprawl campaign.
''No one regulatory change will shut down development in the wrong places,'' says New Jersey Futures director Barbara Lawrence. ''But a series of regulatory actions that will make it more expensive and harder to build in those places -- and easier to build in places with existing infrastructure -- is what it's going to take.''
Developers respond with the usual argument that the proposed change will drive up suburban home prices, while favoring utilities. ''The builder is going to pay 100 percent of the cost of putting in the infrastructure and then turn it over cost-free to the public utilities,'' says Builders League of South Jersey executive vice president Rick Van Osten. ''So if you are Public Service Electric & Gas or South Jersey Gas you have a nice little gift, courtesy of the governor and the state's home-buyers.''
Gathering public input on the proposed rule, BPU officials expect its adoption possibly this summer. -- Star-Ledger
2/2/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Gov. McGreevey Pledges Continued Focus on Community Preservation, Environmental Protection in State of the State Address
''We are here to create a government that stands up for those whose
spirit and energy drive this state forward, but whose voices are
too rarely heard,'' said New Jersey Democratic Governor James E.
McGreevey in his second State of the State address, determined to
advance his multi-prong quality-of-life agenda, under which the
state ''stood up to developers with the nation's toughest standards
to protect our drinking water and our open space,'' firmly ''punished
polluters with tougher enforcement and collected more from
polluters in the last two years than the previous administration
did in all eight,'' and ''did more in two years to stop sprawl than
was done in the entire decade before.'' What's more, the governor
emphasized, ''We proved that our state's economy can thrive with
more job growth at the same time we toughen environmental
protection.''
Restating his January 2003 message that ''there was no
single greater threat to our quality of life than the unrestrained
development that is driving up property taxes, crowding our
schools, and threatening our water supply,'' the governor said the
state did what he pledged to do to check this threat and remedy
''decades of bad decisions.'' For the first time in its history, the
state preserved 20,000 acres of farmland, a feat it will repeat
next year. It protected 18,000 acres in the Highlands and is
readying ''bold steps to preserve that area which supplies drinking
water to half of New Jersey's families.'' It became the nation's
first ''to require a 300-foot buffer between any development and a
water supply,'' while putting ''300,000 acres of land, 7,865 acres of
reservoirs, 96 rivers and lakes -- the drinking water for 3.5
million people -- off limits to developers.''
This year, the governor continued, the state will protect
more waterways and also help cities safeguard their future by
passing legislation on transfer of development rights. ''I will
continue to use every tool available to me as Governor to preserve
the communities that we love from the excesses of
over-development,'' he said, inviting the new legislature to join
him, but pledging to ''continue alone if necessary.'' In regard to
the New Jersey Builders Association's current effort to repeal his
water protection measures, the governor stressed, ''They must not
prevail in court, they must not prevail in the Legislature, and
they will not prevail in this state as long as I am Governor. These
drinking water protections must stand.''
The concern about the environment and public health
resonant throughout his address, the governor said he has met ''too
many families, too many children with illnesses from environmental
pollution.'' He thus proposed to augment legislation on ''the hazards
of lead paint'' with provision for issuing ''a lead detection kit'' to
each mother of a newborn child, and to enact new laws ''to reduce
the impact of diesel emissions'' on air quality. In the firm belief
that ''it should be easier, not harder, to prosecute polluters'' and
hand them ''harsher, not weaker penalties,'' the governor said, ''We
have to stand up to the federal government and set the nation's
strictest limits on the arsenic in our drinking water and the
mercury in our air.'' Accordingly, he set a goal of reducing soot
and smog air pollution by 20 percent over ten years, which ''will
prevent a thousand premature deaths, 140,000 asthma attacks, and
13,000 emergency room visits every year.''
Repeating his November appeal for ''an honest discussion
about how we govern and deliver services'' across the state, the
governor said he found during numerous meetings, dinners, forums
and Internet sessions that ''(n)obody wanted to cut services,
everybody wanted to cut taxes,'' which ''makes the discussion so
difficult,'' even though ''(t)he status quo on school and local
government property taxes cannot continue.'' Taking preliminary
steps to eliminate school district redundancy, put savings into
classrooms, and spur cooperation between districts, towns and
counties ''to deliver services and purchase products,'' the governor
called for bipartisanship and told lawmakers they can do something
for property taxpayers right now, namely ''pass impact fee property
tax relief legislation,'' since it's time for developers to bear
development costs. ''Developers make the profit and communities pay
the costs. If that doesn't convince you the system is broken, then
I don't know what will,'' the governor stressed,'' urging lawmakers
to send him ''legislation that puts the cost of new development
where it belongs.''
1/13/2004
Gov. McGreevey Finalizes Rules to Curb Development Along Fragile New Jersey Waterways
As his 2003 ''actions to protect drinking water and open space'' are
being tested in court, New Jersey Democratic Governor James E.
McGreevey finalized administrative rules to curb development along
6,093 miles of fragile waterways and, for the first time, reduce
''non-point source pollution,'' saying the measures ''demonstrate that
we will not back down'' and they ''will prove to be a critical tool
in our fight against sprawl.''
The measures, reports Trenton correspondent Terrence Dopp,
ban development within 300 feet of the state's last pristine
streams -- with builders in the area having to ensure that soil
absorbs all rain, preventing its runoff -- and require agencies,
hospitals, prisons and other large institutions to work out
effective plans for blocking ''non-point'' toxic runoff from lawns,
roads and industrial sites.
Pointing out that ''(m)ore than half of existing surface
water pollution in the state is attributable to non-point source
pollution and storm water runoff,'' Department of Environmental
Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell said the rules reflect a
common sense strategy to save water supplies and other natural
resources from further damage both from development and ordinary
water uses. ''This was a great way to start the new year,'' commented
New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel. ''It's really the only
way to protect these streams from pollution.''
1/6/2004
Resource(s): www.nj.com/gloucester/
Builders' Lobby Gets a Word in Edgewise in N.J. Smart Growth Bill
Frustrated that the builders' lobby in the New Jersey legislature
undercut its first smart growth bill by making an Assembly
committee insert the word ''voluntary'' into language on municipal
transfer of development rights, Governor James E. McGreevey told
his Smart Growth Policy Council, ''This fight has not been easy, and
it never was going to be easy. Special interests have been working
against us both inside and outside this building. But we will be
steadfast.''
On the bright side, reports Philadelphia Inquirer
writer Kitlin Gurney, the governor mentioned $190 million in extra
funding for open space preservation and brownfield redevelopment,
a ban on development along sensitive waterways, another 20,000
acres of farmland under protection and a new program to make
polluters pay legal damages for site restoration. With the next
piece of smart growth legislation, a bill that would give towns the
right to charge residential impact fees, yet to be introduced, new
Senate Republican minority leader Leonard Lance voiced
determination to pass both, but blamed the governor's office for
their slow movement and for ''taking credit for open-space programs
initiated by Gov. Whitman.''
New Jersey Future spokeswoman Susan Burrows praised the
governor for his ''keen understanding of the issues and his sincere
belief that we need to move toward smart growth,'' but also wished
for faster results. On the other hand, Builders League of South
Jersey spokesman Rick Van Osten said he would give the governor an
''F'' for ''making sure our growing population has a place to live''
and ''an 'A' in terms of galvanizing our membership, from builders
down to the part-time carpenter.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer
12/13/2003
Resource(s): www.philly.com/
Clergy, Anti-Poverty Activists Unhappy with Proposed Affordable Housing Regulation Changes
Clergy leaders and other anti-poverty activists asked Governor
James E. McGreevey to reject state regulation changes proposed by
the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), which calculated the
number of affordable units needed over the next 10 years at 48,000
and would locate most of them in cities, while letting suburban
towns pay into a state-run city housing fund to avoid their share
of obligations or fulfil them by building only senior citizen
housing, with New Jersey Catholic Conference associate director
Marlene Lao-Collins saying the state needs more than 600,000
affordable units within 10 years.
Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry director, Rev.
Bruce H. Davidson, stressed, ''We are deeply concerned that the
current plan does nothing to combat growing racial and economic
segregation in this state, and may in fact institutionalize it,''
and Black Ministers Council of New Jersey president, Rev. Reginald
Jackson, called COAH proposals ''most disturbingly frustrating'' and
''really a charade.'' COAH executive director Lucy Voorhoeve found
the criticism ''unfounded and without merit,'' reports Star-
Ledger writer Tom Hester, quoting from her statement: ''The new
COAH methodology represent a comprehensive overhaul of the existing
system based on actual population and job growth. This growth share
model will provide more affordable housing in communities across
the state in a way that is consistent with smart planning.''
Noting that COAH proposals have been also criticized by
builders as biased against families with children and likely to
prevent poor from living or working in the suburbs, but endorsed by
the state's League of Municipalities, the writer adds that the
agency scheduled public hearings for November 24 and 25. --
Star-Ledger
11/18/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Newark's Proposed Mulberry Street Redevelopment Moves Closer to Property Acquisition
With only a few vacant home parcels left in Newark, Mayor Sharpe
James hopes the Newark Redevelopment Corp. will soon overcome the
last remnants of a six-month resistance by the Mulberry Street
Coalition to the city's first ''comprehensive urban downtown
neighborhood development,'' the 13-acre, $550 million Mulberry
Street Redevelopment project featuring 2,000 market-rate condo
units, whose architect Dean Marchetto asserts, ''This project could
be New Jersey's poster child for smart growth. We think it could be
the antidote to suburban sprawl.'' Local residents have mostly
opposed the use of eminent domain against their properties, reports
Star-Ledger writer Jeffrey C. Mays, quoting Newark Business
Administrator Richard Monteilh, who says, ''We've made a huge effort
to knock on every door. Everyone has been guaranteed that they'll
get fair market value and then some.''
Mulberry Street Coalition spokesman George Mytrowitz tells
the writer, ''We believe that redevelopment can succeed without
dislocation. Let us be part of the renaissance of Newark by coming
to agreement on how to build, how to improve'' the project.
City officials expect the project, with its downtown
amenities and typical two-bedroom apartments in a $225,000 price
range, to draw thousands of professionals now commuting from other
places, which would boost Newark's population and tax base. Should
the City Council approve the condemnation process at its December
3 meeting, the writer adds, construction would start next spring.
-- Star-Ledger
11/15/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
NJDEP Welcomes Costs and Benefits Discussion of New Construction, Resource Conservation Guidelines
''We're unafraid of a legitimate discussion of costs and benefits''
of the upcoming state guidelines for infrastructure construction
and natural resource conservation, said Department of Environmental
Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell, countering New Jersey
Builders Association (NJBA) claims that the state's intent to
restrict development in most rural areas through regulations
substituting for its heavily criticized and recently pulled back
three-color Blueprint for Intelligent Growth, or BIG Map, would
result in a loss of 14,000 jobs and $182 million in revenue over
the first year. The numbers, reports Trenton Times writer
Tracey L. Regan, come from a just-released National Association of
Home Builders study of potential results of higher land and home
prices in the wake of the expected building restrictions. Secretary
Campbell pointed to the study's false premise of a total building
ban in restricted areas and its omission of development costs,
including new infrastructure and increased traffic congestion. He
promised his department's own report on the impact of its
regulations, which are likely to be proposed next month. NJBA
executive vice president Patrick O'Keefe said builders would
consider such growth control measures as transfer of development
rights within municipal borders and local school or infrastructure
impact fees. -- Trenton Times
11/13/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/times/
Open Space, Brownfield Initiatives Popular With Voters in New Jersey Midterm Elections
As New Jersey voters enlarged the Democratic majority in the
80-seat Assembly from 41 to 47 and broke the tie in the Senate by
ousting its Republican co-president John Bennett -- the feat of a
seat gain by a governor's party in a midterm election, unmatched
since 1955, attributed by Republicans to ''obscene'' campaign
spending -- they also endorsed three open space, brownfield and dam
repair initiatives worth together some $420 million, with Governor
James E. McGreevey's spokesman Micah Rasmussen saying it ''moves us
further down the road in terms of smart growth.'' The open space
initiative, approved by about 65 percent of voters, reports the
Associated Press from Trenton, lets the state take advantage
of current low interest rates to spend $150 million more under its
1998 billion-dollar, ten-year land preservation program, with an
additional $50 million earmarked for northern Highlands protection
and another $50 million for urban parks. The brownfield initiative,
backed by conservationists and developers alike and authorized by
61 percent of voters, allows agencies to spend an estimated $70
million more on industrial site cleanups, by tapping a surplus in
a corporate tax fund to clean up underground fuel tanks. The dam
repair initiative, opposed by environmentalists concerned about its
subsidies for private low-interest loans and potential sprawl
effects, but passed by 59 percent of voters, permits officials to
borrow $200 million not only for state, municipal and private dams,
but also for lake protection, flood control and wastewater
treatment projects.
11/5/2003
Resource(s): www.abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/ ; www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/
Mixed-Use Development at Former Garden State Park May Become Cherry Hill's Downtown Core
After 60 years of ups and downs, and a final closing in 2001, the
213-acre Garden State Park horse racing track in Cherry Hill -- a
former rural community that became one of New Jersey's most
sprawling suburbs -- will at last be turned into a mixed-use
neighborhood offering 1,659 housing units, 285 of them for
low-to-moderate income families, with Mayor Bernard A. Platt
saying, ''The redevelopment of the Garden State Park is a model
example of smart growth, which curbs sprawl, protects the
environment and focuses development on the revitalization of
previously developed land.'' According to an Associated Press report
from the groundbreaking for the first phase of the project, which
will also include stores, offices, public amenities and green
space, officials expect it to give Cherry Hill's 70,000 residents
the downtown core they have always needed.
10/31/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Gov. McGreevey Puts Schools at Center of Redevelopment Programs
''With the right vision, a school can be more than just a place to
prepare children for the future; it can be the tool for the rebirth
of a community,'' said Governor James E. McGreevey as he and his
Cabinet members at three separate local ceremonies pledged to make
the court-ordered $8.6 billion school construction program spur
community revitalization, starting with an initial investment of
more than $650 million in six of the 30 depressed target
communities. The governor, reports Star-Ledger writer
Dunstan McNichol, announced $366 million and $89 million outlays
for school and neighborhood redevelopment projects in Union City
and East Orange. Education Commissioner William Librera and Labor
Commissioner Albert G. Kroll unveiled $97.9 million and $17 million
projects for New Brunswick and Trenton, while Treasurer John
McCormac and Economic Development Authority Executive Director
Caren Franzini outlined similar $47.4 million and $40 million plans
for Vineland and Camden. Besides gyms and cafeterias, the six new
community schools will include public libraries, restaurants
doubling as culinary classrooms, beauty saloons offering
cosmetology classes, and conference rooms for nonprofit groups, the
writer reports, quoting Commissioner Kroll, who said, ''These
demonstration projects represent the perfect marriage of two key
components of our economic development plans -- urban redevelopment
and workforce development.'' All six projects will be built by local
community development agencies and completed between 2005 and 2007;
the other 24 will be launched by a special state agency, the
Schools Construction Corp. -- Star-Ledger
10/30/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
NJDEP Withdraws Controversial ''Blueprint for Intelligent Growth'' Development Map
Unveiled by Governor James E. McGreevey in January, the anti-sprawl
''Blueprint for Intelligent Growth,'' or the red-yellow-green BIG Map
of banned, guarded and encouraged development, ''has hit nothing but
roadblocks'' and was withdrawn by Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) Secretary Bradley M. Campbell, reports
Philadelphia Inquirer writer Kaitlin Gurney, to be
integrated with the never-implemented 1992 New Jersey Development
and Redevelopment Plan and in a new joint form reintroduced in late
November, a decision praised by smart-growth advocates like State
Democratic Senator John H. Adler, who said, ''The BIG Map
controversy served one positive purpose, albeit unintended, because
it generated something of a consensus for the state plan.'' Chief
gubernatorial counsel Eric Shuffler concurred, stressing, ''Special
interests used the map as a symbol to stop all of our anti-sprawl
efforts, and they no longer have that. We don't want symbols; we
want real progress.'' But developers still feel under regulatory
attack and promise an electoral counter action. ''The map might be
dead, but the underlying principles are still there'' as the
administration ''is trying to stop all building in the state,''
charged Builders League of South Jersey official Rick Van Osten,
noting that with all 120 statehouse seats up for election, the
group's membership and contributions to pro-builder candidates are
at record levels. Similarly, New Jersey Builders Association vice
president Patrick J. O'Keefe told Gloucester County Times
correspondent Terrence Dopp that the BIG Map ''is symptomatic of the
broader disarray'' among state officials in regard ''to planning for
New Jersey's future and the housing needs of its families,'' with
another million people expected within ten years. And
environmentalists worry for different reason. New Jersey
Environmental Federation official David Pringle said, ''The state
plan has not been known for being environmentally sensitive,'' thus
the DEP should retain authority over the anti-sprawl agenda ''to
ensure natural resources are protected.'' Sierra Club state director
Jeff Tittel agreed, adding, ''the important thing about the BIG Map
was that it was supposed to look at natural resources and water.''
-- Philadelphia Inquirer, Gloucester County Times
10/22/2003
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/ ; www.nj.com/gloucester/
Editorial: ''Good Riddance'' to Demise of NJ BIG Map, But Optimism Remains for Smart Growth Through Cooperative Planning
''Smart growth doesn't mean no growth, especially in Cumberland
County where unemployment is at 8.1 percent,'' say the county's
Daily Journal editors as they wish ''good riddance'' to New
Jersey's ''Blueprint for Intelligent Growth,'' or the BIG Map, since
they can't call intelligent a plan that ''eliminates growth on 40
percent of the land in the Federal Empowerment Zone, which exists
partially to promote growth,'' bans development in areas slated for
an industrial park near Millville and limits it in Vineland's Urban
Enterprise Zones. But the state's ''intent to control urban sprawl
and direct growth toward less environmentally sensitive areas must
not die,'' the editorial exhorts, stressing that in this county
''intelligent growth means encouraging industrial development in
areas with infrastructure'' and small businesses elsewhere. It also
means preserving ''farmlands and open spaces to protect our quality
of life'' and ''balancing the need for jobs and ratables with our
desire to take a walk in the park or spend the day fishing.'' The
editorial concludes, ''Working together, municipal, county and state
planners and officials can make this happen. Now that's smart
growth.'' -- Daily Journal
10/22/2003
Resource(s): www.thedailyjournal.com/index.html
Despite Legislative Setbacks, Gov. McGreevey's Anti-Sprawl Campaign Sees Results
Although resistance from builders -- made extra effective by their
heavy electoral contributions -- doomed ''the nation's toughest
anti-sprawl campaign in its most crowded state'' and forced Governor
James E. McGreevey both to focus his agenda on ''less controversial
legislative and regulatory changes'' and admit in an interview,
''Maybe the rhetoric got a little overheated,'' reports New York
Times writer Iver Peterson, the policies of the Democratic
governor, just in the middle of his first term, ''have had some
significant impacts.'' Using executive orders, he saved from
development more than 7,800 acres around reservoirs and created
buffers along 69 miles of rivers and streams. He also won
legislative approval for three referendum questions on November 4
-- whether to increase state borrowing for open space purchases, to
fund cleanup of brownfields slated for redevelopment, and to speed
up repairs for public parks, waterways and dams. With the governor
now readying modest legislative proposals to help farmers sell
development rights so developers could increase density elsewhere,
and perhaps to let municipalities charge additional impact fees,
his staffers put part of the blame for the anti-sprawl agenda
setback on lawmakers. The writer quotes an unnamed state official
as saying, ''I don't think anyone was under any illusion that the
Legislature was not and is not under the thrall of the builders'
lobby to a large extent.'' -- New York Times
10/21/2003
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
NJDEP Moves to Close Stream Protection Loophole in New Watershed Policy
Since its original draft of watershed protection rules could have
let developers claim grandfathering for thousands of projects and
skirt a requirement to stay 300 feet away from protected streams
and prevent rainwater runoff, the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection moved to close the loophole, with builders
calling the amendment too much and environmentalists, not enough.
