Beleaguered BIG Map not final, says official

Community Affairs commissioner says map was never on par with State Development and Redevelopment Plan.

By: David Campbell
   WEST WINDSOR — State Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin did some damage control Friday for the state’s Blueprint for Intelligent Growth, or BIG Map, which the McGreevey administration withdrew last month following criticism of wide-ranging inaccuracies.
   Commissioner Levin told the Central Jersey Transportation Forum, which met Friday at Sarnoff Corp., that the state got "off message" in promoting the Department of Environmental Protection’s color-coded smart-growth map.
   The DCA commissioner blamed the media for public misperception of the map as a statewide planning tool on par with the State Development and Redevelopment Plan.
   "The BIG Map is a DEP map, it is not the be all and end all," Commissioner Levin said. "Calling it the ‘BIG Map’ sets us off track. From my point of view, it got us off message."
   Commissioner Levin said the State Plan, not the BIG Map, is "the most important planning tool for New Jersey."
   The DEP introduced its BIG Map in January and posted a draft on the Web to promote discussion as the agency fine-tuned the document. The BIG Map was intended to show where DEP regulations favor or discourage growth prior to a development proposal being submitted.
   In April, the DEP withdrew the map from its agency Web site, according to a statement posted on the site, "to avoid confusion and misinterpretations." The DEP plans to revise the map in part to better reflect local data.
   The environmental agency drew criticism over the BIG Map from elected officials, developers and environmentalists who complained the map didn’t accurately reflect true conditions on the ground and conflicted with the State Plan.
   "The map was removed because we recognized the process was flawed," Commissioner Levin said Friday. "We heard you, you were loud and you were clear, and you were right. You will not see another version of this map until all the comments are heard."
   The commissioner said a revised DEP map could be ready by the end of the year. Ultimately, she continued, the DCA plans to adopt a new State Plan that reflects data being gathered by the DEP to update its map.
   In the end, she said, the state will have a single map for smart-growth planning: the State Plan.
   The Central Jersey Transportation Forum is made up of state and community officials and public-policy advocates in central New Jersey.
   It seeks solutions to transportation issues in the context of current and planned growth, primarily along the Route 1 corridor and the surrounding region.
   The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the designated metropolitan planning organization for the Philadelphia, Camden and Trenton metropolitan area, moderates the forum.