Testimony of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC)

Permit Extension Act A2867/S1919

My name is Sandy Batty. I am the Executive Director of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC). ANJEC works to establish and support environmental commissions, educate local officials and concerned citizens, advocate appropriate public policies and coordinate organizations interested in environmental issues. Our 2,500 members represent environmental commissions and open space committees in approximately 380 municipalities and all 21 counties of New Jersey.

ANJEC opposes A2867/S1919, the Permit Extension Act.

The Permit Extension Act will allow projects that were permitted many years ago to avoid changes in environmental law, public health standards, building codes, or local planning. This Act perpetuates the status quo, rather than accepting regulatory and planning improvements that benefit the public health and welfare.

Recent changes in DEP regulations that increase environmental protection will become immaterial because developers can keep their permits gained under the old rules. It will undermine the state's Pollution Discharge Rules, Flood Hazard Rules, Site Remediation Rules, Category 1 Rules, and others.

Developer’s approvals will stay in effect even if towns have passed new zoning to manage sprawl or environmental ordinances to protect environmental features like streams, steep slopes or trees. ANJEC encourages municipalities to do good land use planning that protects the environment. We support towns and cities through education, assistance and over $1.2 million grants to do effective land use plans. The state Office of Smart Growth has given even more extensive grants for good land use planning. But all the state and municipal expense and time involved in adopting planning will be wasted if this law is enacted, allowing old, tired development plans to stay in effect.

This Act does not allow for new thinking or good planning to adapt and make improvements that will conserve energy or preserve natural resources or farmland.

For example, with state encouragement, Woolwich Township has done major revisions to its Master Plan and zoning to create a TDR program that will preserve existing farmland and concentrate development in a designated center. But this municipality, the fastest growing one in the state, has dozens of development approvals on the books. I’m sure many of these approvals are in conflict with the plans for a new Woolwich, but the Permit Extension Act will allow them to move forward.

This bill creates governmental havoc, overburdening local planning departments and the state with the task of checking when approvals were actually granted and trying to calculate the impact that extending these approvals will have.

Because the period covered by the act starts at 2006, the act would allow projects whose permits or approvals have expired within the past two years to be brought back to life, even if those projects would cause environmental harm or damage to public health. Local approvals could date all the way back to 2001, because the Municipal Land Use Law already gives approvals the ability to extend for five years.

The bill uses the current economic situation as justification for these extensions. But how can relaxing regulatory standards fix a banking and credit crisis? In addition, the bill offers no justification for a six-year extension to December 12, 2012, an arbitrary date for how long the banking crisis will last.

I urge you to vote against the Permit Extension Act.