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Pave, not save: Environmentalist says council is selling out
(by Cindy Forrest - February 20, 2008)
The environmental community has uncovered what it calls a “time bomb” in a recently released amendment to the Highlands Council’s draft Regional Master Plan (RMP), which changes the definition of impervious cover. “Read it and weep,” said Ross Kushner, executive director of the Pequannock River Coalition.
Under the initial wording of the Highlands Act, only areas that are paved with compact gravel and have been built on were considered impervious. The new interpretation, however, classifies any modification to the soils from their natural state that would hinder the absorption of stormwater as impervious cover. This change basically guts major portions of the Highlands Act and opens a giant loophole that would allow for development in the Highlands Preservation Area, according to Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
Under the new definition released by the council, lawns and landscaped areas - which have been modified from their natural state - could be considered impervious for the purpose of redevelopment. As a result, most of the neighborhoods and communities in the Highlands would qualify as having at least 70 percent impervious cover, the threshold to qualify for redevelopment.
In the draft plan, the council created three new planning designations, a Protection Zone for forests and other water supply lands, a Conservation Zone for farmland and, a Planned Community Zone where existing development could potentially accommodate more growth. The three zones overlap with the Preservation and Planning areas created by the Highlands protection law.
“This explains all of those inexplicable, existing Community Zones scattered across the Highlands Preservation Area,” said Kushner, “with seemingly low levels of impervious cover. This new policy makes them all suitable ‘redevelopment zones’ under the Highlands Act.”
The council’s view
The Highlands Act allows for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection to approve limited waivers of its Preservation Area rules where the Highlands Council designates a Redevelopment Site. Such sites must be at least 70 percent impervious surface, which the Act defines as “any structure, surface, or improvement that reduces or prevents absorption of stormwater into land, and includes porous paving, paver blocks, gravel, crushed stone, decks, patios, elevated structures, and other similar structures, surfaces, or improvements.”
According to Eileen Swan, executive director of the council, this definition is significantly broader than normal definitions that would focus only on “hardscape” surfaces such as buildings or pavement.
For new development, the issue is easier - any hardscape surface is included, plus any other part of the developed property that is compacted in a way that would reduce stormwater recharge. Because the definition is broad, new development is highly restricted.
For existing development, the Highlands Council is facing a harder problem, because defining the entire developed site as impervious is too broad an approach, and using just the hardscape surface would violate the Act’s definition. Therefore, the Council has drafted what it is calling a simple and conservative technical method for defining impervious surface.
“We’ve looked at actual case studies where taking this approach is more restrictive,” said Swan, “under this plan, if builders want to claim there’s less impervious coverage, they’re going to have to prove it with onsite analysis.”
Due to be adopted this spring, the 383-plan will play a strong role in the future of 88 municipalities in seven northwestern counties, which yield approximately 379 million gallons of water daily and are a vital source of drinking water for over five million residents of New Jersey. The council, having just completed three public comment sessions, has had the proposed RMP bashed by almost everyone - from property owners to environmentalists, farmers to foresters.
A final plan adoption is almost two years behind the schedule mandated in the historic 2004 legislation, which created the council and charged it with protecting 1,250 square miles of environmentally sensitive land, by curtailing major development. The RMP is supposed to provide a “big picture” approach to land conservation by moving development to non-environmentally sensitive areas with the infrastructure and the water capacity to handle high-density projects and thereby allowing water-producing areas to remain undeveloped.
Opponents view
The new definition of impervious cover applies only to redevelopment, not to development as a whole. Therefore, lawns and landscaping do not count as impervious when calculating whether a house can be built under the regulations that limit development in the Highlands based on percentage of impervious cover. Once the house is built, however, its lawn and landscaping become impervious, and the land now qualifies as a redevelopment area thereby allowing the builder to construct more houses.
“This amendment,” said Tittel, “states that this is for the purpose of calculating redevelopment only and not for calculation of impervious cover for development purposes. They are hypocrites that want it both ways.”
The Council made the amendment public on Feb.4 following a public discussion of the subject by the Highland’s Natural Resources Committee in December. According to Swan, environmentalists were present at that meeting so the amendment shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
The environmental community is estimating that under the new definition of impervious cover, at least a quarter of the Preservation Area could now be considered redevelopment areas, which would open up these communities for even more intense development and urbanizing infrastructure, creating more environmental problems and polluting our waterways.
“Many of the victories that citizens and community groups have won over the years are at risk with these changes to the Highlands Plan,” said Tittel, “sewers, over-development around our lakes, further depletion of groundwater, more pollution running off into our streams and reservoirs. This definition risks all of these and should not, under any circumstances, be included when the plan is adopted.”
Kushner is going one step further, calling for the immediate resignations Swan and Council Chairman John Weingart. “All Highlanders had better wake up to the fact that the Highlands Council is not our friend. This is their doing. It demands a swift and sweeping response,” he said.
Public comments are being solicited on this technical approach through March 3
Cindy Forrest can be contacted at: forrestc@northjersey.com.
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