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WEST MILFORD - State: Water more important than cheap rent
(by David M. Zimmer - Staff Writer - September 17, 2008)
WEST MILFORD - With his approval of the Highlands Regional Master Plan and a related executive order, Governor Jon Corzine brought the state into a new era of smart-growth tactics that should result in little to no growth in preservation zone communities like this township.
During a press conference Sept. 5 at the New Jersey Water Supply Authority in Clinton, Governor Corzine said the approval of the Highlands Council’s July 17 decision to enact the Highlands Regional Master Plan was a successful ending to an arduous debate.
Nevertheless, Corzine said the plan to regulate development in the watershed that provides water for 60 percent of the state’s residents is a “living document” that is subject to further modification.
While approving the Highlands Council’s plan to protect 1,250 square miles in New Jersey’s most valuable watershed zones, Corzine also added some revisions to the plan by issuing a five-point executive order.
The executive order was created to ensure the proper execution of the regulations that were built into the Highlands Act when former Governor Jim McGreevey signed that legislation in 2004.
Highlands Coalition Executive Director Julia Somers said the executive order was an example of the governor recognizing the benefit of not only addressing the regional master plan’s flaws, but strengthening the document as well.
Affordable housing concerns
One of the order’s most crucial edicts requires the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) to work with the Highlands Council to preserve the watershed, regardless of how that impacts affordable housing development projects.
“Nothing, not even our state’s critical need for affordable housing, trumps the protection of the Highlands’ water,” Governor Corzine said.
This decision will give the Highlands Council and COAH officials from the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) a two-month period to create coinciding plans that will help guide the 88 Highlands municipalities during their respective master plan revisions.
With nearly 52,000 acres, West Milford is roughly three times the size of the next largest preservation zone town, Ringwood. Moreover, it is more than 50 times the size of the three remaining preservation zones, which are all in Hunterdon County.
Consequently, Mayor Bettina Bieri said she has concerns with the COAH development requirements for West Milford. As one of five municipalities that lie entirely in the preservation zone, West Milford would have the most development restrictions.
This could even make municipal projects for public purposes nearly impossible to complete in the town, which Bieri said is wrong considering COAH is requiring 100 new affordable housing units in the township.
Township Planning Director Charles McGroarty said the municipality is compiling a vacant land adjustment survey to show COAH that West Milford simply does not have the developable land to coincide with its requirements.
Moreover, he said the executive order would allow for an extension on the COAH deadlines for at least the five exclusively preservation-zone towns, which should help the township and COAH reach an agreement.
Revenue regeneration
Mayor Bieri said township officials should develop ordinances for the League of Municipalities to lower COAH requirements and to enact a yearly water-user fee for those areas that use water from the Highlands. Bieri said a fee as little as one cent per 100 gallons a year would help offset the loss of revenue Highlands municipalities are already dealing with from lack of construction.
With 5.4 million people using water from the Highlands, this plan would amount to an average yearly fee of $13 per household and generate $14 million annually for the region, she said.
“Just as the users of our roadways pay tolls to maintain and rebuild those roads, the users of our water should pay a fee to preserve and protect those bodies of water,” Bieri said. “This fee would be nominal on a per-household basis, yet could provide significant and much-needed relief directly to the preservation municipalities.”
In the executive order, Corzine included mandates to ensure all decisions made by the Highlands Council are made openly and with consideration to comments from the general public. The order also required the development of farmland to be clustered by region rather than lot. And, it mandated the reestablishment of the Garden State Preservation Trust.
The Preservation Trust, which would have been disbanded at the end of the year, was created to purchase open space. The decision to maintain the trust should be beneficial for the preservation areas, especially West Milford and neighboring Ringwood, Bieri said.
“It’s not a water user fee, but it’s still a good thing,” she said.
Potential flaws
The executive order also includes plans to regulate drainage systems to keep Highlands areas from experiencing water deficits and appropriate $10 million to create a process for farm owners in the Highlands to buy development credits to remain on that land.
While officials from the New Jersey Farm Bureau do support the $10 million for the Highlands development credit bank, they said the amount is almost insubstantial when looking at the potential $1.3 billion cost of conserving agricultural lands, estimated by the Highlands Council.
“This order undermines the decisions of the Highlands Council members, who have invested more than three years of effort listening to the concerns of hundreds of Highlands residents,” New Jersey Farm Bureau President Rich Nieuwenhuis said.
The Farm Bureau was also critical of plans to regulate water deficit, considering the amount of water removed each day from the watershed zone for exportation to metropolitan areas.
Ross Kushner, executive director of the Pequannock River Coalition based in Newfoundland, disagreed, saying the decision to enact a plan that would help diminish water deficit was a positive step. He said that to truly benefit the area, water deficit needs to be corrected before development can take place in those critical areas.
David Pringle of the New Jersey Environmental Federation said the executive order would help correct issues with over-development in water deficient areas, loss of farmland through clustering, and unattainable COAH requirements.
“If this marks the beginning of a concentrated effort this fall to improve the council, gain legislative action on open space funding, and an administration more coordinated and protective in the Highlands, then today’s caution will become tomorrow’s optimism,” Pringle said.
| Comments (1) |
On September 20, 2008 Betty said:
Well written article, so easy to read and understand..two thumbs up. |
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