Leaders will make decisions about local land uses
By:Michele S. Byers
I’ve written in recent weeks about several things New Jersey’s next governor and state Legislature can do to "slow sprawl to a crawl." The upcoming election is one of the best opportunities voters have to influence the future of our communities, parks and quality of life.
Almost every voter will be faced with the opportunity to elect local officials, mayors, borough council members, township committee members all of whom will make decisions about local land uses.
Ben Spinelli, mayor of Chester Township in Morris County, put it this way: "The first line of defense against sprawl is the local governing body."
Mayor Spinelli recently expressed his skepticism that sprawl could be stopped by state government, because "there is a decided big money interest in having development continue."
Running for statewide public office is enormously expensive. It is difficult to find candidates who receive no financial support from real estate or building interests. The policies of major party candidates often reflect this reality recognizing the negative impacts of sprawl, but lacking aggressive solutions to sprawl that would challenge the agendas of their campaign supporters.
Mayor Spinelli’s solution to this problem is straightforward:
"Voters have to be aware of where their local officials stand on issues such as development and watershed protection. Sprawl is, after all, just the overall result of an accumulation of many local development decisions. The power for local governments to control development is certainly passed down from the state level. But if the local officials either don’t ask for more power, or aren’t inclined to use the tools already at their disposal to control sprawl, it doesn’t matter.
"State officials take their cues from concerns passed up through the local and county representatives. If your mayor is more inclined to listen to building or real estate interests than from those concerned with stopping sprawl, guess whose interests are heard by the state legislators.
"All of the grass-roots anti-sprawl action you can muster just isn’t going to unseat entrenched state lawmakers if there isn’t strong support at the local government level. You need organized resistance to the builders’ interests that starts with local officials.
"Stopping sprawl starts with electing intelligent and committed local officials who realize that it takes a comprehensive, multifaceted approach. A combination of sound zoning (including strong technical ordinances), open space protection and policies that encourage development and redevelopment of urbanized areas is the only way to halt the further ‘New Jerseyization’ of our state. These three factors all have a strong local component to them.
"I think you need to look at all levels of government to stop sprawl."
And so do we all. Take Mayor Spinelli’s advice in the time remaining before the coming election and find out where your mayoral and council candidates stand on stopping sprawl through sound zoning, open space preservation and redevelopment of urban areas.
For more information on conserving land in New Jersey, please visit NJCF’s Web site at www.njconservation.org, or contact me at 1-888-LAND-SAVE or by e-mail to info@njconservation.org.
Michele S. Byers is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.