Environmental element eyed for Master Plan
By Maria Prato-Gaines
MONROE The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association presented a municipal assessment to the Township Council on Monday, outlining environmental protection goals, some of which will likely have an impact on upcoming Master Plan revisions.
Susan Charkes, the Watershed Association’s environmental planning specialist, discussed 10 elements that her organization had studied, proposing that the township consider at least three of the topics for future planning.
Ms. Charkes offered a review of the assessment and recommendations concerning the following topics: open space protection management, biodiversity planning, greenways and trails, source water and well-head protections, aquifer and groundwater recharge, surface-water and stream-corridor protection, conservation design, critical areas of protection, sustainable community and effective public participation.
She said municipal officials will face multiple challenges when reviewing the data, having to balance protecting the natural resources, encouraging economic prosperity, providing services and preserving and enhancing the township’s unique characteristics.
”Providing a high quality of life means a vision for the future,” she said. “This is the first product of the process. We’ve viewed it as a continual project.”
Some of the Watershed Association’s many suggestions included creating a network of trails that extend into other municipalities, adopting ordinances that limit pesticides and fertilizers, reducing the density of development in recharge areas, requiring native plant species in landscape design, inventorying plant and wildlife species and their habitats, adopting standards and incentives to promote green buildings and using the township’s Web site to inform and receive public input.
”I think they are the essentials,” Township Council President Gerald Tamburro said Tuesday. “But I haven’t digested everything they had presented. I thought by and large, many of the suggestions and recommendations were in various stages of being performed by us.”
Township Engineer Ernie Feist agreed, saying many of the recommendations were already in the works, but that township officials also had the challenge of considering state regulations, zoning and land-use patterns when reviewing the data for the Master Plan.
”Some existed to some degree and some would have to be newly created,” he said. “But I think the presentation was well done. They did a good job of telling Monroe to set some goals.”
Some township officials speculated on which of those goals might take a priority.
As treasurer of the Municipal Utilities Authority, Mr. Tamburro said, he hoped the township would expand its well-head protection programs.
”I want to review that and make sure we’re doing everything we can do,” he said. “It’s the end source of everything.”
Mr. Feist had his own thoughts.
”I think the stream corridor will be at the top of our list,” he said. “We’ve been looking at stream-corridor protection ordinances for some time now. We’ve been looking at it and sending it around to various professionals and getting comments.”
The Watershed Association, a nonprofit organization working to protect the natural environment in the 265-square mile region drained by the Stony Brook and Millstone River, has been working on the free assessment since 2005.
Now that the assessment is complete, the next step will be a full review of the data to determine which suggestions would be most feasible and should be integrated into the Master Plan, township officials said.
Monroe’s Environmental Commission chairman, John Riggs, said his organization revised a draft copy of the presentation prior to Monday’s meeting and that the Master Plan Committee must now review the data.
Township professionals expect the full Master Plan revisions to be completed by July 2009.
”We’re so close to a full Master Plan revision and changes in our ordinances,” Mr. Feist said. “Now we kicked off a Master Plan update.”
The assessment can be found online at visit www.thewatershed.org/info/SBMWA_Monroe_Municipal_Assessment_2008.pdf.