STATE REPRIMANDS WANAQUE OVER POWDER HOLLOW PLANNING

In a meeting attended by Skylands CLEAN coordinator Kathy Baker and members of Wanaque REACH, the New Jersey Office of State Planning (OSP) warned the Borough of Wanaque on September 12,2000 that its town center status could be revoked if borough officials continue to disregard environmental concerns. If the center designation is revoked, Wanaque would go to the back of the line for any future State and Federal funding associated with the town center.

Wanaque failed to complete state-ordered capacity and environmental studies before rezoning the Powder Hollow tract. The borough's largest tract of open space was rezoned to allow Pulte Lifestyles Communities of Cranbury to build up to 4000 (1190 are currently planned) and a nine-hole golf course on 440 acres.

These studies would have determined how much development could occur on the site without causing environmental damage, such as destroying wetlands, degrading the nearby Wanaque River, or marring a forested mountainside.

CLEAN and other environmental groups assert that the studies should have been completed before the rezoning occurred. The Borough is relying on the developer to conduct the environmental study, a strategy CLEAN likens to having the fox guard the henhouse. Furthermore, the Borough must address the demands such a development would place on the Borough’s water supply, sewage treatment capacity, and fire-fighting equipment. The Borough appears to be relying on the developer’s inadequate and misleading fiscal-social–economic study to address these issues.

Residents attending Power Hollow meetings have endured rudeness and impatience from Planning Board members. Even so, many had to stand during meetings because so many residents turned out to voice their opposition to the project.

The developer’s plan calls for a 7-story, gated housing development far from the Haskell shopping district, with no plans to include sidewalks or bike paths to the downtown area. This is not the kind of development that state planners envisioned for town centers.