New Jersey Builders Association environmental director Nancy
Wyttenburg, reports Press of Atlantic City writer Thomas
Barlas, argues that requiring state approval for projects approved
locally before the new guidelines take effect counters present
land-use laws and can confuse developers, forced to cross two
layers of government. New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel
points out that during the 90 to 120 days of public hearings and
formalizing the amendment, developers can rush applications for
more permits, ''which means they can beat the rule and get in.''
Although he rates Governor James E. McGreevey's administration as
''better'' than the administration of his predecessor Christine Todd
Whitman, he says, ''We still have to fight for the environment'' and
''We're starting to get impatient.'' Noting that the New Jersey
Sierra Club has filed an average of two suits a year against the
previous administration, but eight since January 2002 against the
present one, the writer quotes gubernatorial spokesman Micah
Rasmussen, who denies a rift with environmentalists, but says,
''These are people who feel if they are not getting 100 percent of
what they want, they feel it is OK to attack a friend. We take a
back seat to no one when it comes to the environment.'' -- Press
of Atlantic City
9/24/2003
Resource(s): www.pressofatlanticcity.com/
Gov. McGreevey Charges Highlands Task Force to Outline Plan for Curbing Sprawl
By an executive order, Governor James E. McGreevey has created a
19-member Highlands task force, giving it 180 days to outline an
action plan for curbing sprawl in this environmentally fragile
1,000-square-mile region, with a focus on ways to protect water
quality; coordinate open space preservation; enhance agriculture;
promote historic, scenic, cultural and recreational resources; and
advance smart growth and land-use planning. Noting that the region,
which spans 90 municipalities in seven counties, lost about 65,000
acres to development since 1984, Express-Times Trenton
correspondent Terrence Dopp quotes Environmental Protection
Commissioner Bradley Campbell, who said, ''We cannot afford to let
unchecked sprawl jeopardize a nationally significant area that
provides water for half of New Jersey residents and supports a
critical wildlife habitat.'' Part of the solution, promised task
force member Mayor Frank Van Horn of Knowlton Township, will be
minimum lot size increases and stronger environmental restrictions,
combined with better land preservation funding and urban
revitalization. ''The ideal of American (life) is to come out here
to the country,'' the mayor said about his rural township. ''But we
also have to make our urban places beautiful.'' A land preservation
advocate, Republican Assemblywoman Connie Myers, would prefer land
purchases rather than regulations to stem sprawl. She sounded
discouraged, saying, ''We keep having task forces and plans and
maps. Basically, people don't want smart growth. Is another task
force important? I don't know. I'll have to wait and see.'' New
Jersey Sierra Club executive director Jeff Tittel responded, ''This
is important because the Highlands is a place where the governor's
two major initiatives come together: protecting water and stopping
sprawl. We are losing 5,000 to 10,000 acres each year in the
Highlands. This is the last chance.'' -- Express-Times
9/23/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/expresstimes/
Incentive Program Offers Tax Breaks for New Jobs in New Jersey's Urban Smart Growth Communities
''Job creation must be our state's number one priority,'' stressed
New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey, signing the Business
Employment Incentive Program (BEIP) bill, which not only survived
eight months of budget-cutting negotiations, but also lets the
state fund incentives through bonds in tough fiscal years and
offers businesses 80 percent of the state personal income tax
withholdings from their new jobs in targeted ''smart growth'' urban
communities or distressed municipalities, with businesses creating
jobs elsewhere eligible for 50 percent of such withholdings. ''We
took a good program and made it better,'' the governor said, noting
that the BEIP increases the state's competitiveness, helping it
''readily match New York City and Pennsylvania in addition to
targeting particular industries.'' Those include high tech, biotech,
finance, pharmaceutical, and transportation and logistics
companies, reports Jersey City Journal writer Nicole Halsey.
Allowed to participate in the BEIP for up to 10 years, the
companies must create at least 25 jobs in targeted urban
communities or 75 jobs in suburban areas. -- Jersey City
Journal
9/3/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/jjournal/
New Affordable Housing Requirements Unveiled in New Jersey
In response to municipal complaints against New Jersey's affordable
housing law as favoring developers, the state Council on Affordable
Housing (COAH) unanimously replaced the controversial 1975 ''fair
share'' provision -- which forced towns to accept specific
low-income unit numbers set every four years since 1987 by the COAH
-- with a ''growth share'' requirement, which will oblige them to
approve one affordable unit for every 10 market rate units and one
for every 30 new jobs. ''The formulas in the past were overly
complicated, easy to avoid and cumbersome to implement,'' explained
COAH chairwoman, former Cherry Hill mayor, now state Community
Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin, adding later, ''This is a new
COAH ... that will be flexible and accommodating and get the job
done.'' The COAH also will encourage towns to work closely with
nonprofit groups that build affordable housing, reports
Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, noting that the state
League of Municipalities feels vindicated by the change, while some
developers and housing advocates voiced concern and frustration.
The state's largest residential developer, K. Hovnanian Cos.
president Joseph Riggs said although the ''growth share'' concept
isn't bad, it should clarify where to house the 1 million new
residents expected by 2020; otherwise there is a question about
towns' motivation ''to zone for any growth.'' One of the top industry
lawyers, Steve Eisdorfer, said the change ''does mean another round
of chaos'' and more court battles, while Cherry Hill's Fair Share
Housing Center official Kevin Walsh added, ''It's a new day for
exclusionary zoning.'' The writer points out that the COAH will
publish the new regulations in October, but implementation must
wait at least till January. -- Star-Ledger
8/26/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Revisions to Green Acres Land Purchase Program Expected to Bring More Funds to Populated Areas
Responsive to long-standing criticism of New Jersey's Green Acres
land purchase program by urban lawmakers, who consider its grant
cap unfair to their constituencies, Governor James E. McGreevey
decided to calculate the grant amounts based on county or
municipality population size, saying in a written statement, ''This
more strategic approach to open space acquisition bolsters my
administration's smart growth priorities and ultimately ensures
that New Jersey's children grow up next to parks, not parking
lots.'' Announcing that the program will focus on watershed land
purchases in more developed areas, Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley Campbell stressed, ''This
policy brings fairness to densely populated communities that have
been shortchanged by Green Acres in the past.'' For example, reports
Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, a grant for Essex County
could now jump from $500,000 to $3 million. In addition, the state
will hold public hearings on any proposal to rezone parkland for
development and will impose new fines for any Green Acre rule
violations. Still, state Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel asked,
''Why doesn't DEP start the discussion by introducing regulations,
rather than releasing a policy statement that is nothing more than
a press release?'' -- Star-Ledger
8/1/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Camden Plan Would Turn Rail Parking Lots Into Transit Villages
''The highest and best use of any land downtown is certainly not a
parking lot,'' says Collingswood community development director John
Kane, helping other Camden County officials promote the idea of
turning big parking lots at four PATCO Hi-Speedline rail stations
along a three-mile stretch of Haddon Avenue into
pedestrian-friendly transit villages, with homes, shops and
offices, which would transform the corridor into ''a Camden County
Main Street'' and help reduce sprawl. Collingswood and Camden have
already asked the New Jersey Department of Transportation to
designate their PATCO station areas as transit villages, which
would bring them state financial aid and agency expertise, reports
Courier-Post writer Jim Walsh, with village planning
consultant Lou Bezich hoping that Haddonfield and Haddon Township
will seek the designation in the future. The conceptual
Collingswood plan envisions a six-story block-long parking garage
with stores and apartments across the rail station and another six
lower mixed-use buildings along a ''bland'' street leading to the
nearby business district. The Camden village plan calls for 15
mixed-use buildings near the station, with a link to the nearby
medical center. The writer notes that eight communities statewide
have obtained the transit village designation so far, and that a
2002 California Department of Transportation study identified
transit villages, or Transit-Oriented Developments (TOD), as an
''effective strategy'' for managing growth and improving quality of
life, although implementation may be hindered by lack of funding,
especially for affordable housing, and by neighbors' fears of
increased traffic and density. -- Courier-Post
7/28/2003
Resource(s): www.courierpostonline.com/index.html
NJDEP Revokes Milligan Farm Housing Project Under New Water Protection Rule
Enabled by the recent gubernatorial designation of six more New
Jersey waterways as Category One (C1), which protects them from
anything bad for water quality, the Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) revoked a 1999 wastewater discharge permit for K.
Hovnanian Cos.' 292-home Milligan Farm project near Sidney Brook in
Union Township. Milligan Farm's treatment plant, reports Easton
(PA) Express-Times writer Peter Hall, would discharge 88,000
gallons of wastewater a day into Sidney Brook, a threatened and
endangered specie habitat and a tributary of the Raritan River,
which provides water to about 1.8 million people in the
northeastern part of the state. The DEP informed the company it can
apply for a new permit after gathering data on current Sidney Brook
water quality and pollutants. Instrumental in the designation of
the stream as C1, Rutgers University Environmental Law Clinic
attorney Tom Borden welcomes the ''long overdue'' permit revocation
as a victory for conservationists and local activists, including
Concerned Citizens of Union Township and the Clinton Township
Community Coalition. New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel
and Clinton Township Community Coalition founder Nick Corcodilos
agree. Tittel now expects the project to meet sound environmental
criteria or its delay to give area officials time to buy Milligan
farm for open space. With the New Jersey Builders Association
claiming in court that C1 rules contravene a constitutional builder
mandate to provide affordable housing, Corcodilos says, ''While
builders like Hovnanian go around crying crocodile tears about
providing affordable housing, they need to step back and realize
that people they are building affordable housing for also need
clean water.'' -- Express-Times
7/17/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
N.J. Clean Air Council Endorses Gov. McGreevey's Smart Growth Initiatives
To the surprise and satisfaction of environmentalists, the state's
business-oriented Clean Air Council endorsed Governor James E.
McGreevey's Smart Growth initiatives in its annual ''Moving
Transportation in the Right Direction'' report, saying they can help
improve air quality and ease other growth-related problems through
such means as reduced car use. Council chairman Jorge Berkowitz
represents the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, and
vice chairman Michael Egenton lobbies for the state Chamber of
Commerce, both groups that campaigned vigorously against the
governor's anti-sprawl proposals, reports Newark Star-Ledger
writer Alexander Lane, quoting state Sierra Club spokesman Jeff
Tittel, who is astonished ''that they had anything positive to say
about smart growth.'' But they also had reservations, the writer
notes. Vice chairman Egenton wants ''to see the cities revitalized,''
but is concerned that ''some of these cities that we're targeting
for development are the same cities that complain about air quality
issues.'' Chairman Berkowitz said the council neither backed the
recently rejected bill to adopt strict California-type emission
standards nor mentioned it in its report, because such a law would
join the state ''at the hip with a regulatory program in
California.'' Grateful for the council's endorsement of smart
growth, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley
Campbell criticized its stance on the bill, saying, ''We have to do
more to address pollution from the transportation sector if we're
going to address air pollution.'' -- Star-Ledger
7/10/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger
Housing Advocates Say Affordable Housing Missing from Meadowlands Smart Growth District Plan
A few days before the July 1st public comment deadline, the draft
of New Jersey Meadowlands Commission's (NJMC) smart-growth district
plan -- which aims to protect wetlands, spur economic development,
reclaim landfills as golf courses and build 3,741 housing units in
Lyndhurst, Secaucus and Rutherford -- was criticized by the Fair Share Housing Center for insufficient affordable housing
provisions, its executive director Peter J. O'Connor and staff
attorney Kevin Walsh writing, ''True 'smart growth' eschews the
creation of wealthy, and likely white and childless, enclaves like
those proposed by the NJMC.'' NJMC officials told New Jersey Media
Group writer Lisa Goodnight that major district developer, EnCap,
expects to build many units for seniors, which reflects local
wishes to prevent school overcrowding and could satisfy state
affordable housing rules. Considering that exclusionary zoning,
attorney Walsh said ''It's a sad state in New Jersey when
municipalities take steps that hurt families with children.'' NJMC
executive director Robert Cebeiro stressed that ''(t)he
responsibility for affordable housing lies with the municipalities
and only municipalities,'' some of which are doing a great
affordable housing job, especially Secaucus. NJMC Commissioner
Leonard Kaiser said the 14 Meadowlands towns will maintain their
diversity and the plan ''will improve what we are and will improve
our neighborhoods and, bottom line, will improve our quality of
life.'' -- NorthJersey.com
6/27/2003
Resource(s): www.northjersey.com/
New Jersey Files Amicus Curiae Brief in Defense of Lebanon Township Conservation Zone
True to Governor James E. McGreevey's January pledge to use the
state's ''full legal weight'' to help municipalities pursuing smart
growth fend off suits by developers with ''deep pockets and
expensive legal talents,'' the Attorney General's Office asked a
judge's permission to file an amicus curiae (friend of the court)
brief in defense of Hunterdon County's Lebanon Township, sued by
Toll Brothers and residents angered by a new low-density rural
conservation zone, with 7.5-acre minimum lots, which allegedly
hurts their property values. Anti-sprawl activists are ambivalent
about the state's move, reports Newark Star-Ledger writer
Steve Chambers, quoting New Jersey Future, executive director
Barbara Lawrence, who says, ''The purpose of the smart-growth shield
is to enable municipalities to make good land-use decisions without
undue fear of lawsuits by developers or property owners. An amicus
brief ... is good, but it doesn't do the job of protecting the town
financially.'' Noting that the state is considering other towns'
request for help in similar cases, Assistant Attorney General
Lawrence Stanley answers, ''Under court rules, if you are trying to
get into a case because of public importance, amicus is the route.''
Some builder attorneys think the Attorney General's Office may lack
expertise for stronger involvement since it has seldom handled
land-use cases. On the other hand towns often hire expert land-use
lawyers, they add, mentioning Howard Cohen, who last year won a
downzoning case for East Amwell against a suit by the New Jersey
Farm Bureau and now represents Lebanon Township. New Jersey
Builders Association chief executive officer Patrick J. O'Keefe
agrees, saying, ''When it comes to expensive legal talent and deep
pockets, the public sector, with its taxing ability, is second to
none.'' -- Star-Ledger
6/5/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
New Jersey May Exhaust Developable Land by 2020
Its 8.4 million residents making it the nation's most densely
populated state, five-million-acre New Jersey has about a million
acres under protection, a plan to save another million by 2009 and
a million left for development, but at the rate of accelerated
consumption over past several years, it may exhaust this
developable land, or reach ''buildout,'' once its population grows by
another million, probably around 2020. ''In the '50s and '60s, a
quarter of an acre was a lot, and half an acre was huge. Now it's
one acre, three acres, five acres,'' with large increases in
commercial development and car use rates per capita, Rutgers'
School of Planning and Public Policy dean James W. Hughes tells
New York Times writer Laura Mansnerus, adding ''When you move
into a McMansion you need three cars to fill your three-car garage
and a big S.U.V. for the two snow days per year.'' The dean expects
the state's population and development rates to slow down because
of its lack of space for new roads, saying, ''As congestion gets
worse, and it's going to get worse, and as it becomes expensive,
these inhibitors to growth are going to kick in.'' Other experts and
officials, including environmental protection commissioner Bradley
M. Campbell, stress the need to manage growth, especially since
about 40 percent of it is in rural and ecologically fragile areas.
''The time you reach buildout,'' he points out, ''depends on what kind
of regulatory controls you have to protect water and wildlife.'' The
writer notes that Governor James E. McGreevey rolled his
predecessor's program of spending about $200 million a year for
open space and farmland protection ''into a bigger 'smart growth'
campaign to steer development to population centers, mostly by
making it difficult elsewhere.'' This pleases conservationists like
Philipsburg activist Mike King, who says the governor is ''thinking
all those right things, but it's later than he seems to realize,''
while frustrating builders. New Jersey Builders Association land
use and planning director Joanne Harkins says developers, who moved
into rural areas when older suburbs became prohibitively expensive,
''are not able to meet demand'' and ''everything is sold before it's
built.'' And association CEO Patrick J. O'Keefe snaps, ''When Mr.
Campbell's done, there will be no place outside the ghettos for
middle-income and low-income New Jerseyans.'' The writer concludes
by quoting former State Planning Commission chairman Joseph J.
Maraziti Jr., who thinks builders should see city redevelopment as
a new business model, but cautions that taming the land and
expanding has been in the American genes for 300 years and it
''doesn't stop because of some speeches and legislation.'' -- New
York Times
5/24/2003
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
Builders Association Criticizes Gov. McGreevey's Smart Growth Urban Initiatives in Radio Ad
The New Jersey Builders Association has launched a statewide radio
ad campaign against Governor James E. McGreevey's smart-growth
urban initiatives as detrimental to the state's housing supply and
costs. A 60-second ad aired during the morning and afternoon rush
hours focuses on ''the plight of mature parents who are unable to
spend holidays with their children and grandchildren who have been
forced to leave the state in order to find housing.'' In a press
release, the builders association says it wants to ''encourage the
administration to address the housing needs of a growing
population.''
5/7/2003
Resource(s): www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/newjersey/
New Jersey DEP Ready for Public Input on Statewide Blueprint for Intelligent Growth
After three months of initial comments, the New Jersey Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) removed the first draft of the
state Blueprint for Intelligent Growth, or BIG Map, from its web
site and opened a several-month phase of detailed public input,
including consultations with all 21 counties and many
municipalities, to refine the color-coded guide -- green for free,
yellow for cautious and red for restricted development. Some
developers and local officials, reports Princeton Packet
writer David Campbell, criticized the posted draft for outdated
land use information and seemingly blanket farmland protection,
with New Jersey Builders Association executive vice president
Patrick O'Keefe calling it ''fraught with errors,'' Mercer County
Executive Robert Prunetti complaining about its ''heavy-handed
approach'' and West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh finding some of his
area's already-approved project sites painted red. DEP Commissioner
Bradley Campbell dismissed some criticism as ''more flap and doodle
from the builders' lobby,'' noting that since the state loses nearly
50 acres to development each day, ''almost any data we use would be
outdated.'' Still, the DEP web page explains that the final BIG Map
will be updated with the most recent local data and better aligned
with the State Development and Redevelopment Plan, while
recognizing ''that farmland is not a sufficient criterion'' for
tougher growth regulations. Sierra Club state chapter director
Jeffrey Tittel said the BIG Map draft has raised public ''awareness
of where environmental constraints are'' and now ''it's time to get
everyone together to implement the regulations on smart growth.'' --
Princeton Packet
4/29/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/times/ ; www.packetonline.com/site/news.asp?brd=1091
Builders Fear Water Protection Designations Will Limit Available Land for Housing Projects
In an anti-sprawl rule he recently promised, Governor James E.
