It seems the first resort of the development lobby in opposing the legislative initiative to preserve the Highlands is to employ scare tactics.

Developers sought to pack state hearings on the proposed Highlands Preservation Act this month, and to panic homeowners, farmers and all property owners with alarming slogans, to the effect that the bill would trample on home rule and property rights, and a special state permit would be needed just to add a backyard deck to a house if the Highlands regulations became law.

It was all reminiscent, on a regional scale, of the fear-mongering heard in Chatham Township a decade ago when environmentalists pressed for tighter state regulations to protect the Great Swamp watershed from development made possible by sewer expansion. In an attempt to drown the issues in an uproar, foes of the protections sought to stampede ordinary homeowners into thinking the restrictions aimed at major developers would apply to them, too.

Well, the state saw through the scare tactics; regulations were tightened, and 10 years or so later, the sky has not fallen in Chatham Township. And the same will prove true in the Highlands, if state legislators act in the interests of New Jersey's future, instead of playing partisan politics.

It so happens the governor who is championing the Highlands initiative is a Democrat, while Morris County's representatives in the state Assembly and Senate are Republicans. The Highlands - 750,000 acres across northern New Jersey that supply more than half the state's residents with reliable drinking water and encompass the region's last intact forests - have been studied for decades to little effect while 5,000 acres were developed each year, until last month, when Gov. James E. McGreevey's task force recommended a set of initiatives to restrict development in a "core" preservation area of 390,000 acres, and create a regional planning council with local representation.

The initiatives depend on action by the Legislature, and much of the reaction from Morris County legislators has been predictably partisan.

Assemblymen Alex DeCroce, Joseph Pennacchio, Guy Gregg and Rick Merkt, and state Senator Anthony Bucco, all R-Morris, seem to care more about the Democratic governor's fingerprints on the bill than the long-recognized need to save the Highlands. Or perhaps they live in a different New Jersey than the one we live in - a New Jersey that is not being strangled by sprawl and traffic congestion, where water supplies and open space are not threatened, and where the public interest is best served by more luxury condos on more hilltops.

A refreshing exception has been state Senator Robert J. Martin, a Republican whose 26th District includes Chatham and Florham Park. Ever a maverick, Martin not only supports the Highlands Preservation Act - he's a co-sponsor. Also heartening is that on April 8, when mayors from Highlands towns gathered in Morristown to demonstrate support for the bill, three Republicans - John Murray of Harding Township, Robert Pierson of Mendham Township, and Benjamin Spinelli of Chester Township - had the courage to be counted among them. The mayors said the bill would give their communities more, not less, control over their destinies. "This is not new to us," Mayor Spinelli said of the issues underlying the Highlands initiative. "We've been fighting for a means to control growth in our towns for a long time."

Now, at last, a plan to save the Highlands has momentum - and we do not want to see that momentum lost in a fog of misinformation, procedural questions and "alternative" proposals which amount chiefly to last-minute stall tactics, aimed at derailing effective preservation.

The development lobby, one of the state's more considerable contributors to political campaigns, isn't shy about picking up the phone and telling state legislators what it thinks.

We hope residents in Morris County and the region will do the same, now, before this opportunity to act in the interests of future New Jerseyans is lost to partisan gamesmanship and self-interest.

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(c)Recorder Newspapers 2004