May 12, 2004
Hon. Bob Smith
New Jersey Senator
The State House
P.O. Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625-0001
RE: RPP supports the Highlands Water Protection and Preservation Act
Dear Governor McGreevey:
On behalf of the Regional Planning Partnership, I am writing to offer our support for the Highlands Water Protection and Preservation Act. As our name implies, RPP advocates regional planning. We believe that the Highlands Act will bring regional land use and conservation planning to a region of the State with a number of critical resources significant to the entire State of New Jersey and beyond. We offer you the expertise of our staff, Board and broad-based membership as well as the tools and strategies that we have developed to help plan regionally and act locally.
RPP sees the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act as first and foremost a bill to ensure that there is an adequate and clean water supply for more than half of the people who currently live in this state. For this reason, we ask you to exert your influence over the Senate Environment Committee: don't allow current politics to obscure the original reason for the Highlands bill - to protect the supply and quality of the water in the Highlands. Encourage the Committee to use the principles in the Highlands Coalition Report as a screen for evaluating the proposed amendments and for cutting down the now 200-page proposed Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act.
As a Highlands bill supporter, RPP feels that the bill as amended last week has several weaknesses that should be addressed in the final bill. In particular, we are concerned that there is no clear direction as to how appropriate growth centers are to be selected, and second, there are no compelling incentives for towns to opt for growth. The final bill must specify that there will be state aid for infrastructure needed to support growth in appropriate areas and more state aid for local schools to ensure an appropriate amount of housing in general and affordable housing in particular. Without these, the promise of the Highlands bill, the new Transfer of Development Rights Act, and ultimately any Smart Growth initiative anywhere, will fail. Sustainable development - the product of Smart Growth - is ultimately about outcomes, not process: it must produce appropriate economic growth, improve both economic and racial integration as well as protect and enhance the quality of the environment.
It is possible that growth areas will be selected as the regional plan is developed by the Council after the bill is enacted. For this to be achieved, however, it will be critical to specify in the final bill the right the structure of the Council, the quality of the appointment and the staff, as well as the adequacy of resources for the process.
Because the resources in the Highlands are for people both inside and outside the region, the structure of the Council should reflect the same. All of the Council members should be gubernatorial appointments. At least half should represent the Highlands as a whole - not particular counties or municipalities -- and the remaining public appointments should represent the state as a whole. This structure will help ensure that the plan that is developed will achieve both regional and statewide goals.
This does not mean that we propose that the plan will be developed without local and county government and other stakeholder involvement. Far from it. RPP has developed a number of planning tools and strategies that were designed to plan regionally and act locally.
Our tools will help the proposed Council to develop a regional plan that will achieve a range of Smart Growth goals. Our Regional Action Plan process (RAP) was approved by the Central Jersey Transportation Forum in response to your challenge to the Forum, Governor, when you asked the Forum on December 5, 2002, to tell you how regional planning should be done.
When the Highlands bill passes, we offer to demonstrate how these tools can be used to set regional goals, strike the right balance between regional and local controls and between economic growth and environmental protection, and produce desired outcomes. In the meantime, allow us to provide whatever help we can to ensure that the bill is passed.
Thank you for your consideration of our views.
Yours sincerely,
Dianne R. Brake
President
Copies: Members of the NJ Senate Environment Committee