Land Use Affects New Jersey’s Water, Soil and Air
Our state is the most densely populated in the nation. It’s no surprise that we face constant environmental threats: to the aquifers that provide our drinking water, to the quality of the air we breathe, and to the land, animals and plants that support our farms, our recreation, and even helps mitigate the effects of climate change.
Whether it’s illegal dumping, toxic air and water pollutants, threats to wetlands, or just the never-ending pressure on open spaces, assaults to New Jersey’s environment affect all of us.
A Wide-Ranging Set of Issues
We’re currently monitoring or actively fighting many issues including:
- Cleanup of NJ’s many Superfund sites
- The explosion of warehouses along all our transportation corridors
- Development that threatens Category 1 streams
- Stormwater runoff
- Affordable Housing Policy
- Increasing highway construction
- Threats to parkland, protected areas, and vital aquifers
We’re also actively involved in many legislative issues that affect our environment. If you believe that there’s an issue in your area that puts our environment at risk, contact your local group chair.
Join Our Movement
Local Groups meet regularly, and each Group has a conservation chair. Sierra Club membership is not required to attend Group meetings. View the Calendar to join the next meeting! Our Statewide Conservation Committee meets once a month, either virtually or in-person. Contact the Conservation Committee Chair for more information.
Smart Growth
We love Smart Growth and Urban Infill
Fact Sheet: https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/default/files/blog/UrbanInfill_FactSheet.pdf
Choosing smart growth over sprawl is one of the most powerful decisions cities and other local governments can make to reduce climate emissions and air pollution, conserve local habitats, and improve the health of their communities. Urban infill, which involves increasing density through adding new housing, commercial, retail, and public facilities to already developed neighborhoods, is a key strategy for minimizing sprawl and vehicle miles traveled.
Check out sc.org/infill for more information on Sierra Club’s infill policy, guidance, examples of good land use, webinars, and more.
Interested in learning how to get more involved? Email Rebekah.Whilden@sierraclub.org, Deputy Director of the Clean Transportation for All Campaign
Affordable Housing Projects
Important Principles and Proposals in Planning and Implementing Affordable Housing Projects
This document is intended to serve as a statement of the principles and proposals the Sierra Club, New Jersey Chapter believes are important for decision makers in the implementation of affordable housing projects and the quality of life issues essential to a just, equal and thriving society.
Warehouse Policy
Warehouse Policy Statement
New Jersey Sierra Club insists that warehouse and distribution center development minimizes impacts upon this planet’s resources and creates an environment that is highly efficient and non-polluting.
Resources
Land Use Protection Primer. This guide was developed to help NJ activists and would-be activists negotiate the process of opposing a land use threat. It clearly lays out the process that developers must go through to obtain permits from all the State agencies. In the process it outlines exactly where you can take the fight.
Read Land Use and Preservation in New Jersey: A Beginner’s Guide