Dear Bill,
I am writing regarding your article, “Don’t Trade Wetlands for
Trinkets and Beads.” I agree with your
sentiments but I feel compelled to comment regarding your attacks on local
officials. While I am sure that some of them are deserving of your ire, the
local official's ability to control development and growth once a project has
been proposed is extremely limited. The time to stop development is at the
planning stage, not when a proposal comes before a local zoning or planning
board. Additionally, continually having to respond to individual projects as
they are proposed is an ineffective planning tool.
Antagonizing local officials is not the answer. Getting the local
officials to plan appropriately is the answer and your organization has to
participate in the effort. Making local official realize that the decisions
they make will be for future generations, not for temporary economic benefit or
personal advantage is the goal. Some amount of development will take place.
Appropriate and factually sound planning can slow growth and ensure that when
it does occur, that it will not be destructive. Local zoning ordinances need
teeth to keep development out of environmentally sensitive areas and prevent
off-site effects such as excessive run off caused by too much impervious cover
or wetlands destruction. You need to be "invited" to participate in
the master planning process of every Hackensack River Watershed community.
Without good local planning, the character of your community is
determined by the developer and by economic forces, not by common sense and
intelligence. Economics is not a good planner. The developer will build
whatever and wherever local zoning laws permit. The developer will build whatever
makes the biggest profit. Only good planning in conjunction with appropriate
ordinances can shape or control what the developer does. In an environmentally
sensitive area, like the Hackensack Meadowlands, long-term effects on natural
resources must be part of the process. Strong appropriate zoning laws to
control growth used in conjunction with an aggressive open space preservation
program is the key to intelligently shaping the future of your watershed.
Our state's laws are designed to permit development. If a building
proposal conforms to local zoning ordinances, that proposal cannot be stopped.
The fact that the building industry is the only economic sector that does not
have to contribute from its profits to mitigate the effects of its profit-making
activities on the community as a whole is testament enough to the builder's
political clout. Additionally, the developer has substantially more resources
than the typical small town. Local
communities do not have either the resources nor the authority of law to stop
development.
I am the mayor of Chester Township, a small semi-rural community
in Morris County. I enjoy strong local support for land preservation. My
community has good financial resources and we are in an area designated as
environmentally sensitive. With all of these assets, I am still at a
disadvantage when it comes to fighting builders. Even with our restrictive
zoning ordinances, the builders are "happy" to comply because they
will still make a healthy profit, as long as they get to build. I cooperate
with the Nature Conservancy, the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the
Upper Raritan Watershed Association as planning partners to try to help level
the playing field. However, in the long
run, we are always playing catch-up.
Right now, there is only one way to stop development. That is to
buy either the land or the development rights to the land. (Of course,
donations are always welcome!) This
process requires three elements: 1. A willing seller; 2. A willing buyer; and
3. Sufficient funding. Without all three elements, the deals don't happen. My community has been fortunate in having
had some success with our preservation efforts. We have been able to strike
deals with willing sellers. The willing buyer has never been a problem.
Finally, we have been able to tap into diverse sources of funding to pay for
our deals. However, I can only preserve one, maybe two, tracts of land each
year. At the same time, six or seven properties come before our planning board
for development. Also, we have to be mindful of exhausting our borrowing
capacity, which could hamper our ability to make future deals. Even with an
aggressive land preservation effort, the odds are still in the developer’s
favor.
Your organization has to insure that it is a part of the solution.
You need to aggressively try to broker land deals. Local officials are often
not sophisticated enough or aggressive enough to make the land deals. This is
where you can make a big difference. You need to make sure local officials know
that it is cheaper in the long run to buy the land vs. providing services to
the development, even before you factor in the social and environmental costs.
This will insure strong political support for preservation efforts. Finally,
you need to be a partner in the land deals. Since your organization is eligible
for non-profit open space grants from the state that can be used in conjunction
with grants to the municipality, you can help fund the purchases. This is important because of the high land
costs in New Jersey. A small community can easily be tapped out by just one
large deal. The state’s support, even with the commitment to preserving
1,000,000 acres, is woefully inadequate for the task.
Maybe as a local official myself, I am a bit more sensitive to the
barbs you have hurled at your local officials. The job of a small town mayor is
not an easy one. While I don’t pretend that every local official acts
responsibly, some of the responsibility lies with organizations such as yours.
I know that as a practical matter, the only way for the environmentalist’s
perspective to effectively be part of the planning process is for there to be
an environmentalist sitting as a welcome guest at the planning table. The
builders’ interests are always heard loud and clear at the local and state
level. Just being the "right thing to do" won't get you a seat at the
table. Name-calling isn't the way to get that invitation either. It has to be
in the best political interest of local officials to voluntarily ask you there.
The political part is easy. New Jersey is home to more Superfund
sites per square mile than any other state in the country. Ninety percent of
New Jersey residents want more open space. (The other 10% are developers.) Traffic and suburban sprawl are killing us
while we leave already developed urban centers as rotten cores. People are sick
and tired of unchecked development and environmental degradation. Making your
point of view a part of the local politicians agenda is a realistic goal. It's
up to you to make it happen.
See you on the
River,