NJ Highlands Coalition Letter on Bi-County Proposed Development 1

Date:     April 29th, 2014
To:    New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council
c/o james.humphries@highlands.state.nj.us
From: Erica Van Auken, Campaign and Grassroots Coordinator, NJ Highlands Coalition

Oakland Borough Petition for Plan Conformance – Entire Municipality
The New Jersey Highlands Coalition supports Oakland’s petition for plan conformance.  We are encouraged to see that Oakland is exploring the potential to incorporate a Town Center as well as the possibility of becoming a TDR Receiving Zone. However, due to Oakland’s significant water availability deficit, we would caution against developing areas where there is no water supply. Oakland’s involvement in the Water Use and Conservation Management Plan program is encouraging, but conservation cannot be the only means to ensure water availability. At some point development has to be limited.

Our primary concern in Oakland is in regards to the recent settlement between NJDEP and Bi-County Development Corporation. As per the public notice,
“the proposed settlement would recognize that the property was placed in an approved sewer service area for Wayne’s Mountain View Wastewater Treatment Facility by virtue of the Department’s February 4, 1991 adoption of the 1990 Oakland WMP, so that the project is consistent with the Northeast WQMP and the Department’s June 3, 2005 inconsistency determination and August 18, 2008 WQMP amendment disapproval are thus rescinded.”
New Jersey’s regulatory landscape has dramatically changed in that time, most notably, with the passage of the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, implemented to address projects precisely like this one. This settlement is a questionable legal argument for abrogating 25 years of subsequent environmental regulations, including the NJDEP Highlands Preservation Area Rules.

While the wastewater treatment capacity would come from Wayne Township in Passaic County, Oakland does not have the water capacity needed to support a 200-residential unit project. Further, because the wastewater would be an inter-basin transfer, it is a depletive water use and should be strongly discouraged.

This project completely goes against regional planning.  How does this development proposal fit into the Borough’s plans for a municipal Center or a TDR Receiving Zone?  Should NJDEP be allowed to approve an outdated development proposal that will hog any remaining water availability, to throw a wrench into the gears of all the other plans the Borough is exploring with the Highlands Council? How can their plans move forward if they are saddled with this outdated, unexpected, and unwanted development project?

We strongly encourage the Highlands Council to insert themselves into this process with NJDEP.  The New Jersey Water Protection and Planning Council, as was intended by the Highlands Act to be an independent body with a specifically set forth mission, was founded to be “in but not of” the NJDEP. The proposed Settlement Agreement between NJDEP and Bi-County Development Corporation must be judged by the Council on the merits of the legal grounds it assumes to stand on, and not validated merely by accepting the authority of NJDEP. The Settlement Agreement countenances the sacrifice of the public trust resources of the Highlands that the Highlands Council, and only the Highlands Council, is charged with protecting. It must evaluate the Settlement Agreement against the impacts that it will allow, comment on it, and either accept it or deny it on such terms.

As the regional planning body, the Highlands Council has the right and the responsibility to view this development project with the goals and purposes of the 2004 Highlands Act and the 2008 RMP, as well as Oakland’s goals as they continue through the conformance process.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments.