Worry about fast-track bill, not Highlands

Now that the New Jersey Legislature has approved the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act with overwhelming bipartisan support, and the governor is expected to sign the legislation, all sides need to tone down the rhetoric and focus our energies on working together as best we can to make sure that it meets the many goals we all share.

Throughout the heated debate, no one argued that protection of public drinking water supplies and threatened open spaces in the Highlands is not important, even if we disagreed on how best to accomplish it.

Since the Legislature has decided upon the primary means by which that end will be accomplished, it is time to focus on how best to achieve our common goals through that process. Cooperation between local officials and environmental advocates is even more important now as we face a new threat to the Highlands, the fast-track permitting bill signed by Gov. McGreevey. That could affect approximately one-third of the Highlands Planning Area, forcing inappropriate development that the Highlands legislation was careful to avoid, despite claims to the contrary.

The Highlands Task Force, of which I was a member, strongly recommended that there be no mandatory growth forced on Highlands communities. The Highlands bill reflected that recommendation by making the regional master plan voluntary for the planning area which includes much of the Warren and Hunterdon County highlands.

There are trade-offs to this approach in that protection of critical environmental areas in the planning area, of which there are many, is also voluntary. Everyone should remember that many of these areas include significant farmland that was excluded from the preservation area at the urging of the agricultural community.

The bottom line is the Highlands bill will not force communities in the planning area to accept any growth that they don't want, but the fast-track law might.

If the Highlands legislation works as intended, the Highlands Council will create a regional master plan based upon a comprehensive natural resource assessment that seeks to encourage sustainable development in appropriate locations, rather than having it sprawl all over the countryside as is often the case now. Municipalities will have the option of adopting the master plan and will receive certain benefits if they do, such as a legal shield and the authority to impose impact fees on developers.

The fast-track law will undermine this process by expediting growth in centers and planning areas 1 and 2 before the council can complete the regional master plan. It enables developers to pay for an expedited review of permit applications in "smart growth" areas. If a review isn't completed in 45 days, the permit is approved. The result could be inappropriate development, pollution and more traffic, and that is clearly not smart growth.

Local officials and the environmental community have a common agenda here in that none of us wants to see that happen in the planning area. We should work together to press the governor and the Legislature to adopt rules and laws this fall that will minimize the impacts of the fast-track law on public health and the environment, including exempting the planning area from the fast-track provisions.

Local officials, including those who opposed the creation of the council, must avail themselves of every opportunity to work with it, rather than focusing on legal challenges or punishing landowners in the preservation area by withholding preservation funds under the mistaken assumption that those areas are automatically protected. Only working collaboratively with the council will ensure that the many valid views of Highlands residents, businesses and local officials are considered.

The Highlands legislation is admittedly complicated, but the rampant misinformation that has been spread about it has caused unnecessary fears. Once local officials and citizens in the Highlands learn the facts, they will see that it will not force unwanted growth on their communities. The fast-track bill is another story.

( Thomas Gilbert is executive director of the Highlands Coalition. He can be reached by email at tgilbert@igc.org)