McGreevey put six streams and nine reservoirs into Category One
(C1), which protects them from any runoff or discharge that would
worsen their water quality -- a designation likely to be proposed
gradually for another 40 or more water bodies but challenged within
weeks by builders, with one of their top legal strategists,
attorney Henry Hill, saying, ''This is of huge consequences. If C1
becomes (widespread), they're really wiping out all of the
available land for housing projects.'' Although builders have won
some court battles with the state Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) over water quality, including suits against its
attempts to strengthen septic tank and wetland rules in the 1990s,
reports Newark Star-Ledger writer Alexander Lane, now they
seem to face an uphill fight. ''As someone who has been a regulatory
lawyer for more than a decade,'' says DEP Commissioner Bradley
Campbell, ''I don't believe they have much hope for success.''
Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic attorney Tom Borden, who suggested
the designation for some of the streams, expects a builders' suit
to go straight to the Appellate Division, which usually backs state
environmental regulations, adding, ''From a legal analysis
perspective, I don't think they have a strong case if it's a direct
challenge to the C1 rule.'' Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed
Association head, former corporate environmental lawyer George
Hawkins, says barring some DEP procedural mistake, builders would
have to show the rule as ''arbitrary and capricious'' to have it
repealed. -- Star-Ledger
4/27/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/
Newark Lands E-ZPass Office; Realtors Optimistic About City's Office Space Potential
Helped by Governor James E. McGreevey's ''smart growth'' push for
urban redevelopment, the much-depressed city of Newark scored
another point as a reemergent commercial property market last
month, when the private Affiliated Computer Services (A.C.S.)
consolidated its New Jersey' E-ZPass offices in a long-half-vacant
jewelry plant building -- bringing in 300 jobs, about 240 filled
locally -- with upbeat Mayor Sharpe James stressing that the
company ''could have gone elsewhere,'' but choose Newark because ''we
are one of the most wired cities in the country, with a serious
technology base that businesses are taking advantage of.'' A.C.S.
managing director Michael Huerta confirms that the building offers
''excellent access to some pretty sophisticated communication
technology'' and his Cushman & Wakefield broker Edvin H. Cohen adds
that one of its ''biggest selling points ... was the available
parking,'' a rarity in downtown Newark. Noting that other real
estate experts are equally optimistic about the city's office space
potential, New York Times writer Antoinette Martin quotes
Heritage Management Company president Steven M. Greenberg, who
announces, ''Newark is rising.'' -- New York Times
4/13/2003
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
Gov. McGreevey Asks for More Power to Local Planning Boards, Closer Adherence to State Development/Redevelopment Plan
In his push for a regional anti-sprawl approach, Governor James
McGreevey proposed to give county planning boards greater power by
letting them impose a variety of developer fees, exert more
influence on regional-impact projects, and set up ''mediation
forums'' for municipal land-use disputes, while requiring county
master plans to follow the state Development and Redevelopment Plan
and direct growth to cities, older suburbs, and recently designated
rural centers. County officials at the New Jersey Association of
Counties' conference in New Brunswick, reports Newark Star-
Ledger writer Steve Chambers, expressed support for the
proposals, but also concern over likely builder challenges.
Association president, Middlesex Freeholder Jane Brady, said
officials are ''coming around to the notion that county government
can't be out of sync with the state,'' adding, ''There may be
specific situations where it doesn't work, but everyone understands
the need for good regional planning.'' A former association
president, Burlington County Freeholder Vince Farias, noted that
currently counties can impose developer traffic-impact fees only
for projects on county roads. ''We've been saying for years that the
impact on nearby roads and infrastructure should be considered,'' he
said, ''but the courts haven't been friendly to that argument.'' --
Newark Star-Ledger
4/5/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/
Emergency Loans from Conservation Groups Help Keep New Jersey's Green Acres Land Preservation Deals Moving
Although a protracted controversy between the Department of
Treasury and the Garden State Preservation Trust (GSPT) delayed the
$500 million sale in land preservation bonds until late March, no
Green Acres deal was lost, since the Department of Environmental
Protection secured emergency cash loans from conservation groups
and now, says its spokeswoman Elaine Makatura, ''all projects in the
pipeline can go forward,'' while officials ''are actively soliciting
for new Green Acres projects.'' Governor James McGreevey, an
outspoken land preservation advocate, notes Newark Star-
Ledger writer Steve Chambers, has ''downplayed'' the one-million-
acre goal set by then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1998 and
questioned some GSPT priorities. -- Newark Star-Ledger 3/26/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/index.ssf?fourteendays
Gov. McGreevey Unveils Proposals to Strictly Protect New Jersey's Water
''No other administration has ever applied C1 designation -- the
highest level of water quality protection possible -- to waterways
based on their use as drinking water,'' Governor James McGreevey
told area officials and activists gathered at the Lake Tappan shore
in Bergen County, announcing imminent proposals to expand this
strict protection over the lake and many other Oradell Reservoir
feeders, and eventually over 15 reservoirs, 40 waterways and 2,098
miles of streams, while banning any construction within 300 feet of
them, a prospect welcomed by conservationists but not developers.
Under the 1972 Clean Water Act, explains Newark Star-Ledger
writer Alexander Lane, C1 designation prevents any ''measurable
change of the water quality,'' with developers complaining they
can't build nearby without diverting waste far away or installing
very costly reverse-osmosis treatment systems. K. Hovnanian
Companies spokesman Doug Fenichel said, ''We need to be able to
balance the need to preserve these streams with the need to find
homes for a million more people over the next 20 years.''
Environmentalists, including New Jersey Public Interest Research
Group spokesman Doug O'Malley, would like to see the new C1
protection proposals formalized and enacted as soon as possible.
Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley
Campbell promised to make the first batch of proposals formal next
month, with the enactment likely in a year or so. But he also
cautioned, ''How long it takes depends on how much opposition there
is. I fully expect to have a fight on our hands.'' -- Newark
Star-Ledger
3/12/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
North, South Jersey Counties Align to Press for Changes in Proposed State Growth Plans
Concerned that Governor James McGreevey's three-colored Blueprint
for Intelligent Growth, or the BIG Map, would concentrate most
development in already-overdeveloped northeastern New Jersey by
diverting it from the two-thirds in need of economic boost, a
just-created northwestern Coalition of Five Counties is aligning
with the long-established eight-county Southern New Jersey
Freeholders Association, to make a stronger case for anti-sprawl
incentives rather than regulations as most suitable for their
areas. They also want to keep local decision-making ability intact
and to seek compensation for any control-related land value loss.
The group, reports Vineland Daily Journal writer Miles
Jackson, includes Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Warren
counties, all afraid of too much state restraint in the Highlands,
along with Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Camden, Cumberland,
Gloucester, Ocean and Salem counties, where three decades of
limited development in the Pinelands resulted in many claims of
taking private property rights. ''Together, we can make a lot more
noise,'' says Sussex freeholder Susan Zellman, adding, ''We want the
municipalities and towns to be at the heart of this process. We
also want to be compensated for the use of our public lands.''
Cumberland County spokesman, freeholders association secretary
Glenn Nickerson concurs. ''Together, you have 13 counties (of the
state's 21) with 40 percent of the state's population,'' he says.
''It's a lot harder for an elected official to ignore those kinds of
numbers.'' -- Vineland Daily Journal
3/11/2003
Resource(s): www.thedailyjournal.com/news/
Conservationists Applaud Highlands Protection Plan, But Express Concern Over Proposed Changes to Garden State Preservation Trust
''We lose nearly 50 acres of land a day to poorly controlled
development,'' said Governor James McGreevey, flanked by four
cabinet members at a press conference in a rundown Trenton park,
unveiling legislative proposals to invest another $100 million over
three years to preserve the Highlands and enhance urban parks,
while empowering the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
to condemn land threatened by development, offering tax breaks for
selling and donating land to the state, and allowing farmers
greater income reporting flexibility to help them through bad
years. Conservationists applauded the governor for stepping up
Highlands protection efforts, but expressed concern about a
reported ''power struggle'' over seats on the Garden State
Preservation Trust created by former Governor Christine Todd
Whitman after voters passed her 1998 bond initiative, which lets
the state spend $98 million a year for 30 years to save open space.
The governor, report Star-Ledger writers Tom Hester and
Steve Chambers, ''quietly wiped out the trust's $468,000 budget in
his proposed budget;'' a deputy attorney general advised two
trustees, South Harrison Democratic Mayor Russell J. Marino and
Salem County school board Republican member Herb Wegner, that state
law prohibits public officials from serving on the trust; and its
three staff members, including executive director Judy Jengo, are
to be replaced by DEP, Treasury and Agriculture staffers on June
30. DEP Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell said the trust will remain
independent and the elimination of its budget will provide another
$400,000 for land protection. But Trust Chairwoman, former
Republican Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden, is ''more than
disappointed,'' feeling that the trust, which ''has become a national
model for open space preservation'' may lose its independence, and
Sierra Club chapter director Jeff Tittel said, ''They should not be
playing politics with the trust.'' -- Newark Star-Ledger
3/7/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Editorial: New Jersey Growth Problems Rooted in Unfair Property Tax, Home Rule Policies
Since New Jersey expects another million people and 800,000 jobs by
2020, its ''smart-growth strategy is inadequate'' for providing both
sufficient and affordable housing, opines environmental law and
land use attorney Richard M. Hluchan, a partner at Ballard, Spahr,
Andrews & Ingersoll of Voorhees, in the Philadelphia Inquirer,
declaring Governor James McGreevey's plan not smart growth, but ''no
growth.'' Criticizing the governor's move ''to scuttle'' the
Development and Redevelopment Plan, adopt the three-color map,
''which would put 80 percent of the state off-limits to new growth,''
and let municipalities enact construction moratoria, the attorney
writes ''the real problem is the development approval process,
''which is often based on inadequate and arbitrary local planning
and parochial attitudes.'' The process, he continues, is rooted ''in
the unfair property tax'' -- which makes towns compete for
commercial and senior housing projects that generate more revenue
while requiring minimal services -- and in home rule, ''under which
each of our 566 municipalities engages in planning and zoning on
its own, often disregarding adjacent towns and statewide policies.''
Without property tax reform, home rule change and financial
incentives for better security, school improvement and brownfield
reclamation, the attorney writes, ''there will be no rush to move
back to the cities.'' He concludes: ''To make smart growth happen,
the state must take the initiative by designating enough growth
areas to accommodate our housing needs, and mandate that
municipalities accept the densities necessary to build such
housing. The state also needs to require that municipalities
provide necessary low- and moderate-income housing.'' --
Philadelphia Inquirer
3/3/2003
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/opinion/local1/
New Jersey Builders Organizing Against Gov. McGreevey's Smart Growth Strategy
As state officials refined Governor James McGreevey's smart growth
strategy in recent days, adjusting the tri-color anti-sprawl map
and drafting several bills to facilitate local control over
development and its costs, builders launched a counter-action among
mayors and lawmakers, with Haddonfield developer John Canuso
claiming ''Gov. 'McGreedy' has declared war on the building
industry, making us the scapegoat for the ills of our society.''
Builder lobbies have been persuasive before, notes Philadelphia
Inquirer writer Cynthia Burton, citing Democratic
Assemblyman Red Gusciora and Republican Senator Leonard Lance, who
pushed developer impact fee bills in the mid 1990s, but failed
despite strong support from then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman.
Although the revised anti-sprawl map has less red for restricted
development and more green and yellow for targeted and careful
growth, the writer observes, Republican political analyst Larry
Weitzner promises Governor McGreevey's legislation ''will never
pass.'' Other analysts and lawmakers think it unlikely the bills
could pass before the November election, with all 120 Assembly and
Senate seats at stake. They point out that lawmakers will
concentrate on the budget deficit in April, resume regular session
in May and leave for the summer in June. Usually in election years,
the most important work is left for reelected and new lawmakers.
Still, gubernatorial spokesman Micah Rasmussen is optimistic. ''It's
very clear the public is supportive of the governor in looking to
curb overdevelopment.'' he says. ''We expect to see legislative
movement.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer
3/3/2003
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/
Seven Ocean County, New Jersey Towns Receive Regional Planning Grant
In the first financial distribution under Governor James
McGreevey's Smart Growth program, Department of Community Affairs
Commissioner Susan Bass Levin announced a $150,000 grant for seven
northern Ocean County towns to help them study and align regional
planning with the state master plan, while briefing the county
mayors' association on the program's particulars, to be presented
in the legislature within 30 days. The will include two major
changes to the state's Municipal Land Use Law, reports Press of
Atlantic City writer Mike Jaccarino. One will let towns enact
building moratoria to craft growth-management plans and catch up
with infrastructure needs; the other will facilitate local
developer impact fees to make residential growth pay a fair share
of new school and public service costs. Southern Ocean County towns
are especially eager for such changes, the writer notes, because
their common most troublesome issue is ever-increasing development,
along with traffic congestion and higher taxes in its wake. --
Press of Atlantic City
2/25/2003
Resource(s): www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/ocean/
N.J. Builders Say They're Responding to What the Buyers Want
''It's a free market. We're only building what people are looking
for,'' which includes McMansions with big bathrooms, three-car
garages and vaulted ceilings, said New Jersey Builders Association
president Stephen H. Shaw, portraying Governor James McGreevey's
anti-sprawl drive as designed to ban development and arguing that
the state shouldn't be able to block buyers's aspirations. The
association's executive vice president, Patrick J. O'Keefe, echoed
the regulatory resentment, maintaining that builders already must
seek an average of 150 permits from five levels of government and
that ''Every inch of this state is planned and regulated by the
public sector.'' That's nonsense, responded Sierra Club chapter
director executive director Jeff Tittel, telling Associated Press
writer John P. McAlpin that ''The builders saying they're not
responsible for sprawl is sort of like saying the beer
manufacturers aren't responsible for getting anybody drunk,'' even
if they make the product, advertise it and create demand. Despite
their claims, he said, that the state color-coded map -- with green
promising incentives for builders and red advising them to keep out
-- will stem development, it simply delineates sensitive areas
where projects will be scrutinized for their adherence to higher
standards. -- Philadelphia Inquirer
2/24/2003
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/
Salem County Residents Feel Growth Pressure Is Imminent
Although Salem County in southwestern New Jersey -- just below the
heavily urbanized Philadelphia-New York corridor -- is still free
from sprawl and has a state-approved plan for redeveloping along
the Delaware River rather than building on farmland, its rural
residents hear about projects here and there, see more for-sale
signs around and sense an impending change, with New Jersey Future
research director Tim Evans saying they haven't bothered with land
protection so far, but ''This is the time to do it.'' Pilesgrove
resident Cheryl Reardon, who came with her family from a fast-
growing Philadelphia suburb nine years ago, agrees. She formed a
Concerned Pilesgrove Residents group, reports Associated Press
writer Geoff Mulvihill, to protect this rural municipality of 4,000
people, with neither police nor trash collection, from being
overwhelmed by the recently proposed 1,000 homes. The problem,
observes County planner Ron Rukenstein, is that most people are
interested in building homes where the county plan wants to
discourage development. The incoming growth pressures, the writer
notes, may make Salem County ''a prime battleground in the war on
sprawl'' declared by Governor James McGreevey in his State of the
State speech last month. -- Philadelphia Inquirer
2/24/2003
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/
Cherry Hill's Proposed 'Downtown' May Not Get a Chance
''Cherry Hill is blowing a chance to get the Main Street it has
never had,'' says a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, afraid
that the prospective redevelopment of the township's defunct
223-acre Garden State Park racetrack, ''which could be the
local model of smart-growth redevelopment,'' may eventually bring in
ordinary ''tract housing, mundane office park and big-box stores.''
Last year, the editorial reminds readers, Realen Properties of
Pennsylvania and Turnberry Associates of Florida proposed to
transform the racetrack into a pedestrian-friendly ''downtown,'' with
diverse housing, including apartments over shops, with restaurants,
offices, a hotel and a cultural center, sidewalks, bike paths, a
26-acre park and a nature trail, all near public transit. The
proposal was lauded by the Urban Land Institute and the American
Planning Association, embraced by planners and many residents, and
called ''magical'' by Mayor Art Simons. But new Mayor Bernard Platt
complained about overdevelopment and more traffic in the area and
some residents suggested keeping the whole racetrack as open space,
an idea seen by the editorial as ''lovely but unrealistic.''
