Making Highlands optional

From the Record:

Builders’ group sets forum on Highlands

Where will housing be built in the Highlands?

This question has rung out repeatedly at New Jersey Highlands Council hearings.

Now, a new group formed by builders, the Highlands Coalition for Responsible Planning, is hosting its own forum. Invitations to the May 16 event in Morris Township were sent to local officials across the region.

The focus will be a provision of the proposed Highlands regional master plan that encourages towns in the planning area to come voluntarily under the more restrictive regulations for the preservation area.

Communities in the planning area also can choose to continue making their own planning and zoning decisions. The preservation area restrictions on develop- ment are mandated by the 2004 Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act.

Jay Grant, a Mendham-based home builder and chairman of the new group, said it is not trying to persuade municipal officials to opt in or out. Grant said his group is “seeking a balance that meets economic needs while conserving natural resources,” but is not at this point pressing a specific course of action.
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The New Jersey Builders Association, for instance, feels the plan “should be specific as to the locations where redevelopment, housing at a wide range of styles, densities and costs, including affordable housing and higher-density development, should take place.” The builders argue that towns in the planning area should not come under the preservation area’s tighter restrictions on development unless they provide more housing.