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State Cannot Place Growth Centers in Protected Areas, Court Rules

Posted on: Monday, 6 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TRENTON An appellate court ruled Friday that the state can't weaken environmental protections in areas designated for development in the State Plan.

The ruling says the State Plan and its policy map are not regulatory documents and cannot be used as the basis for regulations. The practical effect is that no regulatory shortcuts will be allowed based on a designation in the State Plan.

"The State Plan has become an excuse for sprawl and overdevelopment," said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "If something is in the smart growth area, it gets less environmental protections and quicker permitting."

At issue were four areas designated for growth within environmentally sensitive zones in Sussex County.

The panel said designation as a growth center was not enough justification to relax environmental protections.

The decision eliminates the threat of establishing two tiers of environmental protection one for urban areas and one for rural areas and blocks the weakening of protections solely because an area is mapped for growth, said Susan Kraham, who argued the case on behalf of environmentalists.

The Sierra Club generated the lawsuit, and though it failed to get the growth designations overturned, Tittel said it won the bigger question over the regulatory status of areas in the growth zones.

Environmentalists have long argued against the creation of high- density growth centers near environmentally sensitive areas.

"It's like being a little bit pregnant," Tittel said. "Centers don't work."

Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.

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