August 4, 2003

Mr. Timothy Touhey, Chairman
State Planning Commission
Office of Smart Growth
PO Box 204
Trenton, NJ 08625 0204

RE: Growth Fit

Dear Chairman Touhey:

On behalf of the New Jersey Builders Association, and in response to your invitation, I am forwarding our recommendations concerning the Growth Fit component of the cross acceptance process. We appreciate your expression of interest in our suggestions on how to modify the process in ways that will facilitate implementation of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan.

Since the Plan was adopted in 1992 (and readopted in 2001), it has included goals and policies that describe its preferred development patterns for the state. In much of the state (planning areas 3, 4 and 5), the Plan calls for a compact settlement pattern of centers surrounded by rural environs. In the urban and suburban areas (planning areas 1 and 2), it envisions more compact development through a combination of redevelopment, infill and new development at higher densities.

The concepts of more compact development patterns and centers have been a part of the state planning process since its inception in the mid-1980s. Yet to date, fewer than 20 percent of the centers have been designated, and most of those are already densely developed and/or contain little growth potential. Because the Plan has not allocated population growth to the local level, the center designation process has given scant attention to current and future housing needs – implicitly assuming that they are being addressed elsewhere. (The plan endorsement process will be similarly handicapped without disaggregated population and employment projections.)

This infirmity in the Plan, which is the primary impediment to its implementation, arises from the lack of a Growth Fit component in the first two cycles of cross acceptance. As described in more detail in the accompanying paper, Growth Fit addresses the essential planning question: where will the people live?

Under the Growth Fit component, the SPC would first agree upon the population and employment projections to 2020. It would then allocate population and employment growth among communities based on “smart growth” principles of where this growth should go. Evaluating these allocations through the cross acceptance process and its planning context, the SPC will be able to make the following decisions necessary to implement the State Plan:

It is encouraging that you, with the Governor’s support, are emphasizing Plan implementation as the cornerstone of this cycle of cross acceptance. Essential to your success, however, is revising cross acceptance so that it produces a Plan that provides sufficient areas for its organizing concepts of where people should live and work. Growth Fit is the means of achieving that goal.

The NJBA would be happy to discuss these recommendations in greater detail with you and the SPC as you strive to answer the question “Where will the people live?”

Respectfully,

Joanne M. Harkins, PP, AICP
Director of Land Use and Planning

Copies:

Adam Zellner, Executive Director OSG
Members of SPC
County Planning Departments
DVRPC
NJ Future
RPA
RPP