Consequently, Realen Properties found itself alone in the
insistence on its project's quality and opted out this month,
leaving redevelopment in the hands of Turnberry Associates and its
new partner, M&M Properties. ''Cherry Hill has the chance to do
something extraordinary,'' the editorial concludes, ''but it may have
driven off the one developer with the commitment and know-how to
pull it off.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer
2/24/2003
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/
New Jersey's Smart Growth Pilot Program Could Aid Asbury Park Utility Upgrade
The New Jersey Natural Gas Company (NJNG), supplying energy to more
than 430,000 residential and business consumers and long helping
Monmouth County's town of Asbury Park improve its economy,
education and housing, asked the New Jersey Board of Public
Utilities (BPU) to initiate the town Smart Growth pilot program
that will let the company upgrade a major part of the municipal gas
distribution system at an annual cost of less than a dollar per
customer, with NJNG chairman and CEO Laurence M. Downes saying,
''Through the Smart Growth initiative, Governor James E. McGreevey
is committed to successfully planning for future growth in our
state by realizing the potential of Asbury Park and other
communities targeted for redevelopment.'' Commending the company for
its vision, BPU president Jeanne M. Fox said, ''The Governor's Smart
Growth agenda is important to the future of New Jersey. It is vital
that utilities like NJNG and state, county and local officials,
community and environmental leaders and builders work together in
developing priority growth areas like Asbury Park.'' A NJNG press
release notes that Asbury Park, the first town in the company's
service area selected for the Smart Growth pilot program, has
recently passed a coastal waterfront redevelopment plan and that
the state Department of Community Affairs has opened a local office
to speed up permit processing and revitalization efforts. Details
at www.njliving.com
2/6/2003
Resource(s): www.businesswire.com/
Editorial: To Manage Growth, New Jersey's Local Leaders Must Adjust Master Plans, Zoning Decisions
Having worked for several decades in New Jersey public policy, New
Jersey Future executive director Barbara L. Lawrence listened to
Governor James E. McGreevey's State of the State speech with
''jubilation,'' since he challenged sprawl as the state's worst
enemy, and with ''apprehension,'' since the state ''can't afford to
stop growing,'' she writes in a Philadelphia Inquirer column,
convinced that ''getting to smart growth means compromise.'' Noting
that smart growth means changes in the state and local decision-
making process and that the governor has ''moved to get the state's
house in order,'' director Lawrence stresses that now much will
depend on local leaders' willingness to comply with the state plan
by adjusting their master plans and zoning decisions. She argues
that the proposed building moratorium for communities ''reeling from
development pressures'' must be contingent on their commitment to
make local plans and zoning conform to the state plan, in general
by ''lowering building density on open lands and increasing density
near transit and other public infrastructure.'' She also argues that
''impact fees must support the state's master plan, falling only on
developers who choose to develop outside of desired growth areas,''
and they should be shared regionally. Urging the compromise
necessary for smart growth and for the common economic, social and
environmental benefit, she writes, ''Some communities with the
infrastructure to support growth may get more growth than they
desire. Others, with lands important to farming or water quality,
may get less. The alternative is the status quo of haphazard,
sprawling development.'' -- Philadelphia Inquirer
2/2/2003
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
State Commissioners Unveil Blueprint for New Jersey's Future Growth
Two days after Governor James E. McGreevey's State of the State
announcement of a long-term anti-sprawl campaign, his cabinet
officials unveiled a preliminary color-coded map -- whose dominant
red covers mostly rural areas of restricted growth, yellow advises
caution and green shows zones targeted for development -- with
Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin stressing, ''This
will be a true blueprint for New Jersey's future'' and Environmental
Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell adding, ''This is a major
step forward for sound policy, for smart growth in New Jersey.'' The
areas mapped for housing restrictions include most of Sussex,
Warren and Hunterdon counties, reports Star-Ledger writer
Dunstan McNichol, again quoting Secretary Campbell, who said,
''We're going to make sure that not a single dime is spent to
subsidize growth there,'' which means that sprawl-inducing road
projects ''are going to be limited in these areas.'' Commissioner
Bass Levin and acting Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere
noted that the state Housing Mortgage Finance Agency is already
using the map to guide its next round of funding and that the
Department of Transportation cut its highway expansion funds from
20 percent in last year's budget to four percent this year. The
''green'' areas mapped for growth, the writer observes, include most
of the densely populated fringes bordering New York City and
Philadelphia, northeastern Monmouth County and the outskirts of
Trenton, Phillipsburg, Vineland and Bridgeton. The map -- welcomed
by environmentalists, but seen by developers as likely to invite
legal challenges -- along with regulations for its growth-
management zones, will be finalized this spring, after consultation
with all 21 counties and a 60-day period of public input starting
next month. -- Star-Ledger, New York Times
1/17/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/ ; www.nytimes.com/
N.J. Gov. McGreevey Pledges to Continue Smart Growth Policies
The reduction of the nearly $5 billion deficit his obvious first
priority, Democratic Governor James E. McGreevey devoted much of
his State of the State speech to the protection of New Jersey's
environment and quality of life as another top priority, stressing,
''It is time to draw the line and say 'no more' to mindless sprawl''
and send developers this clear message: ''If you want to build in
over-developed or protected areas we will do everything in our
power to stop you. However, if you want to build and grow
consistent with smart growth, then we will help you get regulatory
approvals quickly and make sure the infrastructure is there to
support you.'' For years, the governor said, lawmakers have returned
to the state capitol and talked about car insurance, education and
property taxes, always treating ''the symptoms but not the root
cause'' -- not seeing that the problems result from ''a chain
reaction set off by uncontrolled growth.'' For years, he noted, ''all
over New Jersey we thought if we built one more road, one more
mall, one more housing development, our problems would be solved.
The truth is -- that is the problem.'' Thus, he continued, ''There is
no single greater threat to our way of life in New Jersey than the
unrestrained, uncontrolled development that has jeopardized our
water supplies, made our schools more crowded, our roads more
congested, and our open space disappear,'' driving up instead of
lowering property taxes. Pointing out that each day New Jersey
loses 50 acres to sprawl, the governor mentioned two factors in its
''senseless development.'' Although the state is the most congested
in the nation, its laws prevent towns from even considering ''the
impact of additional traffic'' during project reviews; and wealthy
developers ''use their deep pockets and expensive legal talents'' to
fight towns' opposition in court and ''effectively bully unwilling
taxpayers into submission.'' Today, with ''the full legal weight of
the state's Attorney General,'' towns ''will be given the legal
firepower from our administration to fight developers,'' the
governor asserted, also promising proposals to empower towns ''with
the legal and zoning tools to control and manage their future
growth'' and to let them ''impose a one year building moratorium,''
with the state stopping all taxpayer money from subsidizing sprawl.
''The days of builders saddling taxpayers with the costs of
development are over'' and ''impact fees'' are coming in, the governor
vowed, warning ''those who profit from the strip malls and
McMansions -- if you reap the benefits, you must also take the
responsibility for the costs.'' But he also put towns on notice,
emphasizing the need for ''regional solutions.'' No longer can a town
develop ''as it pleases to the detriment of its neighbors'' -- there
must be ''a mechanism to plan and control regional growth.'' And
since the ''answer to congestion and sprawl isn't only saying 'No',''
the governor called for making ''urban centers, older suburbs, and
rural towns more viable and attractive by redeveloping brownfields
and steering infrastructure spending to these areas.'' He committed
himself to ''a goal of preserving 20,000 acres of farmland a year,''
while upgrading 200 local parks, creating at least two state parks,
planting 100,000 trees and seizing ''the moment to preserve one of
our most precious and largest undeveloped natural areas, the
mountainous Highlands'' that provide one-third of the state's
drinking water. Asking Treasurer McCormack ''to reform the open
space bonding process to stretch our open space dollars without
increasing debt,'' which will add some $100,000 -- 15 percent more -
- for protection over three years, the governor announced ''a
limited time capital gains tax waiver'' for owners selling land to
the open space program. This new conservation incentive will also
lower the state's cost of buying threatened land. The governor
forewarned that his program will face enormous obstacles. ''There
will be vested interests lined up across this State and outside
that door to oppose us,'' he said. ''But we cannot turn back or
postpone this battle. It is the fight that will define and shape
the New Jersey we leave behind for our children and grandchildren.
It's a fight we must win.''
1/14/2003
Resource(s): www.state.nj.us/sos2003/speech_text.html
Faced with Budget Constraints, N.J. Gov. McGreevey to Prioritize Anti-Congestion Projects
With New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund facing $3 billion in
debt and the risk that its $600 million in annual tax revenue will
pay mostly for interest instead of roads and mass transit,
including construction of the Trenton-Camden light-rail line,
Governor James E. McGreevey promised at his first annual
transportation summit to speed up anti-congestion projects,
estimated their costs over the next five years at $5 billion and
announced a new blue-ribbon commission, to report on the state's
transportation system and identify possible sources of extra
revenue. ''We must be honest with the citizens of New Jersey about
our needs,'' the governor said. ''We must clearly convey our
priorities to them, carefully explain our plan to address these
needs and admit that it will not be easy.'' The governor, reports
Star-Ledger writer Joe Malinconico, issued an executive
order requiring transportation agencies to streamline construction
processes, take steps to reduce highway accidents, work out a plan
to shift more cargo from trucks to freight trains and provide
20,000 additional parking spaces at rail stations. Officials think
one source of extra revenue could be an increase in the state's
10.5-cent a gallon gas tax, the third lowest in the nation.
According to the executive director of the Tri-State Transportation
Committee, Janine Bauer, her watchdog group finds the public mostly
receptive to hikes in gas taxes and in New Jersey Turnpike tolls.
-- Star-Ledger
1/8/2003
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/
Pinelands Building Moratorium Suit Settled
Settling a suit against a building moratorium imposed by Governor
James E. McGreevey in three of the Pinelands' fastest-growing
townships, the state allowed the continuation of projects with
water permits already secured and shortened the September ban from
12 to 9 months or until drought conditions ease, while builders
acknowledged the state's authority to restrain the townships'
growth. For the past two decades, reports Newark Star-Ledger
writer Steve Chambers, the state Pinelands Commission controlled
development in the 1.1 million-acre region, steering almost all
housing to designated growth areas, including Egg Harbor, Galloway
and Hamilton townships near Atlantic City. With their officials
complaining that growth overwhelms services and the severe drought
continuing, the governor imposed the moratorium to prevent
depletion of the region's aquifer, a move challenged by builders in
federal court as arbitrary. Commenting on the settlement, Builders
League of South Jersey executive vice president Rick Van Osten
expressed hope for greater builder input in state growth policy and
Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley
Campbell promised continual evaluation of the region's needs,
hinting that its key water utility, New Jersey American, may be
fined for offering developers water it isn't allowed to draw. --
Newark Star-Ledger
12/10/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/
Revised Storm Water Control Rules Proposed by New Jersey's DEP
Alarmed by New Jersey's water quality and seasonal shortages, the
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) proposed stronger
storm-water control rules, which will make municipalities upgrade
storm sewers and otherwise curb polluted runoff, and have builders
widen buffers along key reservoirs from 25 to 300 feet and ensure
that runoff from new impervious surfaces seeps into the soil to
recharge aquifers. The DEP will help municipalities with $3 million
in federal money to ease their implementation costs, estimated at
an average $60,000 by the state and at about $100,000 by local
officials, reports Hackensack Record writer Alex Nussbaum,
while developers will have to plant rooftop vegetation, run
siphoning pipes into the ground and use more porous material for
driveways and sidewalks. Environmentalists applaud the rules,
likely to take effect in the spring, as another huge shift in the
state's approach to development and water quality. New Jersey
Environmental Federation lobbyist David Pringle expects an
immediate drop in construction ''around pristine and critical
waterways'' and ''a much smarter'' development pattern elsewhere,
adding, ''Too often in the past, we've just paved over first and
asked questions later.'' -- The Record
12/10/2002
Resource(s): www.bergen.com/
Governor's Water Allocation Moratorium Draws Ire of New Jersey Builders
Days after construction industry representatives at the state
Smart Growth Summit applauded Governor James E. McGreevey's
commitment to urban redevelopment and Transportation Commissioner
Jamie Fox's remark that neither are developers ''the enemy'' nor
can sprawl be stopped with ''a building moratorium,'' the Builders
League of South Jersey tied up traffic around the Statehouse with
a motorcade of hundreds protesters against last month's
gubernatorial moratorium on water allocations for new projects in
Atlantic County's townships of Egg Harbor, Galloway and Hamilton.
According to the Associated Press, the Pinelands area's building
restrictions have resulted in such a construction pace in those
three townships -- at a time of statewide drought emergency --
that it could overwhelm the aquifer and deprive other communities
of water. The temporary ban on water for new projects in the
three townships was urged by their own Republican Senator William
Gormley, who stressed that the governor is ''right for saying we
have to slow down.'' Department of Environmental Protection
Commissioner Bradley Campbell pointed to a hardship exemption for
projects under way, adding, ''At the end of the day, neither
builders nor the communities are served if new building is being
approved that can't be supported by the current water supply.'' -- Star-Ledger
10/29/2002
Resource(s): http://www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/
''Stop Subsidizing Sprawl,'' Says New Jersey's Governor McGreevey
Citing the successful smart growth policies of Maryland Governor
Parris N. Glendening and the implementation of similar land-use
control measures in Europe, Governor James E. McGreevey writes in
a Star-Ledger opinion piece that New Jersey, the nation's
most densely populated state, ''must stop subsidizing sprawl, and
focus on redevelopment and smarter regulation.'' His
administration, he writes, already reversed the last decade's
trend of spending 20 percent of the transportation capital budget
on new roads, focusing instead ''on projects that improve the
overall quality of life, particularly fixing the bottlenecks that
unduly congest our roads.'' It will include expanding the Transit
Villages initiative to reward municipalities for
''transit-friendly, smart-growth land use practices'' and
controlling development spills along roads with restrictions on
''major highway access.'' Pointing out that urban redevelopment
efforts will require faster brownfield reclamation, also for
residential projects, and the establishment of school renaissance
zones, with state funds leveraging substantial private
investment, the governor promises a package of ''super-incentives''
for smart growth developers and a triple increase in Green Acres
funds for downtown parks. The state must also ''strengthen
environmental protection, empower communities to foster
thoughtful planning, and streamline the regulatory process to
target smart growth,'' he adds, noting his administration's
''historic'' proposals to protect drinking water supplies and
wildlife habitat, and its new legal ''defense shield'' for
communities pursuing smart growth, with the Attorney General's
Office offering them help in ''precedent-setting'' cases. ''As
Governor,'' he concludes, ''I am committed to the adherence to
smart growth principles in the state budget.'' -- Star-Ledger
10/27/2002
Resource(s): http://www.nj.com/opinion/ledger/
Rutgers Team to Study Land Use and Climate Change; Experts See Dramatic Implications for Debate on Open Space and Sprawl
In a first full-scale multidisciplinary effort to identify and
quantify the links between land use and climate change, a Rutgers
University team of historians, biologists, urbanists and other
scientists, led by meteorology professor Alan Robock, is
scrutinizing New Jersey population growth, land consumption and
regional weather since the 1890s and envisaging a computer
modeling program that would use these data and other variables to
project scenarios of the state's future throughout this century.
Noting that earlier studies have shown how deforestation affects
rainfall, how urban heat islands spawn or redirect storms, and
how pavement increases stormwater speed and pollution rates,
New York Times writer Kirk Johnson quotes state officials
and environmentalists, who expect the Rutgers research, partly
funded by the state Department of Environmental Protection, to
have ''huge political implications for the debate about open space
and suburban sprawl.'' Scientific evidence about how a housing or
shopping mall project can affect regional water supply or even
weather, he writes, will transform local zoning and development
battles, with regulators and courts gaining powerful arguments
and with global warming becoming an aspect of urban planning and
''an aspect of politics.'' Professor Robock expresses similar
views. ''Once we get our tools working, we can say, 'What if the
future of New Jersey 100 years from now is this, or what if it's
this other plan -- how will that affect the climate?','' he notes,
hoping to give policy makers information ''that will actually help
them decide what the future development will be like.'' A Rutgers
doctoral candidate, Paul Stuart Wichansky, who is digitalizing a
1980s topographic state map for the climate modeling program,
observes that the past 12 months were the state's warmest in the
last 120 years and expects to find out ''how much of this warming
may actually be due to changes in the land surface itself as a
result of human modification.''
10/24/2002
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
Editorial: N.J. Smart Growth Summit Is A ''Good Start''
It was a ''good start'' for New Jersey's fight against sprawl,
opines a Newark Star-Ledger editorial, commending Governor
James E. McGreevey both for his persuasive call for broad
cooperation on smart growth and for raising the crucial question
of how to make the state's 566 municipalities, ''all jealous of
their home-rule powers,'' coordinate their 566 zoning plans among
themselves and with the state master plan, which directs
development to older and new growth centers. That uneasy task
will require balancing many contrary interests, the editorial
says, because New Jerseyans like neither sprawl nor density and
want ''solid economic growth and pristine water and air.'' Also,
the editorial agrees with the development community, ''we cannot
accommodate all our future growth just by rebuilding our cities''
and must make ''tough choices to expand rural centers and create
new ones.'' And finally, the editorial stresses the need to end
''the overreliance on property taxes to support schools and local
governments,'' which fuels a municipal chase after commercial and
other projects that can boost tax revenue, but also ''undermine
wise planning.''
10/23/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/opinion/ledger/
Governor McGreevey Outlines Growth Proposals at New Jersey Smart Growth Summit
''Smart growth has to be the core value by which we shape the
future of New Jersey,'' said Governor James E. McGreevey at his
Smart Growth Summit of lawmakers, officials, developers,
conservationists and activists, stressing the need to curb
sprawl, boost urban growth and fight road congestion, and citing
projections of another million residents and 800,000 jobs by
2020, while New Jerseyans are already wasting 261 million hours a
year stuck in traffic, which costs the state economy $4.7 billion
in lost time and $400 million in lost fuel. Key smart growth
proposals outlined by the governor and seven Cabinet members,
reports Bergen Record writer Alex Nussbaum, would let the
state use highway money to ease congestion in older urban areas
rather than in sprawling new suburbs; expand parking around
transit stations to encourage ''pedestrian-friendly downtowns;''
shift $82 million from unused environmental funds to speed up
brownfield reclamation; expand a developer brownfield cleanup
reimbursement program from commercial and industrial to
residential projects; create ''School Renaissance Zones'' in cities
and older suburbs, with public and private funds for home, shop
and park rehabilitation around new schools; triple urban park
funding; adopt new planning and zoning laws to help
municipalities phase in and otherwise control growth; increase
environmental protection for drinking water supplies; and make
developers or municipalities pay for utility line extensions to
projects outside growth centers. The audience liked what the
governor envisioned, the writer reports, though some wished he
had also proposed to deal with the property tax system and
affordable housing rules, often blamed for pushing sprawl into
rural areas; others questioned the state's ability to dissuade
municipalities or local residents from fighting high-density
projects in their areas; and still others saw a potential clash
between further protection of urban riverfront areas and
targeting them for denser development. Acknowledging these
concerns, the governor's deputy policy director, Marty Bierbaum,
pointed out that in exchange for higher growth, targeted
municipalities will get more money for transit, parking and
schools, which should mean jobs, economic advance and lower
taxes. ''Smart growth doesn't mean just shoving people down the
town's throats,'' he said. It means promoting density ''delicately
... in a way that makes sense.''
