News from Skylands CLEAN, Inc.

Highlands plan under heavy fire

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
BY JAN BARRY

Environmental groups are again pressing Governor Corzine to halt major development in the water-generating Highlands until the long-delayed regional master plan is adopted.

But the governor says he will not do so, given the planning process under way.

Representatives of more than 50 organizations on Tuesday blasted the draft plan at a State House press conference in Trenton. The plan is being drafted by the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council.

The environmentalists faulted the council for still working on what they called an incomplete plan, far beyond the June 2006 deadline for producing regulations on future development in the seven-county region.

Corzine also rejected a 2007 request by environmentalists for a building moratorium in the Highlands until the master plan is completed. The latest request asked Corzine to order that, in weighing approval of major development, the Highlands Council "issue a factual finding of no adverse impact on Highlands resources."

A core criticism of the proposed plan is that it still will allow massive development in areas where water deficits have already been recorded by the council's consultants.

"We urge the governor to immediately issue an executive order," said Julia Somers, executive director of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition. "The council desperately needs the governor to say 'pencils down' on development while they complete the changes and write the standards needed to strengthen the plan."

In response, Corzine press secretary Lilo Stainton said the request would not be granted, because "We believe the current protections are sufficient at this time."

What they're saying

"The [Highlands regional master plan] is supposed to protect our water supply, but it fails to do this, instead encouraging even more development in water-deficit areas. It protects the interests of developers over the rights of well users who live in these water-starved areas and who routinely choose between washing clothes and bathing kids to make their water supply last through the day."
-- Robin O'Hearn of Skylands CLEAN, Ringwood

"The new [regional master plan] promotes high-density development across sensitive lands ranging from municipal well fields to wetlands, and in areas with existing water shortages totaling hundreds of millions of gallons per year. Targeting these areas for growth undermines everything the Highlands Act was supposed to achieve."
-- Ross Kushner of the Pequannock River Coalition, Newfoundland

"The master plan is still a draft," she added, "and we are confident that the council will consider the input from local, county and federal officials, along with residents and other stakeholders, to help craft the most protective plan possible. Any actions that preempt this important public comment process would be premature.

"During this time," she concluded, "DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] rules protecting the preservation area will continue to remain in place."

The 860,000-acre region stretches from northern Bergen County through parts of the counties of Passaic, Morris, Sussex, Somerset, Warren and Hunterdon. Under initial limits following enactment of the 2004 Highlands Act, the region is split into a core preservation area where state rules severely curb development and a planning area where local control over development continues. Communities partly or fully in the preservation area will have to match their local master plans to the regional plan after its completion later this year.

The plan is being presented at public hearings starting next week.

"The plan makes more sense as a blueprint for developers," said Ross Kushner, executive director of the Pequannock River Coalition. "It allows developers to promise to provide more water," when a community's water supply is already overused and "no proof is needed" of where the water would come from.

Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club's state chapter, said the plan would weaken DEP regulations and allow development in areas that were supposed to be protected by the Highlands Act.

"We're concerned that too much of the plan is about protecting parochial interests" that favor development, he said.

Eileen Swan, executive director of the Highlands Council, rejected the criticism. She said the council is preparing the best plan it can, with adoption likely in April.

"We do not in any way weaken the DEP regulations," she said. "What we have done has stayed consistent with the act."

For instance, she said, where water supplies fall short, a developer and the community "must show they can mitigate 125 percent" of the water deficit -- they are not allowed to move forward on a development until they can show they have done this. We will be monitoring it."

E-mail: barry@northjersey.com

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