Friday, December 1, 2006
By JAN BARRY
STAFF WRITER
Official site: New Jersey Highlands Council
The master plan to save North Jersey’s water-generating Highlands would severely restrict development in more than 80 percent of the mountain region stretching from Mahwah to the Delaware River.
That proposed area is much larger than what was envisioned when the Highlands Act became state law in 2004 and is the result of more detailed state studies of the region since then.
The overseeing Highlands Council voted Thursday to release the 251-page draft plan. Once a final plan is approved, it will affect 88 communities and nearly 1,300 square miles of land. The Highlands, from Bergen County’s border with New York down to Hunterdon County’s farmlands, provides drinking water to more than half of the state’s residents.
The state aims to buy lands or development rights in most of the 800,000-acre area. About half the region is now under preliminary restrictions banning heavy development, and half is under the control of local planners. Among the most notable of the new protected areas would be historic Federal Hill in Bloomingdale and Wanaque, a steep mountain threatened by massive housing projects.
The plan creates three planning designations: A 557,000-acre Protection Zone for forests and other water supply lands, 152,000-acre Conservation Zone for farmland and 149,000-acre Planned Community Zone where current development could accommodate more growth.
FAST FACTS
The Highlands Draft Regional Master Plan proposes three planning areas:
- Protection Zone: 557,507 acres, 64.9 percent of the region
-Conservation Zone: 152,227 acres, 17.7 percent
-Planned Community Zone: 149,000 acres, 17.4 percent
A Highlands Council atlas enables landowners to see which zone their land is in. The draft plan provides conservation and development standards that apply to each zone. They can be seen online by visiting northjersey.com/highlands
State planners, emphasizing the dangers of continuing development in the Highlands, say more than half of the region’s streams are already overdrawn, putting state water supplies in jeopardy during drought periods.
The council voted 11-1, with one abstention, at its meeting in Chester Township to release the plan.
“This is a tremendous achievement,” said Morris County Freeholder Jack Schrier, who urged fellow council members to set aside continuing differences for now.
“We are setting a standard not just for New Jersey, we are setting parameters for adjoining states that also have Highlands areas.”
The master plan calls for acquiring land with money from federal, state, county, and local sources. It now heads to public hearings in January. It includes a request that the Legislature enact laws providing financing and regulatory teeth to the effort.
Council President John Weingart said the draft was ready for public comment and that “Whatever the shortcomings in this draft, it is far more detailed than any other regional plan I’ve seen.”
The new plan’s three zones cut across the initial “Preservation” area of state-restricted lands and “Planning” area that included already developed lands and remained under community control:
• The Protection Zone identifies land that is vital to water supplies and should be a priority for acquisition. That includes 199,000 acres from the original Planning Area, including Federal Hill.
• The Conservation Zone encompasses farmland across the region, which the draft plan recommends be protected.
•The Planned Community Zone focuses on land where development could be allowed, depending on water, sewage and transportation capacity.
Many farmers in the audience objected to the draft plan being released until the state provides more money to compensate them for what they contend are property value losses.
They applauded when Kurt Alstede, a Morris County farmer on the council who voted no, said “this water is being extorted. It is being taken and nothing is being provided to the people who live in the Highlands.”
“The Legislature gave us a business plan without the funding,” he said “I’m just tremendously torn apart by the Legislature’s failure to fund this upfront.”
Mikael Salovaara, a Somerset County representative, abstained. He said too many questions were left unanswered.
Michael Herson, a Sierra Club leader from Oradell, agreed with concerns about unsettled funding.
“I agree with the farmers on the need for the funding. But that is no reason to delay today,” he said. “We should emulate New York State and have a stable source of funding.”
The draft master plan notes known funding totaling roughly $75 million a year. It calls for creating even more funding sources. Many Highlands communities have called for a tax on water generated in their hometowns as a source of such compensation.
The draft plan drew an angry response from Republican legislators in the Highlands, who see the Highlands Council as a “super agency” created by Democrats that has usurped local authority.
Sen. Robert E. Littell, R-Sussex, said the plan sets stricter environmental standards that will hurt Highlands towns hoping to attract high-density development to Town Centers approved by the state.
E-mail: barry@northjersey.com
Copyright © 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.