LAND USE
Directing growth away from sprawl patterns of development and toward existing and new compact, mixed-use centers in priority transit corridors, will build growth capacity, increase property value and reduce the growth in traffic congestion.
Background/Issues
Over
a recent 20-year period in central New Jersey, the increase in houses,
job and shopping opportunities, traffic, higher taxes, and the decrease
in open space and farmland have dramatically changed our region. In fact,
developed land in central New Jersey grew by 61%* during that period. During
that same time, the region's population grew only 21%. As the statistics
indicate, New Jersey is not growing so much as the population is redistributing
itself on the landscape - primarily in lower densities in formerly rural
areas away from existing cities and downtowns. Most new development is
accessible only by car, resulting in increased traffic congestion. Growing
communities struggle to afford new infrastructure while shrinking urban
and downtown populations struggle to keep up their schools and other services.
There is an increase in racial and economic segregation.
If this trend continues, the region's projected population will consume all available land before 2020, and the State will achieve build-out on greenfields within an estimated 50 years. No one wants that future. For developers, there will be reduced growth capacity. For environmentalists, there will be too much pollution and loss of natural resources. For employers, it will be difficult to attract or retain employees. For residents, it will seem impossible get around. After a period when property values have rapidly increased, congestion and other factors will force them to spiral down.
PlanSmart NJ Position
How can we change these trends? Growth must be redirected away from green fields and into places where there is development already. We must make more compact, mixed-use communities, save open space and add growth capacity. This is what has become known as Smart Growth.
These goals are achievable, as experience in Portland, Oregon, shows. Over the same 20-year period studied in central New Jersey, Portland grew 50%, (more than double our 21%), but converted only 2% of their land for development, (as opposed to our 61% conversion rate). Portland has strong regional planning and an enforceable growth boundary. They have a track record of promoting biking and walking and directing investments away from more highways and into light rail and buses.
Smart Growth is about more than the location of new development. It is about developing in such a way as to optimize a range of goals rather than maximize any one. These goals include:
- Reducing land, energy and resource consumption
- Enhancing environmental quality
- Reducing auto-dependency
- Increasing housing and transportation options
- Promoting sustainable economic growth
- Balancing jobs and housing
- Revitalizing cities and downtowns
- Providing infrastructure efficiently
- Distributing the costs and benefits of growth equitably
Targets
must be associated with these goals. Without targets, we cannot know whether
growth is "Smart" or merely "Less Dumb." PlanSmart NJ has designed
a regional planning process for setting targets, called Goals/Facts/Choices/Outcomes:
setting
goals, reviewing facts on build-out and capacities, choosing targets and
strategies to meet these targets, and testing whether or not the strategies
will achieve the targets. The result is a Regional Action Plan (RAP) that
is implemented by all parties who have signed the RAP (state, county, local,
public agencies, private sectors) and monitored and enforced by the State
or the County.
VISION 2050 Recommendations
We have demonstrated Smart Growth in our concept plan for the future of the region, called VISION 2050. VISION 2050 [ View Map ] has been designed to build growth capacity over time, maintain and increase property values, and reduce the growth in traffic congestion. Less land will be consumed, more resources protected and more housing and transportation choices provided. Infrastructure costs will be distributed equitably and provided efficiently.
VISION 2050 is based on the idea that an intra-regional transit system, such as a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or Light Rail system, will focus the redevelopment of land patterns away from sprawl. Although costly, such a system -- a type of modern trolley -- is no more visionary or costly than the Interstate Highway system built over last 50 years. It will work well here, if selected growth centers are sited on transit corridors, if population and job growth is targeted to go there, and regulations and investment decisions are changed to make it happen.
Current Projects
PlanSmart NJ has developed a state-of-the-art computer
model to demonstrate the impacts of zoning to non-planners. Goal Oriented
Zoning (GOZ®) estimates the impact
of build-out of zoning on natural resources, traffic, water quality, and
the costs of local facilities. GOZ® demonstrates the advantages of
changing plans to produce more compact, mixed-use development that will
support new transportation options and offer choices for a changing population.
We are using GOZ® in a number of projects around the state.
PlanSmart NJ is developing a 3-Systems Planning© approach, which emphasizes the need to bridge the gap between statewide planning, programs and investment strategies and local land use decisions. We have been applying this approach in Mercer and Somerset Counties. This approach is based on setting targets in three regional systems - the economy, transportation, and the environment. These targets, which are based on the State Development and Redevelopment goals and policies, then become the basis for evaluating whether local plans are consistent with these goals. We are using 3-Systems Planning© in two County Master Plan Update Projects.
PlanSmart NJ is also promoting Regional Action Plans (RAPs) as a basis for the State Plan Endorsement Process and new legislation. A RAP is the product of 3-Systems Planning©.
PlanSmart NJ has developed TrendShift© methodologies for setting growth targets. TrendShift© provides a number of techniques for exploring alternate growth patterns, from trend to various policy projections.
PlanSmart NJ is also developing a technique called Plan Mapping©, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), for evaluating the plans and regulations of various governmental agencies for consistency and the ability to produce the desired results.
Past Achievements
Since founded in 1968, PlanSmart NJ's achievements in land use have included:
- Moving municipalities from "home rule" thinking to being more receptive to a regional approach to local problems,
- Successfully advocating for public investments in the right locations, including $125 million in Route 1 improvements, official studies to support BRT service, etc. and against investments in rural and environmentally sensitive areas, such as the Sourland Mountain route for I-95 and the extension of sewer service areas in the Hopewell Valley,
- Advocating for the Farmland Preservation Act, Fair Housing Act, State Planning Act, Highway Access Management Act and Transportation Development District Act, etc.,
- Developing the concept for center-based development to counter sprawl, which became the key strategy of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan,
- Participating actively in the State Planning process.
*PlanSmart NJ Land Consumption Survey 1999