Open Space Funding Bills Go to Gov’s Desk

The following open space funding bills were passed by the Assembly today. They are now on their way to the governor’s desk.

“We support funding open spaces, however the funding formula actually takes money away from urban areas and state parks and sends it to wealthy rural areas. This reinforces the funding inequities that continue to damage lower-income and minority communities. Urban areas have a real shortage of open space and that has a significant health impact on those communities. Money is also being shifted from brownfield cleanups, watershed protections, and toxic site cleanups,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This funding should be used to turn brownfields into greenfields. It should go toward providing places for children and adults to both play and enjoy nature.”

A6109 (Armato) / S4276 (Corrado/Bateman): Appropriates $32,153,936 to State Agriculture Development Committee, and amends 2017 appropriations for stewardship activities, for farmland preservation purposes. The bill passed with a vote of 75-0-0.

A6112 (Freiman) / S4277 (Greenstein/Bateman): Appropriates $5,000,000 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for municipal planning incentive grants for farmland preservation purposes. The bill passed with a vote of 75-0-0.

A6108 (Taliaferro) / S4278 (Greenstein/Bateman): Appropriates $21 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for county planning incentive grants for farmland preservation purposes. The bill passed with a vote of 75-0-0.

A6106 (Houghtaling) / S4279 (Smith/Bateman): Appropriates $1,350,000 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for grants to certain nonprofit organizations for farmland preservation purposes. The bill passed with a vote of 75-0-0.

A6114 (Carter) / S4310 (Codey/Bateman): Appropriates $8,872,682 to DEP from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for grants to certain nonprofit entities to acquire or develop lands for recreation and conservation purposes. The bill passed with a vote of 75-0-0.

A6111 (Giblin) / S4312 (Smith/Bateman): Appropriates $36.143 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for recreation and conservation purposes to DEP for State capital and park development projects. The bill passed with a vote of 75-0-0.

A6110 (Moriarty) / S4313 (Corrado/Bateman): Appropriates $33.915 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to DEP for State acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects. The bill passed with a vote of 75-0-0.

The DEP defines land stewardship as “an activity that goes beyond routine maintenance to restore and enhance lands for recreational and conservation purposes.” The Sierra Club is concerned that these stewardship activities will actually be logging and other things that undermine the protection of natural resources in our parks.

“This bill weakens open space protections because it promotes stewardship projects, which are an excuse for logging public lands. We see this happening at Sparta Mountain in the Highlands or down in the Pinelands. So-called stewardship allows private companies and others to log environmentally sensitive areas that belong to all of us. We have seen in the past clear cutting forests to create grass habitat under the guise of ‘stewardship.’ These practices allow invasive species and deer to take over these lands. The definition of stewardship is vague so anything goes. Giving money to stewardship means it will end up being used for the wrong purposes,” said Tittel. “The priorities of these bills are wrong and this legislation is wrong for New Jersey. They provide no money for urban parks, Blue Acres, to buy out flood-prone properties, or money to fix our parks.”

The bill provides no set aside for urban areas and makes cuts for parks in urban areas and switches funds to stewardship instead. Stewardship is not defined and often used for logging and other things that undermine the protection of natural resources in our parks.

“Money for open spaces comes mostly from urban areas, where most of the people live in New Jersey. They’re putting the money in, but they aren’t getting the resources back that wealthier suburbs are getting. Funding for urban parks helps revitalize urban areas and provide recreational opportunities. Parks attract homeowners and businesses and improve the quality of life. However, urban areas are being shortchanges,” said Jeff Tittel. “Most of the funding is going out to rural and affluent areas, taking money away from communities that need more parks and open spaces. It is unconscionable to give money for stewardship to cut down trees, while we have none for the people who need it the most.”

The Blue Acres program is one of the most successful state programs. The program allows buy outs of flood prone properties and helps to get people out of harm’s way. This bill strips all state funding for the Blue Acres Program. Blue Acres is important in acquiring properties, removing structures, and restoring flood plains to their natural state. Without it, we will see more flooding throughout the state.

“New Jersey citizens continue to experience flooding and want to move out of harm’s way. These bills will actually hurt people who have been impacted by flooding because it does not provide funding to Blue Acres. Without funding for Blue Acres, we cannot buy-out flood-prone areas across the state. Blue Acres is important in acquiring flood-prone properties, removing structures, and restoring floodplains to their natural state. These bills will only allow for more flooding and more people affected by flooding. We’ve been devastated by storms and flooding over the years and we can’t afford to be rolling back flood protections now,” said Tittel. “The money is being taken from worthwhile programs like Blue Acres, parks and urban areas, and being shifted into vague stewardship and non-profit activities.”

This bill does not spend open space funding correctly. Instead of using stewardship as a way to allow logging and privatization of state lands, we need legislation that will support urban growth and coastal buy-outs.

“We need to make sure that there is capital set aside for state parks, parks in urban areas, open space, and improvements. For years, state parks and parks in urban areas have been significantly underfunded. We want the new money to fix that problem. We need these funds because there are massive backlogs and parks are falling apart without improvement for years. Over the last decade the parks budget is down 40%, despite us adding 40% more open space. We would like to see 40% of open space money dedicated to urban space areas,” said Jeff Tittel. “We are concerned because the definition of stewardship in these bills allows for logging and other things. Murphy needs to veto these bills to make sure that stewardship money goes towards wetlands restoration and stream corridors.”

The Assembly also passed two open space bills, A6107 (Mejia) and A6113 (Speight),  that will allow funding to go toward the diversion of a carousel in Seaside Heights. In 2016, the borough proposed to divert a 1.37 acre portion of Seaside Heights public beach for private use. The proposal gave  the beach to the Casino Pier Company, limiting the public’s ability to use the beach, swim, and recreate. The diversion allowed Casino Pier to build a new Ferris wheel and roller coaster in the same location where the property was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy.

“Governor Murphy needs to veto these bills because mitigation for the taking of public land should be paid for by Seaside Heights. In 2016, they expanded a private amusement park on irreplaceable public beachfront property. They were supposed to pay for moving the carousel and housing it, but now they want the public to pay for it. They are double dipping, taking public land for their amusement pier and now using public money to pay for moving the carousel. Green Acres funds are supposed to go toward protecting space and providing recreational facilities. These funds went from historic preservation to having the public pay for mitigation and compensation for the loss of their own resources, which is against the Green Acres rules,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Murphy should CV these bills to remove that funding because Seaside Heights should pay for the relocation.”

A6107 (Mejia) / S4309 (Turner/Cruz-Perez) appropriates $13,902,723 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Comm. for grants to certain nonprofit organizations for farmland preservation purposes. The bill passed with a vote of 75-0-0.

A6113 (Speight) / S4311 (Greenstein/Bateman) appropriates $77,450,448 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues and various Green Acres funds to DEP for local government open spaces acquisition and park development projects. The bill passed with a vote of 74-0-0.