Date : Mon, 8 Mar 2010 12:40:32 -0500
For Immediate Release
March 8, 2010
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Chapter Director, 609-558-9100
S1: More Sprawl and Overdevelopment
Bill puts builder's bull's eye on more than half of NJ's municipalities
A bill that will abolish the Council on Affordable Housing (S1) puts open season on more than half of New Jersey's municipalities, giving power to developers to determine how towns will meet their affordable housing obligations. This bill will encourage sprawl and overdevelopment and will put our natural resources at risk because it contains no environmental criteria.
In the name of reform, this bill could actually make matters worse. The Sierra Club is opposed to this bill because it lacks environmental oversight and does not include the necessary scrutiny that should be required for affordable housing development projects.
"We're putting a bull's eye on more than half of New Jersey's municipalities, where builders remedy suits determine how towns deal with affordable housing," NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel said. "This is a step backwards when it comes to planning and how towns will determine their futures. All this bill will accomplish is more sprawl, more overdevelopment, more traffic, and higher taxes."
While the Sierra Club strongly supports affordable housing in New Jersey, we believe it should not be used as a tool to undermine environmental protections or promote growth in inappropriate places. Housing should be located where the jobs are, helping to prevent sprawl and pollution while providing people with economic opportunities.
This legislation should be amended to have environmental criteria to ensure inclusionary development and other affordable housing projects go in appropriate locations. Affordable housing should be placed in approved waste water management areas under the adopted Water Quality Management Planning Rules and areas with adequate water supply.
The bill gives too much authority and power to the State Planning Commission. If passed, we'll simply be replacing COAH with another agency and bureaucracy. The State Plan has been a failure and the State Planning Commission doesn't function. It is filled with developers and people who work for developers. If you think that the COAH rules are arcane and hard to follow, try following the State Planning Commission's Plan Endorsement.
The data in the State Plan is from 1986 - it is outdated and filled with errors. The State Plan has never included a proper environmental analysis or strategic analysis for the State of New Jersey on how and where growth should take place. The State Planning Act says that the State Plan has no regulatory authority. By giving the State Planning Commission this power, we will undermine affordable housing and the protection of natural resources.
Towns that comply with their affordable housing requirements should have legal shield but this bill takes those rights away. We believe towns that have passed ordinances and have complied with affordable housing requirements should not only be indemnified against lawsuits but the State Attorney General should defend those towns in cases of builder's remedy litigation.
Under this bill, all projects in areas without inclusionary zoning go to board of adjustment, giving power to developers. This applies to more than half towns in state, mostly those in rural and environmentally sensitive areas.
Designating affordable housing as "inherently beneficial" will put towns at the mercy of developers or face a lawsuit. "Inherently beneficial only benefits the builders," Tittel said.
Developers will be able to use the inherently beneficial designation as a way to overturn local zoning and get permission to build projects in environmentally sensitive areas. This would be a major step backwards to the days in the 1980s, when builders remedy lawsuits not only undermined good planning but resulted in some of the worst sprawl projects in state history.
We need to get rid of COAH but we should not go back to the days when towns were at the mercy of lawyers and developers.
"This legislation is an attack on environmental protections and planning," Tittel said. "It's going to mean more overdevelopment and sprawl. It puts a builders remedy bull's eye on more than half of the towns in New Jersey."
Kara Seymour, Program Assistant
NJ Sierra Club
145 W. Hanover Street
Trenton, NJ 08618
609.656.7612
(f) 609.656.7618
<http://www.newjersey.sierraclub.org> www.newjersey.sierraclub.org
Received on 2010-03-08 09:40:32