March 31, 1999

COMMENTS ON THE

On December 4, 1996, NJAS rose, alone, to speak the truth about the State Plan and to dissent from, as politely as we could, the celebratory mood that day, the 10^th anniversary of the State Plan. Today, more than two years later, we speak to all the citizens of New Jersey, the Governor and the Plan’s Commissioners, and say: this new Interim Plan cannot deliver, any better than the previously flawed models, the good values contained in the State Plan, especially the protection of the state’s Natural Resources and the revitalization of our distressed Urban Areas.

Never before in the conservation history of this State have so many futile words and pages, and revisions of this futility, wasted so much of our citizens’ time, energy and hopes, and delivered so little. Citizens should trust their eyes and what is unfolding in front of their local planning boards and not the celebratory rhetoric surrounding this sad day: their eyes tell them that NJ is seeing its greatest building boom since the late 1980’s, and the placement of this building is no different than it was a quarter of a century ago. The heart of the matter is that local and county governments, with rare exceptions, will never implement the best of the Plan’s vision. Only tougher State zoning standards and a mandatory local conformance requirement, and genuine State agency implementation of the values of the Plan can accomplish that. Back in the 1992, citizens indicated in polling results that they were ahead of their political leaders – willing to give up some home rule and to have the State set tougher standards – but, needless to say, even friends of the State Plan haven’t dared poll again, and no State elected officials have come forward with the type of commitment it would take to reform NJ’s land use fiasco – the type of courage and commitment Oregon Republican Governor Tom McCall showed in the 1960’s and 1970’s. That is why NJAS recommends the Oregon model, not the NJ model, for serious land use reform. But it is not just Governor Whitman who is to blame, even though she has had, over the past two years, a golden opportunity to set things right. The trouble started at least as far back as 1983, when Governor Tom Kean rejected any type of regulatory , mandatory conformance, or even a state agency implementation model for the Plan. Nothing much changed in his second term or under Governors Florio or Whitman.

Last week, as reported in the New York Times, the conservative state of Georgia set up a regulatory agency for land use, transportation and capital funding to grapple with gridlock in the 13 county metropolitan Atlanta area.. For Georgia to set up an agency with those powers, granted by the state legislature, given its land use traditions as compared to our history here, that ought to shame every citizen in New Jersey. But this Commission, like its predecessors, never seems to get around to discuss real options or alternatives. That is why its self-congratulatory pronouncements about the effectiveness of the cross-acceptance process ring so hollow. This second time around, in 1998, when we attended the Warren County public Cross Acceptance meeting, there were more State Plan critics than supporters speaking up, both those who wanted a stronger Plan and those who wanted to scrap it. Indeed, the Plan suffers from terminal process exhaustion, and lack of citizen participation. Over the past month we have attended quite of few allegedly "important meetings" at the Commission’s office on West State Street in Trenton. But there are, even on days when insiders feel there are "big issues" to discuss, no members of the general public present – and most conspicuously, no members of the press. And, we might add, no Urban Mayors. Who can blame them?

This outcome was foreseen by the former Director of the State Planning Commission Staff, John Epling. We think it was time the public knew what Mr. Epling thought in the late 1980’s - as reported in the Harvard Case Study (as presented by Professor David Luberhoff, Associate Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for State and Local Government, JFK School of Government). Mr. Epling felt the "the commission had an obligation to call for mandatory conformance with aggressive policies as the only way to achieve the explicit goals of the Planning Act. "Not to do so,’ he explained, ‘would be like asking the Surgeon General not to come out against cigarettes because it might hurt the tobacco industry.’ " It is also interesting to note that Mr. Epling felt the lack of consequences to the cross-acceptance process would damage the process itself because people would not take it seriously. We believe that is what has happened to that process, and to the Plan itself.

So NJAS wants to distance itself from where the Plan stands today. We want to warn the citizens of New Jersey that they face more lost farms and forests, and more interminable legal battles in front of their local governments and state agencies, as evidenced by events in Hopewell, Pohatcong and Sparta Townships, to name just a few. They will continue to be stuck in traffic, face higher property tax bills, and witness the seemingly inevitable suburbanization of the State. And they will continue to be asked to subsidize the infrastructure that helps make all this possible, like the new sewage treatment plant on the Paulins Kill, and the expansion of the existing one on the Wallkill, both in Sussex County. The DEP does not dare stand in the way.

We want to go on the record today, to state without equivocation that what is in this Plan won’t work, can’t work and is one of the greatest policy illusions ever visited upon the public in New Jersey. The truly tragic outcome, though, is that we will have to live with the results for decades, if not for good. If you would like something better, give us a call at 908-766-5787, and we suggest you give the Governor a ring at 609-292-6000 and tell her, if you agree with us, that you’re not celebrating this Interim Plan, and that you’re shocked that Georgia can today act when New Jersey is content with process and illusion.

William R. Neil
Director of Conservation
New Jersey Audubon Society