Municipal Clerks: Please provide copies to all members of the Governing Body and Land Use Boards.

Dear Mayor:

Included in this mailing is our analysis of S-1/A-2635, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act. This analysis flags issues we believe to be of interest to municipalities in general, but not necessarily the individual concerns of every municipality in the region. Additionally, we provide some comments based on feedback we have heard from municipal officials in the region.

The League has engaged the sponsors of the legislation and the Governor’s office, and has received commitments for a number of amendments to address many of our concerns. You should know that the Governor’s office and the sponsors have been proactive in their outreach to municipal officials and to the League.

As you can tell from the analysis, the League, at this point, neither endorses nor opposes the legislation. This is for a simple reason: we have yet to see a consensus emerge amongst municipal officials to the fundamental question in this bill: Should a regional planning council be created to draft and implement a regional plan for the Highlands ? We realize that a consensus on this fundamental issue may never be reached.

While numerous local officials have been outspoken in this debate for years, it was very clear that during the beginning of the Governor’s Highlands Task Force that there was no unified voice to address issues of general municipal concern. In other words, it was important that someone speak for municipal governments. We would be remiss, however, if we did not note the outstanding work of the “Five County Coalition” which has been effective and articulate in defense of the concerns of county and municipal governments. Our role is to speak for municipal governments and address provisions in the legislation objectionable to municipalities and to taxpayers.

A joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly Environment Committees is scheduled to release this bill on Thursday, April 22. That hearing will be held in Trenton . Before the bill is scheduled for a vote by the General Assembly and Senate, we expect substantial amendments to the bill, some of which are a result of our advocacy. At that point, the League will provide you an updated analysis of these amendments.

We strongly suggest you review our analysis and assess how this legislation will impact your municipality. A number of other interested parties, representing diverse interests ranging from environmental advocates to the New Jersey Builders Association, are also circulating analyses of the legislation, and we further suggest you review those commentaries as well.

Please articulate your concerns to your State Senator and Assembly representatives. Furthermore, we ask that you copy any correspondence on this to the attention of Mike Cerra here at the League. Questions and comments can be directed to Mike at mcerra@njslom.com or (609) 695-3481 x20

Thank you.