10/23/2002
Resource(s): www.bergen.com/
Poll: People Dislike Sprawl, But Unwilling to Give Up Choices
A pervasive split between most Americans' unhappiness with sprawl
and their unreadiness for individual lifestyle changes that would
slow it down is again revealed by a Star-Ledger
Eagleton-Rutgers poll, which found more than 80 percent of New
Jerseyans concerned or very concerned about traffic congestion,
overdevelopment and farmland loss and about 60 percent willing to
waive some local control for the sake of saving open space, but
also two-thirds putting job creation and property rights over
development and population controls, and less than half in support
of steering growth to urban centers if it collides with their
option to move into undeveloped areas. Commenting on the results,
reports Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers, experts noted
that the complexity of growth issues and the common habit of
viewing it through a prism of self-interest, requires asking
respondents the right questions. New Jersey Future director Barbara
Lawrence said ''its very hard to ask people in a poll to make simple
tradeoffs,'' which aren't really simple. New Jersey Conservation
Foundation executive director and state Planning Commission
chairwoman Michele Byers said with so little creative thinking
among developers, the American dream is still ''a house in the
country with a white picket fence,'' adding, ''We haven't provided
models of city living or high-density living with a good quality of
life.'' K. Hovnanian Companies vice president Andre Miesnikes said,
''People want to be free to move to the suburbs or less developed
areas. Of course, once they are there, they oppose any further
development -- a sadly selfish and unrealistic expectation.'' Sierra
Club state chapter director Jeff Titel concurred, saying, ''There is
selfishness out there, people wishing the guy next door would take
the train so he won't be in front of them on the highway. But if
the questions are asked in the proper context, if people are asked
about restricting development to protect their reservoirs and air
and open space, then I think you get a lot more calls for smart
growth.'' -- Star-Ledger
9/29/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/
Hudson River Waterfront Walkway One Step Closer to Completion
To advance the construction of New Jersey's 30-foot-wide, 18-mile
Hudson River Waterfront Walkway -- completed along 11 miles so far
-- state Transportation Secretary Jamie Fox presented Hoboken Mayor
David Roberts with a $1 million grant for final work on the city's
segment and announced $500,000 coming from the state Department of
Environmental Protection and $400,000 from Stevens Institute of
Technology, saying, ''This walkway project epitomizes this
administration's commitment to smart growth and urban
revitalization,'' while encouraging ''economic growth and development
along Hoboken's waterfront.'' Hoboken Reporter writer Tom
Jennemann notes that the Hudson walkway was first proposed by the
Regional Plan Association in 1966; the Department of Environmental
Protection required developers of waterfront property to construct
walkways for public access in 1980; and the Hudson River Waterfront
Conservancy was created to oversee the project in 1988. The Hudson
walkway, he adds, is part of the East Coast Greenway Association's
Millenium Trail, which will ultimately permit recreation and
pedestrian and bicycle travel from Maine to Florida. -- Hoboken
Reporter
9/29/2002
Resource(s): www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1292
New Jersey Pinelands Commission Nominees Face Immediate Challenges
With the 15-member New Jersey Pinelands Commission criticized by
many for letting development encroach on ecologically sensitive
areas of the 1.1 million-acre region in recent years, Governor
James E. McGreevey nominated his slate of seven commission
candidates, led by former Governor James Florio, emphasizing that
they all share his ''commitment to balance appropriate growth with
the protection of the Pinelands' critical plant and animal
habitats.'' Subject to state Senate confirmation, the gubernatorial
slate is seen by environmentalists as ''really positive,'' reports
Newark Star-Ledger writer Anthony S. Twyman, quoting
Pinelands Preservation Alliance executive director Carlton
Montgomery. The prospective chairman of the commission, James
Florio, a Democratic congressman, coauthor of the federal Pinelands
Nature Reserve bill in the late 1970s and governor in 1990-94, said
if confirmed, he will focus on such regional ''big picture'' issues
as water and open space preservation, which require a strategic
approach. One of the commission's first priorities are complaints
from Pinelands' designated growth areas, where Egg Harbor, Galloway
and Hamilton townships in Atlantic County are unable to provide the
schools and services necessitated by their rapid growth. As a
temporary remedy, the writer adds, the governor issued an executive
order placing a one-year freeze on new projects in these three
townships, to help them protect their drought-strained water
resources. -- Star-Ledger
9/23/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/
Zero Interest Loans Proposed for N.J. Public Servants Living in Neighborhoods Set for Urban Renewal
The New Jersey Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee
approved a bill that would provide police officers, firefighters
and public school teachers with zero interest loans for down
payments on single-family homes or condominiums in their work
areas, specifically in urban neighborhoods targeted for renewal and
other improvements. Buyers living in their units for five years
would have the loans forgiven. ''We know we need the middle class to
come back to our cities in order for them to be revitalized,'' said
the bill's sponsor, state Democratic Senator Shirley Turner. ''This
is one way to do it.'' Depending on municipal participation, the
bill could help these crucial workers buy homes in East Orange,
Elizabeth, Harrison, Irvington, Newark, New Brunswick, Orange,
Perth Amboy, Phillipsburg and other towns. -- The Star-
Ledger
9/10/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/
Rowan University Urged to Consider Smart Growth Principles in South Jersey Expansion Plans
Addressing Rowan University's $530 million, 10-year expansion plan
and fears of noise and traffic it raises in Glassboro, Washington
and other townships south of Philadelphia, a Philadelphia
Inquirer editorial calls the expansion the right move in a
state troubled by the outflow of youth to outside colleges, but
also urges the university, which is looking for land in rural
townships, to remain ''mindful of the crucial role it will play in
the area's efforts to achieve 'smart' growth.'' The editorial tells
Glassboro Mayor Chuck Vassali that even though the university won't
pay property taxes from the 75 acres currently slated for
revenue-boosting commercial use, doubling its enrollment to almost
20,000 students and increasing staff, faculty and related services,
will bring the town financial and other benefits. And it tells the
university to ''work closely with local and state officials, as well
as South Jersey builders, to make sure its campus boom doesn't
saddle the county with the infrastructure, transportation and
public school problems that typically come with unbridled sprawl.''
-- Philadelphia Inquirer 8/24/2002
Resource(s): www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
West Windsor Asks N.J. Supreme Court to Reconsider Ruling for 300-Acre Subdivision
Called its own worst enemy by the New Jersey Supreme Court for not
seeking protection against builder suits from the state Council on
Affordable Housing (COACH), the town of West Windsor said it had
tried unsuccessfully and asked the court to reconsider its decision
which lets Toll Brothers build a sprawling 300-acre subdivision
with 1,165 homes, town houses and apartments only because 20
percent of them are deemed affordable. Newark Star-Ledger
writer Steve Chambers reminds readers that COACH, created by
lawmakers in 1985 to take the affordable housing battles out of
courts, is calculating the affordable unit number each town must
reach under the 1975 and 1983 state Supreme Court's so-called Mount
Laurel decisions and offering ten-year protection from builder
suits to towns that submit required plans or pay other
municipalities thousands of dollars a unit for assuming an
additional affordable housing share. Involved in an earlier builder
lawsuit, West Windsor belatedly wanted to transfer the case to
COACH, which the judge was willing to permit but the builder's
attorney blocked and as a result the town never filed the required
documents. Thus, the new court's decision for the Toll Brothers
project and the town's motion to reconsider. Town lawyer Michael
Herbert admitted it's a long shot, but said, ''We believe, given the
public importance and the fact that it is such a fundamental error,
that it warrants reconsideration.'' -- Star-Ledger
8/14/2002
Resource(s): http://www.nj.com/starledger/
New Jersey Supreme Court Decides Three Major Land-Use Cases
In eagerly-awaited decisions in three land-use cases, the New
Jersey Supreme Court reaffirmed its so-called Mount Laurel rulings
from 1975 and 1983 that require municipalities to provide fair
shares of affordable housing and authorize a ''builder's remedy''
allowing construction of four market rate units for each affordable
unit, which relieves the industry, but frustrates low-density
suburban towns and leaves urban activists and conservationists
wishing for affordability procurement tools other than the
builder's remedy -- often abused to circumvent local zoning and
push through oversized projects perpetuating sprawl. In the first
case, the court let Toll Brothers proceed with a 1,165-unit,
300-acre project held up since 1980s, noting that West Windsor has
since approved thousands of upscale units but balked at the notion
of affordable housing. Seeing it differently, Governor James E.
McGreevey immediately called upon lawmakers to make the state's
affordable housing system less stacked against towns, reports
Newark Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers. The governor said,
''In many cases, the developer literally institutes litigation to
coerce a municipality to accept wrong, ill-suited development'' and
once he ''ravages a municipality, he then develops a moral purpose,
is imbued by the Holy Spirit, and argues that affordable housing is
needed.'' New Jersey Future director Barbara Lawrence also urged
system changes, saying ''We shouldn't have to choose between
protecting the environment and affordable housing.'' In the two
other, more clear-cut cases, the court rejected Bi-County
Development's request to hook up 100 luxury homes approved under
its affordable-housing fee in Clinton to a sewer line in adjacent
High Bridge, and stopped Cherry Hill from pursuing development of
its defunct Garden State Park horse track into a mixed-use
neighborhood because none of the 1,200 planned housing units was
affordable and because the town lags behind its assigned fair share
goal of providing 1,669 affordable units. -- Star-Ledger
8/6/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/ ; www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
New Jersey Planning Commission Faces Dual Tasks of Meeting Housing Needs, Controlling Sprawl
As the New Jersey population tops 8.4 million and its density, the
highest in the nation, exceeds 1,134 people per square mile,
Governor James E. McGreevey's growth-management team both realizes
the enormity of the double task of containing sprawl while housing
another million residents by 2025 and is determined to set the
right course, with Planning Commission chairman Tim Touhey saying,
''If I didn't think this was doable, I wouldn't be here,'' and Office
of Smart Growth director Adam Zellner adding, ''We've got about 20
years before there isn't anything left to plan in New Jersey.'' They
will focus on implementation of the state Development and
Redevelopment Plan, trying to concentrate growth in cities, older
suburbs and newly designated rural centers, reports Newark
Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers from the commission's
first official meeting, opened with a presentation of challenges
they face by former commissioner Dianne Brake, currently leading
the Regional Planning Partnership in Princeton. She stressed the
need to publicize the plan's advantages, against the background of
a ''build-out analysis,'' which shows prospective results of current
zoning and growth trends. On the other hand, a land-use attorney
who often represents developers, Peter Buchsbaum, reminded the
commission that most of the centers slated for growth are already
fully developed. But ''change is in the wind,'' the writer reports,
quoting gubernatorial office deputy director Martin Bierbaum, who
said the new Smart Growth Policy Council is working to clear the
way for growth in designated areas, protect watersheds, improve
state agency cooperation and increase public awareness of the
benefits from planned development. -- The Star-Ledger
7/25/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/
Transit Village Planned Around Busy Hamilton, N.J. Rail Station
Hoping for a future ''Transit Village'' of apartments, offices and
restaurants on 65 acres around the busy Hamilton rail station,
township and state officials have meantime gotten NJ Transit to add
300 spaces to its overburdened 1,615-car parking lot, because,
pointed out state Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox at a
station news conference, it's ''ludicrous to tell (commuters) to use
public transportation if they can't even park at the stations.'' The
Hamilton station's daily boardings have reached 1,900 since its
opening four years ago and Mayor Glen Gilmore expects the transit
village to be a multimillion-dollar public-private project likely
to start within a year, reports Trenton Times writer Maria
Cramer, noting that officials link the township's potential for
transit-oriented development with the proximity of I-295 but that
the details are still scarce. According to TKO Realty president Ted
Kraus, the recent economic downturn has made office and retail
developers more cautious and the township may need ''sweetheart''
deals like reduced taxes or rents to attract them to the transit
village project. But mayoral spokesman Rich McClellan dismissed the
notion, saying, ''Our indications are that there will be a
significant demand for this space because of its location,
location, location.'' -- The Times
7/25/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/times/
Governor McGreevey Plans Summit to Map Future of Growth in New Jersey
''What happens on the land affects the quality of streams, lakes and
reservoirs. Extending sewer and water lines influences the
sprouting of housing development and office parks as much as any
new highway,'' asserts a Newark Star-Ledger editorial, asking
whether the State Development and Redevelopment Plan's ''smart
growth'' strategies can curb pollution and spur conservation through
development in cities, inner suburbs and new rural centers, and
commending Governor James E. McGreevey for his planned fall summit
to explore the issue of the state's future. The summit, led by his
environmental, transportation and community affairs commissioners,
will sound out officials, planners, builders and community leaders
on ''how best to control sprawl and protect the environment while
offering a range of housing and work choices.'' It also will give
them an opportunity to review the proposed changes to water
pollution and supply laws, including stricter stormwater runoff
controls. Worked out by the Department of Environmental Protection
for presentation later this year, the editorial concludes, the
changes ''inevitably will help shape development across the state
over the coming decades.'' -- The Star-Ledger
7/18/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/editorials/ledger/
Conservation vs. Regulation: Using Both Methods to Combat Sprawl in New Jersey
Of two basic ways of fighting sprawl, through massive land
purchases or through ''aggressive regional planning,'' former New
Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, with a rural family
background, chose the conservation approach and won almost
two-thirds of state voters for her 1998 push to save a million
acres over a decade, a goal 26 percent met so far, while present
Governor James E. McGreevey, with an urban family background,
prefers the regulative approach, quickly forming a Cabinet-level
Smart Growth Council and instructing commissioners to reinvigorate
the state 1992 voluntary Development and Redevelopment Plan and use
financial incentives to promote growth in cities and older suburbs.
''The state plan can ensure predictability, consistency and a
healthy dose of rational planning,'' Governor McGreevey said. ''What
it needs are incentives and enforcement.'' Star-Ledger writer
Steve Chambers reports that although the New Jersey Builders
Association has criticized both the open space protection program
and the state plan as leaving little land for development, the
outgoing chief of the Office of State Planning, Joseph Maraziti
Jr., sees more towns accepting the plan and more builders working
in urbanized areas. And with the loss of 18,000 acres a year, he
said, ''It's the people of New Jersey who will demand a difference.'' -- The Star-Ledger 6/13/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/
Builder Sues N.J. Affordable Housing Council for Delay in Affordable Housing Unit Numbers
A major residential builder, Toll Brothers, sued the state's
Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) for a three-year delay in
release of new ''fair share'' numbers of affordable units assigned to
towns statewide, arguing that the delay affects the firm's legal
ability to negotiate the terms for its proposed 80-acre,
high-density Hunterdon Hills project in Union Township.
Star-Ledger writer Steve Chambers reminds readers that COAH
was created in 1985 as ''a legislative olive branch'' to stop
builder-town battles in the wake of the decade-earlier Mount Laurel
decision by the state Supreme Court that towns must allow a fair
share of affordable housing within their limits. It assigned
fair-share numbers for six-year periods according to the size of
town population and nonresidential space. Since COAH failed to
update its 1999 numbers, the legislature changed the law in 2001,
allowing COAH to release new data once a decade. The developer's
lawyer, Carl Bisgaier, ''a veteran of affordable-housing lawsuits,''
said in court papers, ''There is no rational basis for COAH not to
have generated its guidelines and recommendations.'' But Department
of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin said her
department, which includes COAH, won't rush the numbers as the new
administration strives to improve regional planning. ''We are going
to take a careful look at the methodology and the numbers it
produces,'' she explained. ''It's too important to make a mistake.''
Rutgers University professor Bob Burchell, who helped calculate
earlier data, said new numbers will likely be higher since they are
overdue and COAH still awaits one more set of U.S. Census figures.
-- The Star-Ledger
6/11/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/
New Jersey Governor Taps Land Conservation Funds to Reduce Budget Deficit
Having earlier earmarked $35 million from New Jersey's land
conservation funds to reduce the budget deficit for the year ending
June 30, Governor James E. McGreevey wants to take from them an
additional $7.4 million after that date to pay conservation's
administrative costs, both moves called normal and often necessary
by administration officials, but criticized by some
environmentalists and lawmakers as risky in times of escalating
land prices and competition with developers, and at variance with
the 1998 voter intention to dedicate $98 million annually over 10
years for farmland, open space and historic site preservation.
Star-Ledger writer Anthony S. Twyman quotes two Republican
lawmakers. Co-chairman of the Senate Environment Committee, Senator
Henry McNamara, was outraged over the governor's budget-balancing
tactics, noting that former Governor Christine Todd Whitman
campaigned hard in 1998 for the $1 billion measure to preserve one
million acres within a decade, to which more than one million
voters said yes, ''thinking the money would be spent on nothing but
buying land and preserving it.'' Senator Leonard Lance said of the
move, ''This is penny-wise, pound foolish, or should I say, land
foolish.'' But a Treasury Department spokesman, Ralph Siegel,
pointed out that during a fiscal emergency, the treasurer must
''look into every available fund to see if there are unused
balances.'' And Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley
Campbell added, ''We don't think there's going to be any loss in
preserving property under current threat of development.''
-- Star-Ledger 5/23/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/
West Orange's Rapid Growth Dominates Council Election Debate
Troubled by West Orange's dubious distinction as Sussex County's
fastest-growing city in the past decade, and even more by the
corollary side effects, all six candidates to two town council
seats at stake in the May 14 election are focusing on
overdevelopment, reports Star-Ledger writer Tina Bui. The
only incumbent, Kevin Keogh, proud of his against-the grain
attitude, is stressing his record in addressing downtown
revitalization issues, including taxes, business and traffic -- all
main issues for candidate Duane J. Dyson. The other four, Dorcas K.
O'Neal, and first-time runners Michelle Casalino, Susan McCartney
and E. Michael Taylor, are accentuating the need to reduce school
overcrowding and traffic congestion, with minor differences on
details. The writer adds that Taylor, who lives in a redeveloped
area and promotes redevelopment as long as lifelong residents are
not displaced, says his main goal and only electoral promise is
preservation of open space.
5/8/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/essex/
Suburban Environmentalists, Urban Renewal Groups Find Common Ground in New Jersey Anti-Sprawl Coalitions
Overcoming their divergent preoccupations with open space and
neighborhood blight, largely white and suburban New Jersey
environmental groups have been forming once-unlikely anti-sprawl
alliances with minority-based urban organizations, gaining more
clout in joint efforts to protect water supplies, revitalize cities
and expand affordable housing, reports Star-Ledger writer Steve
Chambers, quoting the executive director of the Trenton's Housing
and Community Development Network, Diane Sterner, who says, ''As we
talked, we found we had more in common than we realized.'' Her
community group has teamed early with environmentalists to fund the
Coalition for Affordable Housing and the Environment, which secured
urban support for the state's $1 billion bond initiative four years
ago and mobilized conservationists against the promised move by
last year's Republican gubernatorial nominee Bret Schundler to
repeal court-imposed municipal obligations to build affordable
housing. The coalition has also proposed a housing reform that
would free rural towns from pressure to approve large residential
projects without compromising their affordable housing needs and
presented the state Supreme Court with a brief supporting the
affordable housing obligations. Concurrently, the anti-sprawl New
Jersey Future group, led by Barbara Lawrence, urged $1 billion
spending for cities last year, while an urban expert with the New
Jersey Environmental Foundation, Kim Gaddy, became instrumental in
a January deal, in which Newark sold development rights for one
third of its 35,000 acres near upstate water reservoirs to the
state instead of developers. Others confirm the growing sense of
overlapping urban-environmental goals. State Sierra Club chapter
director Jeff Tittel says, ''Younger folks like myself grew up with
the civil rights movement. We're not going to fall into a race
trap. We believe in equality and affordable housing for all.'' The
executive director of Washington-based Smart Growth America, Don
Chen, says, ''Anyone who cares about sprawl realizes you have to
solve the affordable housing crisis as well.''
4/14/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/starledger/
Wetlands Restoration Program Falling Short in New Jersey
Requiring developers to replace up to two wetland acres for each
acre taken for development or to pay equivalent amounts to state
wetland ''mitigation banks,'' New Jersey's wetland protection rules
are stricter than the federal ones, but a study by the Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) found that poor planning and the
lack of state oversight reduced their 1988-1999 overall success
rate to a ''dismal'' 48 percent, with forest wetland restoration
dropping to just one percent. ''The will to protect seems to have
eroded'' during the previous administration, said new DEP
Commissioner Bradley Campbell, pledging redoubled efforts to
prevent development on wetlands, whose restoration or mitigation
''is always a last resort.'' Sampling 90 of 500 development sites in
the wetland mitigation program, the study found that as
compensation for their 164 built-over wetland acres, the state
expected restoration of 296 acres, not the mere 128 eventually
created, which amounts to a net wetland loss of 36 acres, or 22
percent. The study sets a goal of a net wetland gain by 2005,
through improved planning, monitoring, maintenance, inspections and
enforcement. Trenton Times writer Tracey L. Regan cites the
director of the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, George
Hawkins, who calls the notion that built-over natural wetlands can
be effectively replaced elsewhere ''a flawed concept,'' and the
chapter director of the Sierra Club, Jeffery Tittel, who points out
that the state didn't do better than developers with its own
wetland restoration, especially along some state highways. Noting
that the study comes as New Jersey is trying to fight severe
drought and find ways to limit sprawl impact on water quality and
quantity, Star-Ledger writer Anthony S. Twyman cites the
commissioner as saying, ''Wetlands loss deprives us of the water
storage we need to avoid drought.''
