RALLY TO SAVE HIGH MOUNTAIN
On May 18th at 4 p.m. the New Jersey Highlands Coalition, along with the Township of Wayne will host A Rally to Save High Mountain, a state-defined Natural Heritage Priority Site on Preakness Ridge, one of the largest remaining tracts of forested land east of the Highlands, at Lt. Carey Andrew Memorial Park along Indian Road in Wayne. Concerned citizens and advocates from NJ Sierra Club, the NJ Conservation Foundation, the Ramapough Conservancy and others will join the Highlands Coalition and elected officials from Wayne and Oakland, to oppose a newly resurrected, twice denied, residential housing development on a site that, in the words of NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), is host to “some of the best remaining habitat for rare species and exemplary natural communities in the State.”
The proposed Pinnacle/Bi-County development was emphatically denied in 2008 by the NJDEP for the “significant adverse impacts on this environmentally sensitive area” and would “directly conflict with the Department’s land use plans and policies and would damage critical natural resources of the State.” Then in 2014, NJDEP entered into a settlement agreement exempting Pinnacle’s successor, Bi-County Development Corp, from most state environmental laws and municipal land use ordinances enacted since 1991 for a 204-unit residential development that could never break ground under current laws.
The NJ Highlands Coalition, the citizens and officials of the two municipalities involved and leading environmental and conservation organizations oppose this project as they have for the last two decades. Speakers at the rally will include the Honorable Christopher Vergano, Mayor of Wayne, Jeff Tittel of the NJ Sierra Club, Elliott Ruga from the NJ Highlands Coalition and others. Refreshments and cocktails will be available for the press.
Save High Mountain Event
Monday, May 18, at 4:00pm
Lieutenant Carey A Arthur Memorial Park
The New Jersey Highlands Coalition is planning a gathering to inform the public about the Bi-County Pinnacle proposed development project in Oakland. Mayor Schwager of Oakland and Mayor Vergano of Wayne will be speaking. It is likely the president and founder of Ramapough Conservancy will be speaking at the event. This event will be at a location in either Wayne or Oakland, and the location will be announced shortly. The Bi-County Pinnacle development site is a forested mountain which “the Department of Environmental Protection in NJ, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have all issued expert testimony and permit denials that describe the project site as being unique for the valuable and rare public trust resources present at the site, resources that the State holds in the public trust, that the Department is entrusted with the responsibility of protecting, and that the Department is in no position to bargain away, or offer a legal context to allow their sacrifice.
Comments dated May 30, 2014 of Elliot Ruga, Senior Policy Analyst, NJ Highlands Coalition.
http://www.njhighlandscoalition.org/PDF/2014-0530-BiCountyComments-final.pdf
Other documents and maps can be found here:
http://njhighlandscoalition.org/updown/PINNACLE/
Click here to join the event on Facebook.
Why is this meeting scheduled @ 4PM when a lot of the people affected may be at work till 5PM?
Mr. Koscielny, that’s a very good question that deserves a response from the event’s organizer. There were many considerations in determining the time of day and day of the week.The availability of speakers, concerned citizens, the filing deadlines of the press for both dailies and weeklies and evening and late night news broadcasts were all factors that needed to be balanced. We realized it would not easy for local residents working business hours with significant commuting distances, which is why we scheduled the rally as late in the day as possible, but without conflicting with municipal and county evening meetings. We would be very grateful to those members of the public who despite their work schedules are able to participate. I’m looking forward to seeing you on Monday and together, proclaiming our outrage towards the agency we have vested with our trust to protect our natural and cultural resources for selling us out.
Elliott Ruga
New Jersey Highlands Coalition