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For Highlands communities, New Jersey's drive to protect its principal watersheds also offers more time to work out how to provide more state-mandated affordable housing.

From Oakland to West Milford to Kinnelon, towns in the northern end of the Highlands have taken the first step toward conforming their local master plans for watershed protection with a regional plan overseen by the Highlands Council.

As one benefit, municipalities that file a notice of intent to conform with that plan are allowed an extra year's grace period to also submit their affordable housing plans. They can do so by next December instead of the deadline for others, which was Wednesday.

"Getting a year's extension is very beneficial, I feel, and we certainly welcome it," said Mahwah Mayor Richard Martel.

The extension also gives communities time to find ways to further protect undeveloped land, such as 105 acres in Riverdale that borough officials want to keep as is, or prime watershed in Mahwah that the state has nevertheless found suitable for affordable housing, officials said.

As of Friday, 67 municipalities had informed the Highlands Council of a notice of intent to conform to the regional master plan. That plan, covering 88 communities in seven counties, seeks to balance preservation and development of an area that provides water for 5 million state residents.

Highlands communities face the twin pressures of trying to preserve water-generating land and take measures that will encourage more construction of, or conversion to, low- to moderate-income housing. That housing is priced by index to sell or rent to people who fit modest-income categories.

It's a vexing problem for area officials.

"Quite frankly, we're being mandated not to build, whether it's affordable housing or not," said West Milford Mayor Bettina Bieri, whose community is entirely in the strictly regulated Highlands Preservation Area. "So how are we supposed to meet that obligation if we're told not to build any more?"

Governor Corzine aimed to alleviate that pressure in the fall when he ordered the Highlands Council and the Council on Affordable Housing to work together on the issue.

While the Highlands Council oversees watershed protection, COAH has the task of ensuring that communities meet affordable housing obligations spelled out by the Supreme Court some three decades ago.

One result of the governor's order was the one-year extension for Highlands communities on submitting an affordable housing plan to the state.

That prompted Riverdale, which has experienced a commercial building boom over the last decade, to inform the Highlands Council it would consider conforming to the regional master plan, Riverdale Mayor William Budesheim said.

Other communities, such as Pequannock, did so for the same reasons, officials said.

"You're either going to conform with the deadline of the COAH or you go into the Highlands [Council] and work it out," said Pequannock Councilman Jay Vanderhoff.

Other area officials said they would use the extra year to consider their options. A few towns that have not filed, such as Butler, continue to consider whether or not to file a notice of intent with the Highlands Council.

That deadline is in February.

And if the carrot of an extra year to work on an affordable housing plan is what it takes to save trees from axes and steep slopes from dynamite, one local environmentalist is all for it.

"On the whole, if parcels like this are saved by that, that's great," Robin O'Hearn, executive director of Skylands CLEAN, said of a 35-acre tract in Wanaque once targeted for 96 condominiums and town houses.

Eileen Swan, executive director of the Highlands Council, credited Corzine for progress that was made in 2008.

She said a planning process will begin in 2009 that will give area officials a better idea on what could be built given environmental constraints. That will allow them to create affordable housing plans reflecting rules for the Highlands.

"They can't do a fair share [housing] plan unless they know what their capacity is under the plan," she said.

Then, officials in communities in the Highlands planning area — a designation that gives towns leeway in determining what development occurs — will be able to make an informed decision on whether to opt for more stringent regulations on development, Swan said.

"That will be our hope," she said, "that they will comply. "

E-mail: yoo@northjersey.com

Wednesday was the deadline for communities to file their affordable housing plans with the state. Highlands communities that filed notices of intent to conform to the Highlands regional master plan were given until next December to complete their versions. Here's who filed and has yet to file.

* Filed:

Bloomingdale

Kinnelon

Mahwah

Oakland

Pequannock

 

Ringwood

Riverdale

Wanaque

West Milford

* Not filed:

Butler

Pompton LakesFor more information, go to highlands.state.nj.us

SOURCE: New Jersey Highlands Council

© 2008 Skylands CLEAN, Inc. • Background photo courtesy Dwight Hiscano, 908-273-5666