4/12/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/times/ ; www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/
N.J. Builders, Politicians Still Searching for Solutions After Housing and Growth Meeting
New Jersey builders invited state legislative leaders to exchange
views on affordable housing and growth restrictions, but according
to Trenton Times writer Larry Hanover their Atlantic City
meeting broke no new ground, with New Jersey Builders Association
CEO Patrick O'Keefe seeing no fruitful debate on development
possible until it shifts from sprawl to long-term housing
affordability and Hopewell Township builder Peter Blicher summing
it up with a remark that though lawmakers were sympathetic,
''politically they can't really do anything.'' Developer Stephen Shaw
complained about the state's regulatory process -- including a
stricter septic tank rule challenged by builders and recently
thrown out by an appellate court -- blaming regulations for an 18-
percent drop in housing starts last year; and developer David
Fisher expressed his concern about a proposed rule that would make
buyers of brownfields responsible for cleanup of any long-hidden
contamination. Assembly Republican Minority Leader Paul DiGaetano,
a former developer, voiced builders' hopes for amending the State
Development and Redevelopment Plan with a zoning map, which would
clearly demarcate land that can be developed and land that should
remain untouched. But his Republican colleague, Senate co-president
John Bennett cautioned that revising the voluntary plan may result
in mandatory provisions, which ''could come worse for everybody.''
The sole Democratic lawmaker, the other Senate co-president,
Richard Codey, said his colleagues would back a proposal to make
municipalities devise open-space master plans instead of buying
individual parcels to save them from development. But open space,
he stressed, should not outweigh affordable housing.
4/11/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/times/
Highlands Watershed Area Facing Critical Growth Decisions
The New Jersey-New York region of the Highlands -- part of over two
million acres of mountainous terrain reaching western Connecticut
and eastern central Pennsylvania -- lost 5,200 acres a year to
development between 1995 and 2000, and if that rate continues
unabated, its population may grow from 1.4 to more than 2 million
and face worsened drinking water quality from 50 to 70 percent of
its watersheds. Alarmed by these findings by scientists from the
U.S. Forest Service, area planners and conservationists, who
contributed to the study along with developers, say New Jersey can
accommodate all new residents only if it properly manages growth
and ensures regional planning among its 94 Highlands
municipalities. The state's Planning Commission chairman, Joseph
Maraziti, agreed earlier that the time has come to focus on the
Highlands and added after the report's release that residents need
to understand the cumulative consequences ''of a little decision
here and a little decision there.'' Sierra Club chapter director
Jeff Titel called the Highlands ''as valuable as Yellowstone or the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,'' urging more state and federal
funds for its land preservation. He pointed out that conservation
groups have sought $750 million to save 180,000 acres in the New
Jersey-New York region of the Highlands, but the federal government
contributes only about $9 million a year to the program. The
incoming director of the nonprofit Highland Coalition, Tom Gilbert,
also stressed that the federal government ''needs to be a full
partner in this effort.'' The Highland report is available at
www.fs.fed.us/na/highlands.
4/5/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/
NJDOT Budget Focuses on Street Improvements to Induce Urban Redevelopment, Walkability
With road construction money cut from $153 million to $92 million
in its $2.5 billion FY 2003 budget -- drawn up with the Department
of Environmental Protection to emphasize smart growth -- the New
Jersey Department of Transportation ''started to move in another
direction,'' said Transportation Commissioner James Fox, pointing to
increased outlays on road and bridge repairs and on street
improvements that induce urban redevelopment and walkability. The
commissioner stressed that redirecting a budget is like ''turning a
battleship'' and that even if it's not ''a radical budget,'' it's ''a
sea change'' and reflects the philosophy of Governor Jim Mcgreevey's
administration. Environmentalists were unimpressed. Concerned that
the budget ''doesn't match their (officials') words,'' Sierra Club
chapter director Jeff Tittle acknowledged only that they ''are
trying to move in the right direction, but they aren't there yet.''
Tri-State Transportation Campaign official Lisa Peterson noted that
the budget provides ''the lowest amount of state money'' for bridge
repairs in several years, with the additional repair money ''all due
to increases in federal funds.'' Trenton Times writer Michael
Jennings adds that according to NJ Transit official James Redeker,
the installation of a high-tech switching system this fall will let
the agency run four more trains an hour along the Manhattan line,
carrying almost 5,000 more rush hour commuters.
4/2/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/statehouse/times/
Historic Morristown Considers Lower Height Limits in Master Plan
In response to Morristown residents' concerns over the impact of
several major projects proposed for its central business district,
officials working on a new master plan may lower the height limit
in some district sections from five to three stories, to keep
development from changing local character. Star-Ledger writer Bill
Swayze quotes planning board chairman Scott Whitenack, who says
Morristown's ''big attraction is its human scale'' and with maximum
central district development, ''the increase in traffic and the
impact on the quality of life would be devastating.'' Applauding the
lower height idea, the Morristown Historic Preservation
Commission's chairman, Marion Harris, says it will help save
historic buildings. But Morristown Partnership executive director
Michael Fabrizio, whose group oversees a special improvement
district, considers the idea ''dangerous'' to the town's economic
prospects, tax base and future budgets. ''We all want to preserve
the history and character of the town, but that can be done at four
or five stories. They need to factor in today's astronomical land
acquisition costs.''
3/10/2002
Resource(s): www.nj.com/news/ledger/sussex/
Highlands Experiencing Development Pressure, Attracting Open-Space Conservation Efforts
A successful civic campaign that has saved key open space tracts in
the Highlands ''is expanding into a four-state conservation
crusade,'' observes Bergen Record writer Jan Barry, reporting
that the New Jersey-based Highland Coalition formed a regional
board to launch an environmental awareness campaign and raise funds
for land and conservation easement purchases in the growth-prone
Highlands regions of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and
Connecticut. ''The Highlands are the back yard of the metropolitan
area,'' said coalition chairman Tom Gilbert, but since some
Manhattan businesses and residents are reportedly looking to move
after last September, ''the development pressures in this nationally
significant region are only going to intensify.'' The new board's
honorary co-chairman, Samuel Pryor III of Bedford, New York --
recipient of last year's gubernatorial conservation award for
helping to raise $80 million in public and private funds for
purchase of Sterling Forest, now turned into an Orange County state
park -- stressed the need for a 10-year program to preserve
Highlands woodlands with countless streams that feed reservoirs
throughout the four-state region. The coalition needs about $50
million this year to preserve 40 priority sites, including a dozen
totaling almost 130,000 acres in New Jersey alone. 2/23/2002
Resource(s): www.bergen.com/
New Jersey Governor Creates State-Level Smart Growth Policy Council
In the first weeks of his administration, Governor James E.
McGreevey confirmed his campaign pledge to reduce sprawl and
promote sound planning with an executive order creating a Smart
Growth Policy Council comprised of cabinet members and senior state
officials. The council ''will be an important element of our efforts
to improve the quality of life,'' said the governor, adding, ''To
grow smart, we need to break down the barriers that separate the
various state agencies that play a role in how New Jersey develops.
The council will improve communication and ensure that we work
together to rebuild our towns, reduce congestion and preserve open
space.'' The council will make sure that state agency efforts,
grants and other economic incentives, along with transportation and
infrastructure funds and school construction initiatives, advance
the state plan and principles of smart growth. The council will
also streamline state redevelopment initiatives, especially
regarding brownfields; help resolve development-related conflicts;
find ways to assist local governments and communities in achieving
smart growth; and review state water resource capacity ''to reduce
conflicts between development and the protection of water and
natural resources.'' 1/31/2002
Resource(s): www.state.nj.us/
Open Space Trust to Fund 11 Grants in Passaic County, NJ
In the first major distribution from Passaic County's open space
trust fund, which collects about $2 million a year through a tax
approved by voters in 1996, county freeholders awarded 11 grants
totaling almost $1.5 million to seven towns and the New Jersey
Conservation Foundation for a variety of projects, ranging from
rural land protection, to vacant industrial site reclamation for
sports fields, to historic rehabilitation and park upgrades. Bergen
Record writer Josh Gohlke quotes the county's open space
committee chairman, William Paterson University professor Michael
Sebetich, as saying the grant money will ''never be enough, but it's
something; it's a start. Two years ago, we had zero.'' To pursue
their projects, the grantees must also tap their own conservation
funds or seek aid from the state's Green Acres program. A Passaic
River Coalition advisor to the county committee, Peter Ter Louw,
said municipal officials hope that the county will spur local land
purchases by providing more seed funds. Freeholder Lois Cuccinello
promised another round of open space funding later this year.
1/23/2002
Resource(s): www.bergen.com/
Land Preservation, Property Rights Issues Decided in NJ Court
In a North Brunswick property rights case closely watched by land
use experts for its eminent domain scope implications, State
Superior Court Judge James Hurley let the township condemn a 104-
acre rural parcel promised by the owner to a developer of 400
planned senior citizen homes and purchase it instead for
preservation. According to an Associated Press report in the
Trenton Times, two years after the owner and developer
agreement, the township decided to acquire the parcel for ball
fields and walking trails. New Jersey Farm Bureau executive
director Peter Furey thinks the judge's decision curtails property
rights, since land preservation should require ''the consent of the
land owner.'' But the dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of
Planning and Policy at the Rutgers University, James Hughes, thinks
numerous communities that have lost ''so many greenfields to
development over the last 20 years'' can have ''needed open space in
the future'' if they ''acquire it now.'' 1/16/2002
Resource(s): www.trentontimes.com
Trust for Public Land Adds to Barnegat Bay Watershed Preservation
Pooling $1.05 million from the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection Green Acres Program, $200,000 from the
Ocean County Natural Lands Trust and $200,000 of its own grant
money, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) secured permanent
preservation of 1,064 wooded acres in the fragile Barnegat Bay
watershed, with a TPL press release stressing that in ''forward-
thinking communities, buying land to protect water quality has
become part of a broader smart growth effort.'' Saying, ''We have to
act now if we want clean water for the future,'' TPL project manager
Cindy Gilman announced that the department's Division of Parks &
Forestry is including most of the newly-acquired tract -- 964 acres
in Lacey and Berkeley townships -- in Double Trouble State Park and
Ocean County is making the other 100 acres a protective buffer for
the Robert J. Miller Airport. The press release notes that guided
by ''The Century Plan: A Study of One Hundred Conservation Sites in
the Barnegat Bay Watershed,'' TPL has completed 44 area projects
since 1995, saving more than 9,400 acres from development. Its
preserved total acreage exceeds 18,000 acres in New Jersey and 1.3
million nationwide.
12/21/2001
Resource(s): www.tpl.org
Sierra Club Calls N.J. DEP Development Review a "Formula for Sprawl"
The New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club hit the state Department of Environmental Protection for its lax review of Morris Township's controversial St. Mary's Abbey retirement community project, which would run stormwater from the 10-percent impervious site into "a sensitive trout production stream," saying the department mangled both science and former Governor Christine Whitman's executive order mandating strict scrutiny of local projects to prevent "secondary and cumulative impacts" of sewer line extensions and sprawl. Stressing that recent research finds "irreversible adverse impacts on streams" once impervious surfaces, including pavement or even lawns and other compacted soils, reach 10 percent of a watershed, chapter director Jeff Tittel said in a press release, "DEP's approach is a formula for sprawl which would destroy the water quality in New Jersey's few remaining high quality trout streams, including those streams that feed our reservoirs and provide water supply. Allowing development to pave over 10 percent of environmentally sensitive lands not only undermines the entire statewide watershed planning process, but is a loophole large enough to drive a bulldozer through." Chapter policy director Bill Wolfe pointed out that under current New Jersey water policy standards, "projects that may impact trout production streams must not cause or contribute to 'any measurable or calculable change' in water quality" and that the department's failure to observe this requirement "makes a mockery" of Executive Order 109, issued by former Governor Whitman in January, 2000. The press release adds that the department's review of the St. Mary's Abbey project "also failed to consider 'hydromodification,' the physical damage to stream channels, stream banks, and aquatic habitat caused by high volume and velocity storm water runoff." For details, contact director Jeff Tittel at (609) 924-3141 or jefft1@voicenet.com 11/2/2001
Resource(s): www.enviroweb.org
Two northern New Jersey environmental groups, Skylands CLEAN and Wanaque REACH, held a workshop in Wanaque to help area voters make educated decisions about proposals to rise property taxes for open space
SMART GROWTH NEWS ARCHIVE
October 2001
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ALABAMA
Instrumental in reducing the number of vacant downtown buildings from 242 to 105 since 1995, Operation New Birmingham is shifting its focus from small retail buildings, turned into apartments and professional offices, to big ones like the 25-story neoclassical City Federal Building, which could be reclaimed for mixed use. Birmingham News writer Michael Tomberlin reports that Dallas-based Dillon Corporate Services, engaged by the building's new owner, Atlanta businessman Sam Barber, is planning to convert its ground floor to shops, the next five floors to offices and the upper 19 floors to condominiums. According to Dillon local managing partner Patrick Denney, the conversion of the 1913 building -- vacant for most of the past decade and fenced around to protect pedestrians from terra cotta fragments falling off its elegant facade -- will cost $16 million and require "a lot of cooperation," including tax breaks, subsidies and other incentives. Operation New Birmingham president Michael Calvert is optimistic, noting that conversion of the landmark building and the seven-story Heritage Place nearby could become a model for large downtown building redevelopment. 10.14.2001 Resource(s): www.al.com
ALASKA
Having hit oil in three of its six exploratory wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA) last winter, the Phillips oil company will continue the search during this drilling season, in contrast to Alaska's other biggest company, BP, which keeps results of the two wells drilled last year secret, but calls them "a logistically difficult and expensive project" and intends to assess the prospects before trying further exploration. According to Anchorage Daily News writer Ben Spiess, Phillips' enthusiasm for drilling in the 23.7-acre NPRA, whose 4.6 million acres was opened to exploration in 1999, stems from its 1996 discovery of the nearby 429-million-barrel Alpine field. Phillips Alaska president Kevin Meyers hopes the reserves reached by the company's three successful exploratory wells will match the expected Alpine output. The writer points out that in Alaska, "where oil is the lifeblood of much of the state economy and most of state government, exploration means more than an oil company's bottom line." Still, he quotes a resident of the Eskimo village Nuiqsut -- which also benefits from oil jobs and money but worries about caribou and other game loss around the Alpine area -- as saying BP's decision to stop exploration "feels like a godsend." 10.21.2001 Resource(s): www.adn.com
ARIZONA
Governor Jane Hull announced a $35 million HOPE VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for replacing Phoenix's largest public housing project, the blighted 360-apartment 1940s rowhouses on the Matthew Henson site, with 86 single-family homes, 75 apartments for seniors and 261 units elsewhere in the neighborhood. Civic and business leaders expect the redevelopment grant, which also provides for a community learning center, to attract $90 million in public and private funds for retail and grocery stores or more homes. Phased construction will start in spring 2003. 10.11.2001 Resource(s): www.arizonarepublic.com
The era of road building may be over, said the new Federal Highway Administration chief Mary Peters in an Arizona Republic interview, stressing that now the goal is to make present roads work better and to ease congestion with such combined measures as adding lanes, facilitating traffic flow with intelligent control systems, and shifting to transit and telecommuting. A former director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, Peters noted that the state exhausted its new road capability several years ago and that she has focused her four-year tenure on project completion rather than planning. Taking over the $30 billion national agency when the interstate highway-building program is basically complete, she has posed a question about its new "appropriate role" to professionals, local officials, transit advocates and other experts nationwide, with a joint brainstorming session scheduled for next month. For now, she sees her priority as providing transportation research, getting advanced traffic control technology from labs onto roads, and promoting road safety and security. 10.09.2001 Resource(s): www.arizonarepublic.com
CALIFORNIA
In an order to protect San Francisco Bay from "non-point source" pollution, the Regional Water Quality Control Board said Santa Clara County builders and 15 cities must reserve part of new home, road, and other construction sites for detention ponds, ditches or underground stormwater filtering systems -- starting with paved surfaces of at least an acre in July, 2000 and at least an eighth of an acre in October 2004 -- a decision lauded by conservationists, but opposed by city officials as too costly and by builders as detrimental to affordable housing and smart growth. Noting the board's intent to extend the order to the entire Bay Area, San Jose Mercury News writer Tracey Kaplan cites the executive director of the Silicon Valley Pollution Prevention Center, Patrick T. Ferraro, who says, "If we keep paving the watershed, we're going to get flooded or poison ourselves. This protects the bay, the streams and the drinking-water quality." With the area's population projected to grow by 2.3 million in the next 40 years, a spokesman for the San Francisco Baykeeper environmental group, Jonathan Kaplan, sees the order as necessary to stop the polluted runoff "from getting worse." But opponents warn that the order may increase the cost of a typical new house by $12,000 and, according to the executive director of the local chapter of the Home Builders Association of Northern California, Amy Glad, will "make it far more desirable to develop in land-rich natural areas." City officials plan to seek waiver regulations and builders are thinking about an appeal to the state water-quality board and about a lawsuit. The writer adds that the state board has recently upheld similar non-point pollution reduction rules adopted last year by Los Angeles County and several southern municipalities, including San Diego. 10.18.2001 Resource(s): www.sjmercury.com
With an executive order attesting that "the siting of state offices in central business districts or 'downtowns' can strengthen and revitalize California's cities and towns," cut state and taxpayer lease and operational costs, reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality, Governor Gray Davis directed the Department of General Services and other entities managing state properties in populated areas to give priority to local needs, while extending maximum support to "sound and smart growth patterns." The order specifies ten support considerations related to state facilities and office buildings. They are: preferred siting or leasing in a central city or adjacent area; construction or renovation with site plans and top architectural designs; sensitivity to building type and environmental concerns; proximity to transit and other infrastructure; proximity to housing, including affordable units; pedestrian access to stores and businesses, and exploitation of prospects for mixed use; the need for neighborhood economic revitalization; the use of structures with historic, cultural or architectural importance; consultation on local concerns; and local officials' advice on locally-offered incentives. Signed on October 9th, the order took effect immediately. Resource(s): www.cnu.org
Governor Grey Davis upset oil and development interests but heartened conservationists as he capped this year's legislative business by vetoing a "rigs-to-reefs" bill that would have let companies leave old drill platforms offshore; signing a bill against a speculator abuse of coastal zoning to inflate the value of land sought for protection; and allowing a March referendum on a $2.6-billion bond measure to build parks, clean beaches, preserve farmland and cut diesel pollution. The vetoed bill, report Los Angeles Times writers Miguel Bustillo and John Johnson, was pushed by oil companies and recreational fishermen, arguing that defunct rigs would create artificial reefs and stimulate marine life, while environmentalists and commercial fishermen demanded equipment removal and drill site cleanup. The anti-speculator bill -- triggered by a Hearst Corp. claim that its famous Hearst Castle property in San Simeon is worth more than conservationists estimate because it could be subdivided into 279 lots under old land records -- was opposed by the industry as too broad and hurtful to "small developers at a time when the state needs to build more housing to serve its swelling population." But critics noted that landowners routinely use the threat of selling for development just to get more from conservationists, a practice perfected by a developer who made a $20 million profit on land he bought in Big Sur. As to the March parks bond measure, state parks director Rusty Areias, said, "Gov. Davis often says education is his first, second and third priority, but clearly, parks is his fourth priority." 10.14.2001 Resource(s): www.latimes.com
