The Township Council has approved an ordinance that requires applicants to the Planning Board to submit a green building practices checklist in addition to the already-required preliminary environmental impact statement.
According to the ordinance, approved on September 7, the green development practices checklist “requests a description or consideration of development practices that will seek to balance environmental, economic, and social impacts or opportunities.”
Essentially, the ordinance requires that developers who want to build a new building in town will have to show that they have considered sustainability and environmental conservation as part of their applications.
Green Resolution. Also at the September 7 meeting, the Township Council passed a resolution aiming to identify and protect “imperiled” species that are natives to the township.
The resolution follows the Wildlife Action Plan created by the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, as well as other state and federal agencies. The plan provides biologists, wildlife experts, municipal leaders, educators, planners, and others with a course of action to conserve native wildlife.
The resolution pledges the township’s efforts to identify the imperiled species as well as their critical habitats and unique ecosystems in the township’s Environmental Resource Inventory.
The township also pledges to “manage publicly owned lands in accordance with wildlife management actions laid out in the New Jersey Wildlife Action Plan and will promote the management of all protected lands to promote biodiversity,” the resolution states.
The township will also protect wildlife habitats in its open space acquisition strategy, its open space stewardship plans, and through its Master Plan, including through planning and zoning ordinances.
