It’s no surprise that New Jersey has the highest average commute time, property tax bill, and per capita income, and that it is the most densely populated state, with, on average, over 1,”100 people per square mile.##M:[more]##
But West Windsor is looking to do its part to combat those challenges and plan for future sustainability. At its December 17 meeting, the township council heard a presentation from Office of Smart Growth Executive Director Ben Spinelli, who highlighted the OSG’s plan endorsement process. West Windsor is preparing to go through the process.
The Office of Smart Growth’s plan endorsement is part of its initiative to promote statewide coordinated planning, curb sprawl, and relieve pressure on state resources.
“”Our reaction has been to come up with a regulatory maze, in an attempt to try to put a stop to all those pressures,”” said Spinelli. Currently, his office is in the process of rewriting its own state plan — the last of which was drafted in 2001 — which will include eight goals aimed at getting the state and municipalities to work together on a regional basis to coordinate planning.
Sprawl, said Spinelli, is “”very destructive socially, very destructive environmentally, and to reverse those patterns is extremely difficult. Undoing the built environment in the state is not going to happen, so we have to come up with a way to go forward that’s more efficient and really respects the resources we rely upon.””
He pointed out that New Jersey is probably going to be the first state in the nation to have to come to grips with the issues of sustainability, and probably the first to reach full build-out. Still, “”no matter what late night comedians want to say about it, New Jersey is a remarkable place,”” for its diversity and cultural and job opportunities, he added. That’s why it is important to keep a good quality of life, he said. “”Eight-point-five million people were not sentenced to live in New Jersey. We live here for a reason, because it is such a good place to live, and we want to keep it a good place moving forward.””
In the revised state plan, one of the new goals that will also be addressed is reducing the green house gases and other global warming issues, Spinelli said. It also will be compiled in more user-friendly format, so local officials can match it up with their own plans to see how they compare, he added.
The Office of Smart Growth’s effort in coming up with this plan is to provide guidance to both municipalities and state agencies in coming up with strategies to dealing with these issues. “”Land use is so locally driven in our state,”” Spinelli said. “”It goes back to the 566 municipalities each going in their own direction. A big part of why we had suburban sprawl in the state is because we never had cooperation and coordination for planning, and as a result we get all these towns trying to do what’s best for each of them. Every intention is the best, but the result is not.””
On part of the state agencies, it goes back to how they invest residents’ tax dollars, and the state Department of Transportation, for example, shouldn’t be going in a different direction than the state Department of Environmental Protection. “”The answer to that high tax burden is not to go back to taxpayers for more money for a wide range of services to the diverse population. The need for those services is not going away. We have to be smarter about how we deliver those services, and more efficient about how we deliver those services, and the state plan is designed to give that kind of guidance.”” That includes building roads, dealing with transit services, procedures for saving open space and farmland, and a myriad of other programs the state funds.
Part of the state’s plan in curbing sprawl is revitalizing historic towns and cities. Another part of the equation is encouraging compact, center-based development, and preserving rural areas around it. “”All three things go hand-in-hand,”” Spinelli said. “”We can’t just encourage center-based development without going toward the complementary portion of this, which is to reduce pressure on the environment around that center-based development.””
The plan endorsement process in which West Windsor is looking to participate is a tool for implementation of that state plan. Officials from the Office of Smart Growth will go to each municipality applying for plan endorsement for a comprehensive review of all its planning measures, and it’s tailored to each municipality. “”No municipality in New Jersey is exactly the same as another,”” Spinelli said. “”When we come to work with West Windsor, we’re going to assess where you’re at in the current planning, what circumstances you’re facing, what pressures you’re facing, what challenges you’re facing, and what assets you have, and work collaboratively with you to come up with a plan that’s right for West Windsor and right for the state.””
The process is designed to have numerous points of public input, in order to make sure there is support before moving forward. “”It can’t be the mayor and his brother-in-law; it can’t be the developer’s vision,”” Spinelli said. “”It can’t be a very closed vision.”” Rather, it has to be one that the community and residents as a whole support, he added.
Various aspects, including transportation, open space preservation plans, education, infrastructure, environmental resources, economic development, and ordinances will be analyzed during the process. The Office of Smart Growth officials will want to see up-to-date plans for land use, including the Master Plan, and will perform a capacity analysis in coordination with other state agencies like the DOT and DEP. They will also look to see whether the township has a comprehensive housing plan, a comprehensive environmental protection plan, and sustainable building program, and they will also identify centers where development should be concentrated and examine the school facilities in the township, Spinelli said.
Advantages to having an endorsed plan include access to programs, priority funding, and competitive advantages in receiving various forms of funding, Spinelli said.
Planning Board member Marty Rosen asked how the township’s anticipated Master Plan re-examination in 2008 would affect the endorsement process. Spinelli explained that “”it’s exactly the right time to go through endorsement,”” because his office can work with West Windsor officials so they won’t have to worry about finishing the plan, sending it to Smart Growth officials, and then having to revise it based on their comments. Rather, it can all be done collaboratively, he said.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said that the timing is right for the township to go through the plan endorsement process. “”Once we got the bond rating up to AAA, we’re in a better position to talk about long-term planning.””
-Cara Latham