Since the post-September 11 response and security priorities have diverted White House and congressional attention from work on the nation's new global warming policy, more than two dozens states and cities have found themselves in the lead with their greenhouse gas reduction efforts, reports Los Angeles Times environmental writer Gary Polakovic. "From Vermont to Oregon," he writes, "state and local governments are calling for broader use of energy-saving devices, more energy-efficient building standards, cleaner-burning power plants and more investment in such renewable energy sources as wind and solar power." The writer cites examples. In California, where 12 percent of electricity already comes from renewable sources, the legislature set up a greenhouse gas production registry for companies ready to mark their emission reduction progress, promising them rewards once the state adopts pertinent regulations. New Jersey officials decided to cut emissions by 3.5 percent below 1990 levels by 2005. New York Governor George Pataki ordered state buildings to get 20 percent of their electricity from solar or wind power by 2010. Under Oregon's "Blue Sky Program," more than 20,000 Oregonians added $3 a month to their Pacific Power and Light utility bills, so the company can buy electricity from sources that don't contribute to global warming. The Seattle City Light power company pledged to offset its carbon dioxide emissions with such measures as wider use of clean-fuel vehicles. And a group of Fortune 500 companies, including British Petroleum, Boeing Co., Enron, Lockheed Martin Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and International Energy Corp., the writer notes, joined with the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trust "to study and develop market-driven solutions to global warming." Resource(s): www.latimes.com
The tightening of Alameda County urban boundaries to curb growth and preserve unincorporated land -- Measure D, approved by 57 percent voters last November, but contested by developers as adverse to state housing law and property rights -- survived its first legal challenge, with Superior Court Judge James Richman deciding the suit has no merit. Shea Homes attorney Michael Zische, who argued that by halting the firm's 12,500-home project north of Livermore, the measure prevents the county from meeting its share of regional housing needs, indicated the likelihood of appeal. He predicted that growing Bay Area housing shortages will make builders challenge the measure for years to come. The vice president of regional and governmental affairs for the Home Builders Association of Northern California, Phil Serna, said "ballot measures such as Measure D, institutionalize 'NIMBYism'," becoming "the tool of choice for people who do not want growth in their back yards." But Livermore resident Margaret Tracy, head of the Preserve Area Ridgelands Committee, called the judge's decision "a 100 percent victory" for county voters, and Earthjustice attorney Trent Orr, who argued for conservation groups, said the decision demonstrates how well the measure is written and promised defeat to further challenges, too. 10.02.2001 Resource(s): www.mercurycenter.com
GEORGIA
In January, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) will begin to scrutinize large projects in metro Atlanta's 13 counties that fail federal air quality standards, with size thresholds lowered by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in its 10-county area from 500,000 to 400,000 square feet for office and mixed-use projects, from 500,000 to 300,000 square feet for commercial projects and from 500 to 400 homes for residential projects. In the three remaining metro counties -- Coweta, Forsyth and Paulding -- the size thresholds are determined by their respective Chattahoochee-Flint, Georgia Mountains and Coosa Valley regional development centers. Since GRTA can withhold state and federal road construction funds from projects that would worsen area traffic and air pollution, developers and their attorneys expect it to establish clear and prompt procedures for its scrutiny, reports Atlanta Journal- Constitution writer Janet Frankston. She quotes the president of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, Bill Shean, who points out that if the GRTA review is "user friendly" and ends within 45 days, "developers won't try to find a way around it." Otherwise, he predicts, instead of proposing large, say, 900-unit projects, developers may propose three 300-unit ones. Attorney Carl Westmoreland thinks the lower size thresholds may be a problem for commercial projects without residential units or nearby transit to "help them with air quality credits," but on the other hand, he says, they can encourage mixed-use projects, especially those with apartments. 10.08.2001 Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com
Although 2,300 homes proposed for Flowery Branch in Gwinnett County mean "a population explosion" for this small city of 2,000, its council preliminarily approved the 900-acre Rolling Hills Lake Club project under 41 conditions last month, noting that the developer, Looper Lake LLC, has already included biking and walking paths, a general store and other requisites of smart growth. City Manager Dennis Bergin says the council wants the developer to set aside at least 20 percent of the land as green space or common areas, with other conditions addressing the environment, watershed protection, storm water runoff, sewer service, transportation, education and public safety. Mayor Gene Reed notes that the project's 13-year construction schedule will give the city "time to adjust as it grows." With an average home price of $350,000, the mayor adds, the project "should pay for itself and then some," generating enough property taxes to pay the increased service costs. 10.11.2001 Resource(s): www.accessatlanta.com
IDAHO
Plans for downtown Boise redevelopment move forward, with the California-based Civic Partners Idaho seeking Ada County and City Council approvals for a $140 million two- building mixed-use project that would include 307 apartments, retail space, parking garages and large public plazas next to the new county courthouse. Some of the apartments, ranging from 500 to 800 square feet and built with city tax credit aid, would be set aside for low-income renters. They would complement a planned satellite campus for the University of Idaho and Idaho State University across the street and an office complex for federal and state natural resource management agencies nearby. The project could get under way early next year. Idaho Statesman writer Martin Johncox notes that Civic Partners, which focuses on downtown redevelopment in cooperation with public agencies, is also working on projects in Modesto and Stockton, California, Bettendorff, Iowa, and Wichita, Kansas. Resource(s): www.idahostatesman.com
INDIANA
In their final Downtown Master Plan report for Evansville, Cincinnati consultants Kinzelman Kline Gossman propose a multi-phase 25-year revitalization process, which would improve the area's traffic flow, encourage infills on vacant lots, renovate buildings and expand housing, business and green space, along with sport and entertainment venues -- all overseen by a new public-private coalition. The coalition, including officials, business and industry leaders, scholars and neighborhood activists, would work with the city's Metropolitan Development Department and Downtown Evansville Inc. to schedule realistic goals and ensure they are met. The reports suggest starting with a pilot block-rehabilitation project along Main Street as a "working laboratory" for full-scale revitalization, especially to create a "town square" atmosphere and attract investment and new residents to the city core. Resource(s): www.courierpress.com
LOUISIANA
Governor Mike Foster's new Committee on the Future of Coastal Louisiana began shaping a plan to stop the chronic erosion of 40 square miles each year, with a dire warning from its chairman, New Orleans Whitney Bank president King Milling, that otherwise the shore erosion "will incrementally destroy the economy, culture, ecology and infrastructure -- not to mention the valuable tax base -- of southern Louisiana." The state has spent about $150 million over the past decade on isolated shore-preservation projects, with research continuing at several universities, but the efforts have been largely "ineffective," he said, due to political turf battles, the lack of an agency in-charge and the huge $15-$20 billion remedial costs. He stressed that since coastal preservation requires at least ten years to succeed, local and state leaders must adopt "a different mind-set," an effort "which arguably runs counter to normal political cycles of two, four and six years" between elections and that they must face short-term consequences for the sake of imperative long-term goals. Advocate writer John LaPlante reports that the governor expects the commission's coastal preservation plan by January. 10.14.2001 Resource(s): www.theadvocate.com
MARYLAND
Governor Parris N. Glendening received the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) 2001 Distinguished Service Award for making expansion of transit and ridership a state priority since he took office in 1995, using its entire $15 billion transportation budget as an incentive for Smart Growth. Accepting the award, the governor said, "Our investment in transit lies at the heart of our Smart Growth initiatives as we improve the quality of life in Maryland by building walkable communities centered around transit stations. Transit must be our present and our future, and our commitment must be genuine. Maryland is charting a course other areas of the country may wish to follow." APTA President William W. Miller -- whose international nonprofit organization includes 1,400 public and private professional groups serving more than 90 percent of public transportation users in the U.S. and Canada -- said Marylanders are fortunate "to have a visionary leader who recognizes the importance of a first- class transportation system." Resource(s): www.usnewswire.com
MASSACHUSETTS
The result of the decade-long "leapfrog" development in the Greater Boston area, where land is consumed seven times faster than the population increases, are stark social and economic disparities between first-ring and farther-out suburbs, a severe lack of affordable housing near jobs and ensuing congestion of roads by commuters, says the first comprehensive study of the region's wealth and growth, "Boston Metropatterns." Commissioned by the Citizens Housing and Planning Association, sponsored by Harvard University and led by Minnesota lawmaker-planner, the director of the Metropolitan Area Research Corp., Myron Orfield, the study covers 162 cities and towns of Eastern Massachusetts between the Ocean and I-495. The study finds the post-World War II suburbs grappling with the notorious urban ills of "crime, more poverty in the schools, an aging infrastructure, population loss, and a declining tax base," writes Anthony Flint of The Boston Globe, while newer outer suburbs flourish and Boston itself regains its pull thanks to downtown and older neighborhood revitalization. The writer quoes Orfield as saying that with the persistent sprawl, all "interior communities -- Revere, Woburn, Melrose, Malden, Everet, Medford, Watertown, Milton, Randolph, Quincy -- really begin to struggle." New places always attract people, he continues, "but the system rewards exclusive behavior." The wealthy suburbs, he explains, "can tell new residents they will be taxed at a low rate, that there is no poverty in the schools, and they will get great services," while communities in decline "are forced to say just the opposite: that residents will be taxed at a higher rate, and that they will get less services." Among necessary remedies, his study recommends the expansion of affordable housing throughout the region and the creation of a regional agency to rein in local revenue competition. "Building up the tax base is the bottom line," Orfield says, but "the fragmented competition for resources hurts everybody. Cooperating on a regional level would make everyone's life better." The writer adds that Harvard University plans a forum on the study in December. 10.21.2001 Resource(s): www.boston.com
"Town lines may separate Canton, Dedham, Norwood and Westwood, but common highways, economies, water systems, and housing demands bring the four suburbs southwest of Boston together," writes Boston Globe correspondent Judith Forman, reporting from a Dedham Town Hall public workshop focused on transportation, redevelopment, senior housing and regional aquifer protection. Part of the second phase of a municipal growth study funded by a grant from the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs -- with the previous land use and growth scenario comparisons completed in 1999 -- the workshop elicited local suggestions for regional cooperation in planning growth. Participants would like to see new stores and restaurants near industrial and residential areas, to reduce traffic congestion and create pedestrian-friendly town centers. They also hope for joint aquifer protection, better water quality and more greenery at parking lots. Experts from the Daylor Consulting Group helping the four towns, Jeff Milder and Lee Hartmann, added that the area's housing-jobs ratio is only half the state average, which raises its housing costs and commuter traffic, and that the towns should jointly seek state funds for regional housing projects and redevelopment of the area's 75 brownfields. 10.14.2001 Resource(s): www.boston.com
MICHIGAN
With several land-use bills considered a priority in the Republican-led state House, the Archdiocese of Detroit joined the growth-management movement, holding a mini-conference on Macomb County sprawl and recommending five countermeasures; the main one would make the Michigan Department of Transportation set aside 10 percent of its annual budget for a regional transit system, to ease residents' dependency on cars. The Archdiocese also urged government officials to cooperate on planning; coordinate land use to curb sprawl and facilitate development in city centers and older suburbs; share the costs of housing, schools and public services; and give communities more authority over state infrastructure outlays. "Macomb County embodies sprawl issues," said the Archdiocese's Department of Christian Service director Dan Piepszowski, adding, "We believe in equity and the common good and that the social fabric is like a web. Something that happens in one part of the web affects those living in the other part of the web. Sprawl is starting to have an adverse effect on the whole." He stressed that a legislative mandate may be the only way to ensure cooperation between the state, school districts, municipalities and builders. Detroit News writer Santiago Esparza notes that once the Archdiocese completes the conference report, it will start lobbying municipalities to work together on planning growth. 10.17.2001 Resource(s): www.detnews.com
In contrast to the fragmented ordinances that Livingston County and cities like Howell have rushed through to accommodate their "breakneck" growth in the past decade, Howell's newly revamped comprehensive zoning ordinance aims to curb sprawl and "encourage a return to the gracious, walkable communities of old," writes Karen Bouffard in The Detroit News. This time, the Howell Planning Commission spent more than a year to cut through the "hodgepodge of amendments" and work out a document that would preserve the city's historic heritage, encouraging mixed-use and Planned Unit Development (PUD) projects. A city PUD project already under construction, Town Commons, features varied-style homes, from big Victorian to small cottages, along with sidewalks and period street lighting. Commission chairman Paul Streng says his group is seeking a balance: "we're still trying to protect residential areas, but it's nice to be able to walk down the street to get a loaf of bread or gallon of milk without having to get in the car to drive to the supermarket." Resource(s): www.detnews.com
MISSOURI
Applauding Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes' long insistence that the redevelopment of the President Hotel downtown -- closed 21 years ago and listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- should involve reclamation of other vacant buildings and parking lots on the same block, a Kansas City Star editorial predicts that a recent $80 million developer proposal along those lines still faces many obstacles and requires officials to be "nimble and innovative" to push it forward. The editorial points out that the project could have many "ripple effects by attracting more office and housing development" to the area and probably merits some city tax breaks, given that downtown projects, especially with sufficient parking space, "tend to be quite costly and difficult." The editorial advises the mayor to also seek state and federal tax credits for the project. 10.01.2001 Resource(s): www.kcstar.com
MONTANA
Under an agreement seen as "historic" for climate change control efforts, the Montana Environmental Information Center (MEIC), Missouri River Citizens and several others will drop their appeals of the state air-quality permit for a 240-megawatt Montana First Megawatts plant proposed by NorthWestern Corp. of South Dakota, in exchange for the company's pledge to accelerate introduction of emission reduction technology, fund an energy conservation education and aid program for the state's low-income families, and plant 100,000 trees statewide to offset the plant's carbon dioxide emissions. MEIC energy policy director Patrick Judge said the company's "head-on commitment to addressing the global climate change is precedent-setting." The company, he continued, will make its project "Montana's first coal- or gas-fired power plant with a full offset of its carbon-dioxide emissions," becoming "a good neighbor and responsible steward of our natural resources." Northwestern Services Group president and CEO Mike Hansen said, "As good corporate stewards, we chose to work with groups and individuals to address their concerns and create programs that will further promote conservation and a cleaner environment." 10.11.2001 Resource(s): www.helenair.com
NEW JERSEY
Two northern New Jersey environmental groups, Skylands CLEAN and Wanaque REACH, held a workshop in Wanaque to help area voters make educated decisions about proposals to rise property taxes for open space -- proposals placed on November ballots in Wanaque and nearby communities of Oakland, Pequannock, Pompton Lakes and Ringwood. The taxes would rise up to 2 cents per $100 of assessed value in Pequannock and 1 cent in the other four towns. Speakers from the Department of Environmental Protection, Passaic River Coalition and Morris Land Conservancy outlined benefits of dedicated municipal taxes for open space and recreation, and explained their mechanisms, including the state's matching Green Acres grants, which help communities acquire natural areas, preserve farmland, expand playgrounds and maintain historic sites.
10/24/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Increasing numbers of municipalities are looking to create war chests to fight future development
"After watching the building boom of the past decade eat up much of North Jersey's remaining woodlands and green space, increasing numbers of municipalities are looking to create war chests to fight future development," write Evonne Coutros and Brian Aberback of the Bergen Record, noting that another ten towns will ask voters to approve slight property tax increases for land preservation next month. The towns are Demarest, Emerson, Midland Park, Oakland, Ridgewood, River Edge and Upper Saddle River in Bergen County and Pompton Lakes, Ringwood and Wanaque in Passaic County. With less than $2 a month, says Oakland Mayor Robert Piccoli, residents "can do their share" to secure state grants and keep still undeveloped land green. "The promise of state money has been a big boost" to local fund-raising efforts since 1998. when voters authorized the state to collect $98 million in sales taxes annually over ten years for open space, says Garden State Preservation Trust Fund executive director Judy Jengo. Distributing the money, the trust can also issue up to $100 million in preservation bonds. The writers point out that the number of localities with open space taxes jumped from 13 in 1995, to 89 in 1999 and to 146 so far this year. 10/18/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
In a 4-3 partisan vote, the ...
In a 4-3 partisan vote, the Democratic majority on the Oakland Borough Council decided to hold a non-binding November referendum on a proposed one-cent property tax for the Municipal Open Space, Recreation, Farmland, and Historic Preservation Trust Fund. The tax would cost owners of the borough's average $210,000 homes $21 a year and put about $110,000 annually into the fund. Mayor Robert Piccoli says the tax would give the borough "the opportunity to set forth a plan of action to acquire land before developers get hold of it," while facilitating short-notice purchases. The three Republican councilmen oppose new taxes and prefer other means of funding land protection. According to Bergen Record writer Brian Aberback, most residents seem receptive to the tax proposal. The non-binding referendum would test local opinion, with the council having the final word on the prospective tax. 8/16/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Having spent more than $60 million in ...
Having spent more than $60 million in open space preservation property taxes to save 10,000 acres since 1993, the Morris County Board of Freeholders decided to hold a November referendum on a proposal to increase the tax from 3 to 5 cents per $100 of assessed home values. That would cost owners of the county's average $250,000 homes about $50 a year and increase the Open Space Trust Fund annual revenue from $15 million to $25 million for land and development right purchases. The tax increase proponent, Republican Freeholder Jack Schrier, cited a recent survey by the Trust for Public Land, which found 67 percent of county voters willing to pay two cents more for open space and farmland preservation. Land preservation, he said, helps stabilize population, school enrollment and road congestion. Among the state's 21 counties only Morris and Middlesex have a tax as high as 3 percent of assessed property value. The 5-cent rate would be the highest in the state. 8/16/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
In the first distribution from the Garden ...
In the first distribution from the Garden State Green Acres Preservation Fund, Acting Governor Donald T. DiFrancesco signed bills providing communities and conservation groups across the state with more than $215 million for open space acquisition, farmland protection and park expansion. The preservation fund was created in 1999, under a state constitutional amendment resulting from overwhelming voter approval a year earlier of Governor Christine Todd Whitman's initiative to save an additional million acres from development over ten years. Bergen Record writers Justo Batista and Yung Kim note that with more than 800,000 acres already protected, the approved initiative put the state on course for saving almost 40 percent of its 4.8 million acres for agricultural and recreational purposes, "belying its smokestack-and-landfill image." 7/31/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Using the language of environmental groups and ...
