By Megan O’Rourke

Former NJ Congressional District 7 Candidate

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country, and nowhere are development pressures more consequential than in the Highlands, which provide drinking water for more than 5 million residents. The Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act (i.e. Highlands Act) was passed in 2004 to protect those water resources by limiting overdevelopment across 1,343 square miles of northern New Jersey.

On June 18, however, the Highlands Council finalized a waiver that undermines both the spirit and fairness of the law. The decision clears the way for a new warehouse development in Lopatcong Township within the Highlands Preservation Area. Mikie Sherrill should use her authority to veto it.

For two decades, thousands of Highlands landowners have lived under development restrictions intended to protect the public water supply. Many were forced to accept reduced property values and lost development opportunities in exchange for the health and economic benefits of abundant, clean water for others. Yet well-financed developers and municipalities have now found a loophole.

Lopatcong and Pohatcong Townships proposed a warehouse site on an open farm field and combined that lot with two heavily paved former Phillipsburg Mall properties to qualify the combined land as a redevelopment area under Highlands Act rules. Because the law permits redevelopment where at least 70% of a site is already covered by impervious surfaces, averaging the unrelated properties together allowed officials to reach the required threshold.

The result is that a preserved farm can now be treated as if it were already developed land. That is contrary to the letter and intent of the Highlands Act and violates the basic premise of preventing overdevelopment.

The larger issue is fairness. Ordinary landowners across the Highlands have spent years complying with restrictions intended to protect drinking water and limit sprawl. Those rules should apply equally to politically connected warehouse projects.

Sherrill pledged to curb warehouse sprawl and prioritize redevelopment in existing industrial corridors, not on farmland in the Highlands Preservation Area. She now has an opportunity to follow through on that promise by vetoing the Highlands Council’s decision.

New Jersey already has more than 1 billion square feet of warehouse space. Taxpayers also recently spent a record $27 million to stop another controversial warehouse project in White Township after years of public opposition. The State should not create conflicts that ultimately force taxpayers to undo bad planning decisions.

The Garden State is notorious for its bureaucracy and layers of rules and regulations. But rules that don’t apply to everyone are unfair, and people all across the political spectrum can agree that they don’t like unfair rules. Cleaning up New Jersey’s regulatory bureaucracy starts with transparency and closing loopholes. Let’s start rebuilding trust in government by vetoing this Highlands Council waiver.