by Alison Mitchell, Co-Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation
Twenty years ago, New Jersey made a critical investment in the future by passing the New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act (Highlands Act).
Gov. James McGreevey signed the Act into law in 2004, marking a major milestone in our state’s conservation and regional planning efforts. A companion bill at the federal level, introduced by Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (New Jersey-11) and passed the same year, authorized federal funding to support land conservation partnership projects in the larger four-state Highlands Region (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania).
The New Jersey Highlands Region is a heavily forested area in the northern part of the state known for clean drinking water, biodiversity, critical wildlife habitat, and scenic beauty. Stretching across 88 municipalities and seven counties – an area larger than Rhode Island – the Highlands lies east of New Jersey’s Kittatinny Ridge and Valley Appalachian Province. These ancient hills have a rich history, standing like sentinels overlooking the former lava flows and plains of New Jersey’s Piedmont Province. For 10,000 years or more, the region was home to the Ramapough Lenape until the dispossession of the tribe’s lands, which began with the colonists and continued over centuries. Despite this, there are descendants of the Ramapough Lenape tribe residing in the region today.
Highlands supporters recently gathered to honor the hard work and dedication of those who championed and continue to implement the landmark New Jersey legislation protecting the region. “Who knows where we would be today had the Highlands Act not been put in place,” says Ben Spinelli, executive director of the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council (Council), a regional planning state agency that works with towns and counties to encourage a comprehensive approach to implementing the Act.
The anniversary celebration included a panel of Highlands Act champions moderated by the first Council Chair John Weingart, with New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s former executive director, Michele S. Byers, as well as state Sens. Bob Smith and John F. McKeon. “It’s amazing that it got done,” said McKeon to the crowd. “It really, really is, when you think about all that we were facing.” Because of the law, dozens of major developments were stopped, curbing unchecked sprawl. And the Act substantially slowed the loss of farmland, which allowed local agriculture to thrive. The region has remained economically viable, despite predictions from some early opponents.
Water protection was the main underpinning of the Highlands Act. Seventy percent of New Jersey residents, roughly seven million people, get some or all of their drinking water from the Highlands, including 80% of residents living in overburdened communities. The Highlands also forms a greenbelt around the most populous metropolitan area in the country. Over half of the region’s forests have been protected through public ownership, including 75% of the core forest areas.
As our densely populated state continues to grow and climate change creates new challenges, protecting the Highlands’ ecological integrity – its forested ridges, water-cleansing wetlands, and pristine streams meandering through pastoral hayfields and meadows of goldenrod – is vital. The Highlands can help New Jersey stem the losses and mitigate impacts of global climate change. “The forests that have been protected, the water supplies that have been protected – thank goodness they are here to help New Jersey get through some tough times ahead,” said Smith.
But there is a lot more work to be done!
The Council and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are charged with implementing the Act, which separates the region into a Preservation Area and a Planning Area. The DEP has rule-making authority over the Preservation Area, about half the region. Those areas are required to conform to the Regional Master Plan (RMP), which guides land-use decisions in the Highlands and is developed by the Council.
The fate of the Planning Area is more tenuous. There, conformance with the regional plan is optional. Growing threats include warehouse sprawl and towns courting large-scale commercial construction projects for tax incentives. There are also legal requirements that allow large market rate housing developments as part of providing affordable units. To help prevent unsustainable development, Planning Area municipalities can voluntarily choose to conform to the RMP.
Julia Somers, executive director of the nonprofit organization New Jersey Highlands Coalition, urges Highlands’ residents to speak up in township meetings in support of opting in to Plan Conformance.
Complacency is one of the biggest threats facing the region. We need citizens and organizations serving as watchdogs and advocates. Somers says, “People have to turn up!” To find out if you live in the region, which spans portions of Bergen, Passaic, Morris, Somerset, Hunterdon, Sussex, and Warren counties and if your town has conformed, visit https://www.nj.gov/njhighlands/planconformance/status/index.html
There are 19,000 individual lots that are still developable in the region – approximately 230 square miles, according to Spinelli – making it critical that we accelerate land preservation efforts.
McKeon introduced legislation (A4627/S3466) this summer that would allocate $7.5 million of revenue annually from the Corporate Business Tax to preserve land in the Highlands.
All New Jerseyans – whether we drink Highlands’ water or enjoy all the other benefits the region provides – have good reason to support A4627/S3466! “If a legislator’s office got 10 phone calls expressing support for the bill, it would register as a tidal wave of support,” Somers says. “It does not take much for people to be heard.”
Passage of the Highlands Act was the first big step in protecting the region. Now we need to ensure the region’s resources are safeguarded into the future. This state we’re in depends on it!
To contact your State Legislators about supporting A4627/S3466, visit https://njleg.state.nj.us/legislative-roster
To find out more visit the Highlands Council website at www.nj.gov/njhighlands/ and the Highlands Coalition website at https://njhighlandscoalition.org/.
And for information about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources – including the Highlands – visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org.