Using the language of environmental groups and counting on their formal endorsement, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey launched his campaign with a pledge "to ensure clean air and clean water" and a shot at his Republican rival Bret Schundler -- who was visiting the White House -- as a supporter of an administration "that has undermined national environmental standards." Bergen Record writer Alex Nussbaum notes that in the 1997 gubernatorial campaign environmentalists supported McGreevey's opponent in the Democratic primary. They were concerned with McGreevey's mixed environmental record as a corporate lobbyist in the 1980s and later a state assemblyman, and lent him support only in the race against the incumbent governor, Christine Todd Whitman. Now, flanked by some environmentalists, McGreevey promised to reduce farm and lawn pesticide and fertilizer runoff, funnel open space funds toward buffers along streams and reservoirs, and extend trout stream protection measures to drinking water supplies. Schundler's spokesman Bill Guhl said the candidate doesn't have specific clean water proposals yet, but emphasized his commitment to urban redevelopment and curbing sprawl. Pointing out that the Sierra Club and other environmental groups are holding on an endorsement to give Schundler and other candidates time to detail their positions, the writer quotes the legislative chairman for the 150,000-member Jersey Coast Anglers Association, Tom Fote. "New Jersey voters are green. We've always voted for people that are sensitive to the middle, politically,"he says, adding that "to get elected here, you have to be a green candidate." 7/10/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
The nonprofit New Newark Foundation, created three ...
The nonprofit New Newark Foundation, created three years ago to redevelop an eight-block segment of the city's core, announced a $180-million, mixed-use project, which will transform two long-vacant buildings from the National Register of Historic Places and two big parking lots into a 24-hour neighborhood, with about 550 loft apartments, upscale stores, restaurants and night clubs, courtyards and underground garages, all near public transit and a future rail to Newark International Airport. The foundation's executive director and CEO, James A Schmidt, said the developer, Parkside Associates of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania -- chosen from among 18 applicants -- met the foundation's mixed-use and "round-the-clock" activity goals in every respect. Hailing this first major core redevelopment project in more than a decade, Mayor Sharpe James said with people living downtown, within walking distance of the Performing Arts Center, the Newark Museum, the library, the baseball stadium and a proposed sports arena, the district will shed the "ghost town" image it acquires after 4 p.m. when workers begin their exodus and the city's daytime population of 1.2 million shrinks to 275,000. 6/22/2001
Resource(s): www.beren.com
Morris County Republicans won their freeholder majority ...
Morris County Republicans won their freeholder majority in 1973 and strengthened it with a popular open-space property tax initiative in 1993, but now Democratic candidates want "to steal the GOP's thunder" by proposing a much more aggressive land preservation approach. The Republican-initiated tax, currently at 3 cents per $100 of assessed value, reports Bergen Record writer John Cichowski, brings in about $15 million a year, with the $60 million raised so far spent to protect 10,000 acres, either by direct acquisition or purchase of development rights. Incumbent Republican freeholder Douglas Cabana, running with his colleagues Jack Schrier and John Inglesino in the freeholder primary, says "open space preservation is a Republican initiative," with no county having done more to save land from development. Democratic candidate Dan Grant, running in the primary with Kathleen O'Neill Margiotta and Gary Colucci, says the current "piecemeal" plan needs decades "to do much good," by which time "all the land will be gone." He proposes to use the annual $15-million tax as leverage for a $180 million bond issue, which would accelerate land preservation, while minimizing population growth, school expansion and traffic accumulation. Republicans argue that the proposal would increase the county's bond interest payments and jeopardize its AAA bond rating. They suggest instead increasing the tax from 3 to 4 cents, which would bring in $2 million more a year for open space. 6/21/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Morris County Republicans won their freeholder majority ...
Morris County Republicans won their freeholder majority in 1973 and strengthened it with a popular open-space property tax initiative in 1993, but now Democratic candidates want "to steal the GOP's thunder" by proposing a much more aggressive land preservation approach. The Republican-initiated tax, currently at 3 cents per $100 of assessed value, reports Bergen Record writer John Cichowski, brings in about $15 million a year, with the $60 million raised so far spent to protect 10,000 acres, either by direct acquisition or purchase of development rights. Incumbent Republican freeholder Douglas Cabana, running with his colleagues Jack Schrier and John Inglesino in the freeholder primary, says "open space preservation is a Republican initiative," with no county having done more to save land from development. Democratic candidate Dan Grant, running in the primary with Kathleen O'Neill Margiotta and Gary Colucci, says the current "piecemeal" plan needs decades "to do much good," by which time "all the land will be gone." He proposes to use the annual $15-million tax as leverage for a $180 million bond issue, which would accelerate land preservation, while minimizing population growth, school expansion and traffic accumulation. Republicans argue that the proposal would increase the county's bond interest payments and jeopardize its AAA bond rating. They suggest instead increasing the tax from 3 to 4 cents, which would bring in $2 million more a year for open space. 6/21/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Morris County Republicans won their freeholder majority ...
Morris County Republicans won their freeholder majority in 1973 and strengthened it with a popular open-space property tax initiative in 1993, but now Democratic candidates want "to steal the GOP's thunder" by proposing a much more aggressive land preservation approach. The Republican-initiated tax, currently at 3 cents per $100 of assessed value, reports Bergen Record writer John Cichowski, brings in about $15 million a year, with the $60 million raised so far spent to protect 10,000 acres, either by direct acquisition or purchase of development rights. Incumbent Republican freeholder Douglas Cabana, running with his colleagues Jack Schrier and John Inglesino in the freeholder primary, says "open space preservation is a Republican initiative," with no county having done more to save land from development. Democratic candidate Dan Grant, running in the primary with Kathleen O'Neill Margiotta and Gary Colucci, says the current "piecemeal" plan needs decades "to do much good," by which time "all the land will be gone." He proposes to use the annual $15-million tax as leverage for a $180 million bond issue, which would accelerate land preservation, while minimizing population growth, school expansion and traffic accumulation. Republicans argue that the proposal would increase the county's bond interest payments and jeopardize its AAA bond rating. They suggest instead increasing the tax from 3 to 4 cents, which would bring in $2 million more a year for open space. 6/21/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Encouraged by growing support for land preservation ...
Encouraged by growing support for land preservation across the state and in their two Passaic County towns, Pompton Lakes and Wanaque officials are planning November referenda on one-cent property tax increases, which would cost owners of average $130,000 homes about $13 a year, raise $40,000 a year in each town and make them eligible for state Green Acres 50-percent matching grants and low-interest loans. Bergen Record writer Jan Barry reports that the Pompton Lakes Borough Council has received a referendum petition signed by more than 1,500 residents, while in Wanaque, "the open space referendum idea has grown from a request made by resident Sandy Lawson, a perennial Democratic candidate for a council seat, to a commitment by the all-Republican governing body." The writer notes that county voters authorized an up-to-four-cent property tax for land protection in 1996, but the Board of Freeholders held it back until 1999, "out of fear of alienating taxpayers." The county tax, at three-quarters of a cent, has raised about $2.3 million. 6/20/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
A decade-long transformation of the landscape in ...
A decade-long transformation of the landscape in some Bergen County suburbs by "big money" has reached the town of Closter, where developers have razed about 70 of its modest homes since last year to build McMansions and where a petition drive to curb the trend prompted the Borough Council to start considering a zoning ordinance that would limit new home sizes. Bergen Record writer Richard Cowen quotes a resident of the tranquil Marion Village neighborhood, Nick Panakes, whose family has lived in a typical split-level small home since 1962, as calling a $1 million, 6,000-square-foot, 35-foot-high house being built next door a "Taj Mahal" -- a "monstrosity" that "doesn't belong here." He knows that "we can't stop progress," but considers the builder's attitude "plain rude." Closter officials point out the builder, Charles Panahi of Diamond Engineers and Developers, didn't need variances, which would require resident notification, since his design conforms to the current 15-foot side-yard and 30-foot setback requirements, with the house itself taking 25 percent of the lot, well within the zoning-allowed range. The builder, who has talked to the neighbors and heard their complaints, says, "We conform to all the rules and regulations , so we have a right to build this house." Adding that he builds what the market wants, he is confident that "the future of this neighborhood is big homes." 6/20/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
With a telling unanimity, state lawmakers removed ...
With a telling unanimity, state lawmakers removed the word "development" from the name of the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission -- created 32 years ago with broad powers of zoning, project approval and tax payment distribution in its 14-town district -- renaming it the New Jersey Meadowland Commission. Emphasizing the commission's dual economic and environmental goal, its Executive Director Alan Steinberg says the word "development" in its name often caused "a misperception that we facilitate development at the expense of the environment." Conservationists have argued for years, observes Bergen Record writer Alex Nusbaum, that "it bent over backward to help builders pave over more of the wetlands." But he also notes that having faced "the environmental nightmare" of the Meadowlands' marshes and mudflats, "after centuries of legal and illegal dumping of garbage and hazardous waste," officials "counter that they have protected and restored more than 1,700 acres of open space and wetlands," mostly in the last decade, while promising to save another 3,600 acres from development. Opinions on the name change also differ. Some business leaders consider it a bow to extremists opposing "all growth in lower Bergen and upper Hudson counties. Some officials dismiss it as pointless since "the law has not changed." And some environmentalists, like Bill Sheehan of the Hackensack Riverkeeper group, call it a good firs step, saying "the cleaner, kinder, gentler" commission will now actually be "focusing on redevelopment or preservation." 6/13/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
The ambitious but controversial anti-sprawl plan unveiled ...
The ambitious but controversial anti-sprawl plan unveiled by former Governor Christine Todd Whitman last June, which would restrict sewer construction on rural, watershed and other sensitive land while encouraging development in present service areas, was blocked by Acting Governor Donald T. DiFrancesco, who on the day of his withdrawal from the gubernatorial race, extended current rules until April 30, 2002. His spokeswoman Rae Hutton said he saw the need for "more public input," because the plan "made no one happy." The response is mixed, reports Bergen Record writer Alex Nussbaum. A spokeswoman for the nonprofit New Jersey Future group, Sue Burrow, expressed "a huge disappointment," since sprawl "encompasses everything New Jersey voters say they care about" -- traffic, water quality and open space problems. But environmental and business group rejoice, both having opposed the plan, even if for different reasons. Environmentalists had thought it would give builders "too much leeway" in urbanized areas. Developers thought it would give the Department of Environmental Protection "too much power" to reject projects. Now, the Sierra Club's state executive director Jeff Tittel declares "a victory" as the plan "needed significant improvements," though he admits that in the absence of "anything stronger ... the sprawl and water pollution will continue." The vice president of the New Jersey Business and Industry Council, Jim Sinclair, allows that the former governor has outlined "probably the right goals," adding that now all parties need to sit at the table and say, "This is what we can get done. This is what's achievable. Let's do it." 5/24/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Why is Trenton shortchanging open space?" asks ...
"Why is Trenton shortchanging open space?" asks a Bergen Record editorial, warning that a procedural "glitch" in the voter-approved 1998 plan to spend up to $98 million annually over the next 30 years for land and historic site preservation may deprive the Garden State Preservation Trust of more than $5 million in interest for the year 2000. The state Treasury, says the editorial, wants to divert that money to the state's general fund, while agreeing that the trust will keep its interest in the future. But "the loss of even one year's interest is significant," the editorial stresses, observing that last year localities sought $500 million more than the trust could offer and that the $5 million at risk is "what Bergen County and a few private groups paid to save the 750-acre Camp Glen Gray in Mahwah earlier this month." Also noting the requirement of local matching funds, the editorial points out that "another $10 million or more could go" for land protection and historic restoration. "To shortchange this trust fund," the editorial ends, "is to shortchange all New Jerseyans." 5/23/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Making good on a pledge not to ...
Making good on a pledge not to sell its historic 750-acre Camp Glen Gray in Bergen County for development, the financially troubled Northern New Jersey Council of the Boy Scouts accepted a joint $5.1 million bid from the Trust for Public Land, the county and a Jewish Community Center, the YJCC, amidst reports that developers had offered a few million more to get the track for a luxury subdivision. Hailing the council's wonderful generosity for the community, County Executive William "Pat" Schuber said in a statement that adding Glen Gray "to the inventory of open space in the Highlands Region" has been among his top priorities and that he is looking forward to make "this pristine woodland" a public parkland. Environmentalists applaud the deal as "protecting the middle of a belt of green space -- including the Ramapo Valley County Reservation, the Ramapo State Forest and Ringwood State Park." Trust for Public Land project manager Terrance Nolan announced immediate talks on dividing the tract's use and partners' costs. A group of former Scouts and Scoutmasters, the Friends of Glen Gray, would like to contribute $1 million to use the 1917 camp for scouting, primarily between September and June. 5/18/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Bergen County's first farm saved for agriculture ...
Bergen County's first farm saved for agriculture by a $3.4 million purchase of development rights under the state Farmland Preservation Program is the 218-acre, 140-year-old Sun Valley Farm in Mahwah -- the largest of the area's last 85, which total less than 1000 acres. The owners were happy with the $15,500-an-acre state offer, based on a series of appraisals. But owners of two other Mahwah farms considered for protection, reports Bergen Record writer Brian Aberback, declined state offers as too low, while the state rejected another owner's counteroffer as too high. In this last case, the state offered $203,000 an acre, but the owner asked for $300,000, claiming he could get $350,000 from any developer. With the program's $37.1 million spent this year to save 98 of the 149 applying farms, state program officials defended their offers as generous. Program spokeswoman Hope Gruzlovic said Bergen County farms are getting offers unheard of for areas under lesser development pressures, where $1,900 to $5,400 per acre is the usual range. 5/18/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Announcing the approval of a $138-million ...
Announcing the approval of a $138-million land protection package by the Garden State Preservation Fund, Acting Governor Donald T. DiFrancesco said such funding allows the state to conserve and protect its "water supplies, wildlife habitat, and recreational open space." Created by the legislature and former Governor Christine Todd Whitman in June 1999, the trust is charged with saving a million acres form development over this decade. With 860,000 acres already under protection, says trust spokeswoman Judy Jengo, the state will have saved almost 40 percent of its 4.8 million acres as open space, which "would be a record nationally" and contradict its landfill and smokestack image. The trust's new package, under the Green Acres program, includes $66.3 million for county and local land preservation projects, $60 million for Department of Environmental Protection land acquisitions and about $12 million for matching grants to nonprofit conservation groups. The department will be acquiring land crucial for water supplies, wildlife habitat and recreation, with all sites linked by trails and greenway corridors. 4/23/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
In a show of fiscal bipartisanship, the ...
In a show of fiscal bipartisanship, the Passaic County Board of Freeholders approved the "Open Space and Recreation Master Plan," which lists natural sites the county and its municipalities want to purchase for preservation, with help from the state's Green Acres program. The plan, long-sought by conservationists, also outlines a strategy for protecting Highlands ridges, river corridors and farmland and for expanding urban recreation areas. Bergen Record writer Jan Barry notes that Passaic County "has been slow to join a mushrooming open space tax movement" vigorous in 19 of the state's 21 counties and many municipalities. Despite voter approval of an up to 4-cent property tax for open space in 1996, officials delayed the tax until 1999 and capped it at three-quarters of a cent. With the accumulated $2.3 million of revenue yet untapped, conservationist have been gaining increased support among municipal officials eager to "stem a tide of housing and commercial development." Under growing pressures, freeholders agreed to look into the possibility of increasing the tax to one cent. The county's finance director, Robert Calise, expect the current tax to bring in $1.7 million this year. By contrast, the writer says, Morris County's 3-cent tax raised $12.7 million last year. 4/16/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
In recognition of River Vale's intense efforts ...
In recognition of River Vale's intense efforts to protect 18 ecologically fragile acres along Lake Tappan, Acting Governor Donald T. DiFrancesco signed a $3-million bill with "planning incentive grants" in its town hall, saying the township realizes "that saving watereshed lands is not only important to fight sprawl, but to guarantee the quality of the water supply." The bill provides Bergen County with $1.5 million, and the towns of River Vale, Mahwah and Old Tappan with $500,000 each. Unlike the state's Green Acres funds that are awarded for site-specific projects, planning incentive grants support state-approved county and local long-range preservation plans and can be used for any target sites. This, says the county executive's chief of staff Adam Strobel, allows recipients "the flexibility to move the money around." Intended to finance up to half thepurchase price of any property, the grants must be matched by other funds. The county's top priority is to preserve its single largest tract of undeveloped land, the &50-acre Boy Scout Camp Glen Gray in Oakland and Mahwah. 4/16/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
Aware that environmental votes may tip a ...
Aware that environmental votes may tip a close election, the two top gubernatorial contenders, Republican acting-Governor Donald T. DiFrancesco and Woodbridge Democratic Mayor Jim McGreevey courted participants in the New Jersey Environmental Federation's annual conference in Princeton with pledges to strengthen the state's anti-sprawl plan and clean water laws, including arsenic reduction tests. DiFranceso, who faces Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler in the GOP primary, said the state should make its anti-sprawl plan more attractive by offering towns and developers financial incentives to keep growth within designated areas and reclaim post-industrial sites. Applauded for his just announced opposition to the proposed 206-acre mall in the Carlstadt' wetlands and for a newly signed bill that mandates pollution tests for private drinking wells before homes can be sold, DiFrancesco promised his support for lowering the arsenic in state drinking water from 50 to 10 parts per billion. Mayor McGreevey, who lost to Governor Christine Todd Whitman by a slim margin in 1997, said he would ensure enforcement of the state's anti-sprawl plan by giving counties power to draw regional development blueprints and make local governments comply. He pointed out that a similar system curbs sprawl in Maryland. But some participants were doubtful. The executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Janine Bauer, found counties among the least helpful in curbing sprawl, adding "Maryland has a weak local government and a strong county government. We have the opposite. You can't just plop that into New Jersey." The third contender, Jersey City Republican Mayor Bret Schundler, declared his candidacy too late to be included among the conference speakers. His spokesman Bill Ghul told Bergen Record writer Alex Nussbaum that the mayor would also push for tougher clean-water and anti-sprawl rules, while seeking property tax relief, stronger affordable housing laws and economic development in cities. 3/29/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
At an unusually early start of the ...
At an unusually early start of the Democratic campaign for the November freeholder election in Morris County, Montville Councilman Dan Grant challenged the all-Republican incumbent freeholders to boost the effectiveness of the county's $15-million-a-year open space preservation tax by floating a $180-million bond and acquiring the most threatened tracts now, before they are snatched for development or became too expensive. "Instead of buying a few properties piecemeal," the councilman said at a Montville press conference, "we could preserve much more land, reduce population growth, minimize school expansion, and stabilize the traffic on our roads simply by bonding," with rising tax assessment revenue exceeding the interest on bonds. In the past eight years, the county has spent 45 percent of its open space tax to preserve 73 properties, with the rest helping to maintain county parks and wells. Under the councilman's proposal, almost all open space tax would go for land purchases to limit residential growth. Freeholder Director Douglas Cabana noted that his Republican colleagues have recently asked the county's bond counsel to comment on a similar idea of their own, but he was hesitant about the Democratic proposal. He said that an open space bond almost equal to the county's budget could compromise its "AAA bond rating" and taxpayers would "end up paying a lot more in interest," especially since assessments may not always rise. The councilman responded that he was "more concerned with sprawl than the bond rating." 03.08.2001 3/12/2001
Resource(s): www.bergen.com
The updated State Development and Redevelopment Plan ...
The updated State Development and Redevelopment Plan, which tells state agencies to focus on funding and project approvals for cities and designated growth areas, but reli |
