02/08/10

TITLE: CLINTON TWP MEETING UPSETTING ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
 

Clinton Twp. to Vote on Development in

Preservation Area

Clinton Township – On Wednesday, February 10, at 7pm the Clinton Township Council and Planning Board will hold a joint meeting to review and vote upon a settlement agreement that would allow the construction of a new three story, 10,000 square foot office building adjacent to the Spruce Run Reservoir. A passing vote on this issue would allow construction in the strictly protected Highlands Preservation Area of the Township, will degrade water quality in the Spruce Run Reservoir and two major water supply intakes in the area, and create a loophole for future development.

The building would be situated on Lot 3, Block 68, near Echo Lane in the northernmost part of the Township. That area is now zoned RC (Rural Conservation), but under the agreement would become OB-1 (Office Business). The proposed three story building will be sandwiched between Spruce Run State Park property on its northerly boundary and the nearby New Jersey Water Supply Authority property to the south and west.

“I’m shocked to say the least, especially when you consider that the Township in December, 2009 filed a “Basic Conformance” Plan with the Highlands Council declaring its intent to opt into the Highlands Regional Master Plan,” said William Honachefsky Jr., a township resident and local Sierra Club leader. “The Township’s Basic Plan included stringent provisions to protect the very Preservation Area it now proposes to open up to development. It doesn’t make any sense.”

The land in discussion is in the Highlands Preservation Area, the Highlands Protection Zone, and is within the Environmentally Sensitive Planning Area (PA-5) of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan. Both lots drain directly to Spruce Run Reservoir, a Category One Water body, and the westerly boundary of Lot 6 invades part the 300 foot buffer surrounding Spruce Run Reservoir. These are the most powerful land use protections the Department of Environmental Protection can designate.  

“Settling a lawsuit by giving developers what they want is not the way government should function, said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “They have to stand up for their citizens and the environment.”

Tittel added that the proposed development will lead to increased pollution from point and non-point sources and any sanitary sewer line extension will induce additional development beyond this application, thereby promoting more sprawl and more traffic to an already burdened Route 31 corridor.

The owners of Lot 3 and Lot 6 have both submitted applications to the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection to allow them to construct new sanitary sewer lines to their respective properties. Both lots are outside of the existing sewer service area.

The meeting will be held in the Township’s old Municipal Building, now Public Safety Building.