The state's plan to preserve the North Jersey Highlands, especially its water supply and forests, is drawing an initial positive response from wary Republican officials in Northwest Jersey. But they have vowed to keep close watch on the Democratic Legislature's crafting of laws to implement the plan.

"On the surface, it looks okay," said Hunterdon County Freeholder Marcia Karrow, a Republican and early critic of Gov. James E. McGreevey's Highlands Task Force, which filed its preservation report last week. "But the devil's in the details. Let's see where this goes."

Karrow's sentiments were echoed across the seven-county, 1,250- square-mile Highlands region, where mostly GOP officials are backing the need for an effort to preserve land that is crucial to a water supply that serves half of the state's population. They are "cautiously optimistic" about the plan, even though it includes creation of a regional planning council that could interfere in local affairs.

But they were buoyed to find that the 40-page task force report, unveiled Saturday, included many points suggested by towns and counties, which urged McGreevey not to trample on local planning and to consider the economic impact of a virtual ban on development in the core, or most environmentally important area, of the Highlands.

"We are pleased to have the vast majority of our town in the Highlands core area," said Byram Mayor Eskil (Skip) Danielson, a Republican in the southern Sussex County town. "With 17 lakes, we are a defacto watershed."

"This plan is long overdue," said Rockaway Township Mayor Louis Sceusi, a Republican, whose northern Morris County town contains huge watershed tracts. "But it has to include realistic guidelines that do not infringe upon local government's ability to plan.

"We don't want the state to paint over the entire area with one brush stroke that does not take into account the unique needs and long-term plans of our town," said Sceusi, whose town anticipates expansion of a major shopping mall and also has a vital industrial zone.

The Highlands Task Force recommended creation of a regional council with veto power over all large-scale development on at least 350,000 acres of watershed lands in the Highlands, which includes 90 towns in Bergen, Hunterdon, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex and Warren counties. The governor has asked the Legislature for environmental enforcement powers in the region, enabling the state to halt most major development on forested ridges that are sources of potable water.

The state has yet to specifically map out the core region, with the Legislature to do that job. It is known, however, that the most environmentally sensitive lands include a vast forested region north of Route 80 in Morris, Sussex and Passaic counties that has the Wanaque Reservoir and other sources of drinking water, and lands near Round Valley and Spruce Run reservoirs in Hunterdon County.

In Sussex County, with 13 Highlands towns, Republican Freeholder Susan Zellman is encouraged the task force report acknowledged the need to preserve towns' and taxpayers' rights. She has concerns, though, about the state's ability to maintain and police huge swaths of land to be preserved, and potential state interference with infrastructure projects in towns inside the Highlands protected core region.

In Warren County, which has 19 Highlands towns, Freeholder John DeMaio is concerned about property owners getting fair value for land to be bought by the state. He declined, however, to be critical of the plan, hoping the issue will not be decided by politics, a point seconded by Karrow.

"Look, everybody doesn't want to do this again. Everybody wants this to be a permanent solution, with all politics put aside," said Karrow, who conceded a bipartisan effort could help the governor. "If this is a success, you realize five Republican counties are going to give Gov. McGreevey the best bang he could get."

The full Highlands plan can be found at: http://www.savethehighlands.org

* * * Lawrence Ragonese can be reached at lragonese@starledger.com or (973) 539-7910.

Copyright 2004 The Star-Ledger.