Alert: Tell Your Senator to Oppose the Time of Decision Bill (S. 82)!
From NJ Chapter Sierra Club, NJ Conservation Foundation:
The Time of Decision Bill is up for a vote in the NJ Senate TODAY (3/11) and the Assembly version will be voted on Monday (3/15). The NJ Sierra Alert allows you to e-mail your Senator, while NJ Conservation Foundation is urging you to call your Senator and Assemblypersons. If you can do both!
NJ Sierra’s Alert:
A bill that hinders the ability of municipalities to do sound land use planning is up for a floor vote in the state Senate on Thursday (3/11/10). We need your help to stop this bill, S82, which changes the process that exempts developers from changes in municipal laws or zoning.
Under the current law, developers must have preliminary approval, which includes a public hearing, in order for an application to be exempted from changes in municipal laws or zoning. This bill changes that. If passed, developers will only have to file an application to be exempted. Incomplete or inaccurate applications would still be protected, giving the builder immunity from any land use planning changes, including ordinances established to protect the environment.
S82 is a major giveaway to developers and a step backwards in allowing municipalities to do good planning, promote smart growth, and protect natural resources. It will lead to sprawl, pollution, and higher property taxes.
Builders have been working tirelessly to push through this attack on environmental protections. If passed, it will be another example that New Jersey is being handed over to developers.
Please contact your state Senator and urge him or her to oppose S82. Here are some talking points or feel free to use our sample letter. Thank you for your help!
Talking Points
- Builders have been pushing for this bill, which will allow them to avert environmental protections and sit on applications for years, even decades thanks to the recent renewal of the Permit Extension Act.
- Municipalities that attempt to redo the master plan or craft zoning laws promoting smart growth, protecting open space, and preserving natural resources will be handicapped under this bill.
- S82 is another way for developers to get around the public process and override the voice of citizens.
- This bill will hurt the economy because it will allow developers to sit on applications for years before completing them.
- S82 is the equivalent granting approval for a driver’s license without requiring a written exam or a road test.
- This bill would prevent implementation of the State Plan, the Highlands Plan, Transit Villages, Cluster Development and changes in the Pinelands.
- Towns in the Highlands Planning Area are currently working to come into conformance with the Highlands Plan. This bill would undermine that work, allowing developers to only file an application first in order to be in compliance with the Highlands Plan.
NJ Conservation Foundation’s Alert:
Urgent! Please oppose developers’ bill
Ask your legislators to vote it down!
Please call your state Senators and Assembly members and ask them to oppose bills Senate 82/ Assembly 437, which will allow developers to freeze local zoning and ordinances when they submit an application.
The measure will undermine local planning, environmental priorities, and the public interest.
An alliance of municipal officials and environmental leaders, including the New Jersey League of Municipalities, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC), the NJ Sierra Club and NJ Environmental Federation, has united to defeat this legislation.
The development community is making every effort to fast-track its approval. A vote in the State Senate is set for Thursday, March 11, and the Assembly is scheduled to vote next Monday, March 15.
It is urgent that you contact your State Senator immediately and ask him or her to OPPOSE S-82. Also, please contact your two representatives in the General Assembly and urge them to OPPOSE A-437.
Go to http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp for contact information on your legislators.
About this legislation:
This proposed change to the Municipal Land Use Law would allow a developer to freeze local zoning and land use ordinances by the mere submission of an application. Currently, the court-approved “time of decision” principle, one of the few tools left to local officials to control inappropriate development, allows development application decisions to be made on the basis of the laws, ordinances and regulations in effect at the time the decision is rendered.
Under this bill, simply filing an application, even if incomplete or inaccurate, will protect the builder from any subsequent changes to any municipal ordinances.
It will circumvent any improvements to municipal zoning or ordinances, whether already under study or developed in response to the application, such as protecting features like forests, streams or wellhead protection areas, or requiring energy efficient measures, or implementing progressive steps recommended by master plan updates. The measure undercuts the role of local officials, local residents and the public.
Developers could rush in with applications that have the specific objective of eluding conformance with future changes to local land use zoning, such as new measures to restrict development based on water supply or sewer or septic capacity limitations, or to prevent development on steep, erosive slopes or in sinkhole-prone geology.
The bill is the antithesis of smart growth, and is a giveaway to developers at the expense of the environment and good planning.
If you need more information, please contact:
Alison Mitchell, Director of Policy, alison@njconservation.org
Wilma Frey, Senior Policy Manager, wilma@njconservation.org
The phone number for both is 908-234-1225.