TO: Mayors of Mercer County
Planning Board Chairs of Mercer County
FROM: Dianne R. Brake, President
DATE: March 3, 1998
RE: Comments on the Mercer County Cross-Acceptance Report
Enclosed please find a copy of a letter I have sent to Donna Lewis, Mercer County's Planning Director. The letter represents our written comments on the draft Mercer County Cross-Acceptance Report, dated February 9, 1998. As you can see, MSM is supportive of State Planning in New Jersey and congratulates Mercer County on its leadership in the Cross-acceptance process. But I am writing to call your attention to MSM's central recommendation because the County will need your help to act on it.
The vision of the State Plan is to direct growth into compact, mixed-use centers in appropriate areas and to protect the surrounding open space. This vision is the alternative to suburban sprawl that was determined by the Legislature in the 1986 State Planning Act to be too costly. The State Plan's alternative is a vision that will achieve all of the goals outlined in the State Planning Act -- revitalizing our cities, protecting our environment, conserving natural resources, providing affordable housing and efficient infrastructure. Only by changing the status quo and implementing this vision, can we achieve the savings and other benefits predicted in the Impact Assessment of the Interim State Development and Redevelopment Plan (Rutgers, 1992).
We feel that the current direction of the cross-acceptance process is not advancing this vision. Our request is that Mercer County work with all of its 13 municipalities over the next few months to distribute the County's growth projections to the various Planning Areas (PAs) throughout the County. This distribution must be done in such a way as to achieve the policy objectives of the PAs. When consensus has been reached on growth by Planning Area, the next task will be to identify appropriate centers, cores and nodes to absorb the majority of this planned growth. Consensus on this distribution of growth into areas consistent with the State Plan should be the main focus of cross-acceptance.
MSM offers our staff and resources to help in this endeavor. We hope that you will, too. Please give me a call if you have any questions about our position, or would like to make your own comments. We look forward to working with you.