INSURING SMART GROWTH

While one person’s smart growth may well be another’s unwanted development, it is clear that our new governor will need to pay close attention very early in his administration to several issues that can help encourage the redevelopment of urban areas and discourage development from sprawling into the hinterlands. None will pose a greater political challenge demanding more of his immediate attention than deciding how to handle the infamous “Fast Track” legislation.

Redesigning Fast Track Legislation
Just as the McGreevey administration was successful in securing passage of landmark Highlands protection legislation, what should have been its crowning achievement was virtually nullified in the eyes of many by a series of backroom deals that quickly culminated in the speedy passage of the so-called “Fast Track” legislation, so nicknamed because it provided an expedited approval process and a permitting czar who could veto denials of permits for development in certain parts of the state. Reviled by local governments, environmentalists, and editorial boards throughout the State, the political backlash to this end run around the traditional regulatory process was so severe that Governor McGreevey, in one of his final acts before resigning in the wake of a series of scandals, used one of his last executive orders to delay the effective date of this new laws. Governor Codey also used his executive authority to further delay the full implementation of this oft-criticized statute, deferring this mater for action until the Corzine administration settles into its new responsibilities.

Fast Track poses several problems for the new administration. Its numerous and vocal opponents throughout the state claim that its expedited and unilateral process will reduce environmental protections for local communities, jeopardize federal funding, create several expensive new bureaucracies in various state agencies at a time when we can least afford to do so, and simply reward developers and redevelopers who have mastered the “pay to play” maze of campaign contributions at the expense of the public interest. However, the law is strongly supported by a number of Democratic legislators whose votes our new governor will need for any number of initiatives.

Fortunately, it is probably true that most reasonable and informed people in New Jersey would agree that it would be appropriate to create a process which makes it easier to develop, or redevelop, in appropriate places, especially in urban areas, just as it ought to be more difficult to develop in environmentally sensitive areas within the state. However, the way that process is designed and its substantive provisions are crucial to its credibility and public acceptance. In that regard, the way the Fast Track legislation was negotiated behind the scenes and quickly ushered through the Legislature made it inevitable that it would become a textbook case of how not to make good public policy. Accordingly, the only way that the new administration can dig itself out of this debacle left by McGreevey is to go back to square one and utilize an open public process to completely retool Fast Track in a way that adequately addresses the numerous legitimate concerns which were raised, but almost completely ignored, by its proponents. While it is possible that a few key legislators might be able to supervise this retooling through the normal committee process, it would be far more preferable for the governor to ask a blue ribbon panel composed of a wide variety of key and respected stakeholders of various perspectives to tackle this chore and recommend a new approach for legislative consideration. This may well be the only way to avoid the morass of legal and political problems that will inevitably follow if the current law is allowed to take effect.

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