The much-anticipated map of the Highlands "core" preservation area, which the state finally made public Friday afternoon, draws a sharp line around 395,000 acres of North Jersey where stringent planning rules designed to protect water sources would put the brakes on most new development.

Contained within that line are large chunks of four Sussex County townships, along with smaller areas in five other municipalities.

The map's release, however, did little to quiet the controversy that has swirled around the Highlands preservation plan since it was introduced in the state Legislature last month.

Before Friday, the unseen map had been a subject of much speculation - and controversy. For critics of the bill (S-1), the lack of a map delineating the preservation area from the planning area - where a new regional planning council would be only advisory in nature - was a major talking point.

Now, critics like Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Sussex, who has argued that the bill is being moved too quickly through the Legislature, point out that the preservation area is quite a bit larger than originally estimated, and contains far more privately owned land.

"When you promise something and you deliver something different, that's a good reason to believe that other parts of this legislation are, shall we say, flexible," Gregg said.

In the report issued last month by Gov. James E. McGreevey's Highlands Task Force - on which S-1 is ostensibly based - the preservation area was estimated at between 350,000 and 390,000 acres, about one-third of which would be privately owned and undeveloped. The amount of private, undeveloped land on the actual map - 145,000 acres - is more like 37 percent of the total core.

"Obviously, we could not close off the entire 800,000 acre region to development, especially in a state like New Jersey that is so densely populated, but we chose the most critical areas to preserve," said state Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, one of the bill's chief architects.

ALL OF BYRAM, MOST OF VERNON

Among those critical areas in Sussex County, according to the map and 24-page verbal description that attends it, are nearly all of Byram, most of Vernon and Hardyston, about half of Sparta. Also within the core are small, undeveloped pieces of Franklin, Ogdensburg, Hopatcong, Stanhope and Green.

Mayor Eskil Danielson, for one, said he knew ahead of time that Byram would likely be almost entirely in the core. He said he welcomed the preservation plan, and that the township will comply with whatever new regulations are put in place.

"This basically validates what's been done here, environmentally, for years," Danielson said. "We're caretakers, if you will, of a de facto watershed."

Resident Scott Olson, a member of a local citizens' group that has opposed development in wooded northern Byram, criticized the map for leaving certain areas - like a section of Hopatcong where a major senior citizens' development is planned - out of the preservation area. Still, he said he was "thrilled" that so much of Byram is within the core.

"Overall, this is what we want to preserve in our town," he said.

Byram has a pending application for town center designation before the state Planning Commission, an application that would now likely fail if S-1 is ultimately adopted. However, the core's boundary makes a point to steer clear of centers that have already received state approval, like those of Vernon, Sparta and Hopatcong.

In Vernon, where the protection of its designated center was one of the main concerns with the Highlands plan, Township Manager Don Teolis said he was glad to see the center had been excluded from the core.

"They were true to their word on that, at least," he said.

The preservation area in Vernon includes most of the elevated parts of the township, including Highlands Lakes and Barry Lakes in the east and most of Glenwood in the west.

Teolis said the plan, as it currently stands, is "livable" for Vernon.

In Sparta, as in Vernon, the preservation area seems to largely include areas that are already preserved as open space or farmland. Sparta's core area essentially comprises Sparta Mountain, but also bulges out to encompass the Pimple Hills region, in the central part of the township.

The new restrictions, though, could mean the death of the Blue Heron project, a 160-unit senior citizens' housing development planned along Woodport Road. If built, the development would provide an $800,000 tax ratable and also go toward the township's state-mandated affordable housing obligation.

Even though it has already been approved by the planning board, Township Planner David Troast said his reading of the legislation suggests there will be "significant problems" for the project if the bill goes through.

"We have two state initiatives clashing here," Troast complained.

"I think (the state legislators) have to stop rushing this (legislation)...Otherwise, they're going to create something that's a disaster."

Vernon farmer Andrew Borisuk, the county Farmland Preservation chairman, called the Highlands plan "frustrating and crazy."

If the bill is adopted, the preservation area boundary, which runs along Maple Grange Road, would effectively cut his farm in half, which would "basically kill me" with the new restrictions, he said.

"I'm convinced it's a land grab," Borisuk said bitterly. "It's just gonna be a playground for all the environmental people."

AN OPEN QUESTION

Meanwhile, environmentalists themselves had nothing but praise for the map.

"I think they used a laser to hone in on the critical areas that need to be preserved," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "The Highlands is the most important area in the state for the environment," he said. "The Pinelands (which, 25 years ago, the state preserved in similar fashion) were sort of in the middle of nowhere, and didn't face the development pressure that the Highlands have today."

Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Essex, S-1's other chief sponsor, said the state is "not trying to prevent development in the entire Highlands region, just steer unhealthy development away from the most sensitive areas.

"I defy anyone to disagree that the core areas we have targeted for preservation are critical to the future of New Jersey's drinking water supply."

Gregg, like other opponents of the legislation, has said that everyone agrees that the state's vital watersheds need to be protected. The disagreement is over the means, and especially over the rate at which the bill is being sped through the Senate and Assembly environmental committees.

Smith and McKeon hope to have the bill voted out of committee, and into the general legislature, at a meeting in Trenton on Thursday - Earth Day.

"If it's an open question whether, if a person's house (inside the preservation area) burns down, they can rebuild it or not - that tells me this is a bill that needs to be looked at very, very carefully," Gregg said.

Supporters of the legislation have accused Gregg and other Republican legislators of "partisanship" in trying to slow the bill's progress - a label Gregg takes issue with. "I am partisan. I'm happy to wear that mantle. But this bill is about my citizens," he said. "The only partisanship is our (Republican legislators from within the Highlands) not being invited to the table."

Gregg, who lives in Washington Township, Morris County - most of which is also in the core area - co-hosted a public forum in Hackettstown on Tuesday in order to give Highlands politicians a voice on this topic which they felt they had so far been denied.

"In my 10 years (in the Assembly), this has been the most electric issue I've experienced," he said. "Maybe because it's here."

* * *

(c) 2000, 1999, Quincy Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved.