NJ Reopening Plan – Giveaway to Polluters & Developers, Undermines Public & Environmental Protections

The NJ Economic Advisory Council Chairman George Zoffinger recently released the final report with recommendations for the NJ COVID-19 reopening and strong recovery. The New Jersey Sierra Club sent a green reopening proposal to Governor Murphy’s Restart and Recovery Commission, but none of our recommendations were implemented.

“This report shows that they’re trying to use the pandemic to undermine and weaken protections. This is every developer and polluters wishlist, and now they’re using the health emergency as an excuse to push this through. The plan allows cutting corners on permitting as a way of undercutting public participation for environmental projects. Their plan weakened protections to deal with climate change, clean water, sprawl, and overdevelopment,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We asked the Economic Advisory Council to push for a green agenda as we start to reopen our state, but they did not listen. Instead, this plan is just a giveaway to developers while limiting public participation and oversight.”We said all along that the task force was full of corporate lobbyists, and this is what you get.”

Council Goal and Recommendation Number 2 is to streamline infrastructure/construction projects: “To best ensure this growth, current laws governing these projects must be reviewed and revised to address any regulations and/or requirements that slow or limit development opportunities in New Jersey. Enacting a legislative remedy to direct local enforcing agencies to allow utilization of qualified third-party professionals and inspectors, licensed by various state agencies, will assist in reducing backlog and expediting development.

“This reopening plan is just a giveaway to developers. They want to follow in Trump’s footsteps by pushing projects through without the proper permitting or public process. This will fast-track permits for widening highways, housing developments, factories, box stores on farmland, power plants, pipelines, and more. It will allow these projects to get around wetland and air quality reviews and take away public transparency and oversight,” said Tittel. “New Jersey passed the Fast Track Law in 2004 that required DEP to act on permits within 90 days or they’d be automatically approved. At the time, even the Bush Administration said it violated the Clean Water Act and agreements between states.”

Recommendation Number 2 continues, “The Site Remediation Reform Act that created the licensing program for Site Remediation Professionals at the New Jersey DEP could be used as a guide. Finally, it is imperative that projects currently waiting to start, be allowed to proceed as soon as possible by centralizing and prioritizing inventory of all ‘shovel ready’ projects for Fall 2020, streamlining permitting requirements, and identifying other needs – such as financial gaps – to ensure that the projects can begin promptly.”

“What they’re calling for is to outsource and privatize DEP and other regulatory functions. This allows developers and polluters to hire private consultants to write and approve their permits without government oversight and public input. Not only is the fox guarding the henhouse, but the fox can now write and approve permits for the henhouse,” said Jeff Tittel. “By privatizing DEP, they’ll be able to push through projects whether they meet safety and environmental criteria or not. This would allow major projects that can have devastating impacts to wetland and environmentally sensitive areas, such as the Turnpike widening project. We already saw how dangerous fast-tracking permits can be with the SRL pipeline.”

Council Goal and Recommendation Number 6 is about Municipal Permitting Flexibility: “This pandemic has had disparate impacts on urban, suburban, and rural communities, as well as along racial/ethnic lines. Our state’s recovery and preparedness for similar crises in the future should recognize and respond to these disparate impacts. Municipalities need flexibility in order to manage the reopening process in a safe and appropriate way, including through the issuance of emergency bonds. Further details on this can be found in the attached Appendix B.

“The Council recommendations also deal with making local zoning more flexible. They basically want to let developers and towns do whatever they want. This will have big impacts for sprawl and overdevelopment. It will lead to overdevelopment projects moving forward without proper public participation or oversight. This will mean more shopping centers, warehouses, and housing developments. When you throw out local zoning, you can build anything anywhere resulting in more traffic, sprawl, and pollution,” said Tittel. “This will allow bad projects to move forward in environmentally sensitive rural areas, coastal and flood-prone areas as well as in communities that are overburdened with pollution.”

Recommendation Number 6 continues, “Businesses also need municipalities to be flexible and have quick turn-around in their permitting for operations that might be atypical, such as parking lot retail, retail “trucks and pick up from trucks”, tent sales, outside dining, and tented seating areas. In addition, fees should be waived as these businesses are already spending money on new ways to operate that are not profitable but required to ensure they can avoid closing their doors permanently.”

“They are throwing good planning out of the window. Carrying capacity impacts traffic, air pollution, and sprawl. This can lead to promoting overdevelopment in environmentally sensitive areas. Building a housing development or a warehouse means that new roads need to be built and new traffic lights installed. They have to build new sewers ” said Jeff Tittel. “This could also lead to zone changes based on Pay to Play and not based on real planning. We are concerned that towns will end up playing ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ with developers.”

The New Jersey Sierra Club sent in recommendations for the reopening plan that highlighted that New Jersey needs to expand mass transit, expand renewable energy like wind and solar, create green jobs, and reduce pollution. We believe that this pandemic should be used as a way to facilitate major changes how we do business and how we protect our environment.

“New Jersey’s reopening should show equity and target Environmental Justice Communities, instead of fast-tracking permits. We should not let special interest groups be able to shortcut environment regulations, cut timelines, and limit public oversight and input. We should also be focusing on reducing air pollution, especially in areas already overburdened by pollution, by expanding mass transit,” said Jeff Tittel. “Investing in mass transit will reduce traffic, air pollution, and create more jobs for our economy. We can expand the Bergen Light Rail into Bergen County. Instead of widening the GS Parkway we can finally build the Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex line. Instead of widening the NJ Turnpike in South Jersey, we can build the South Jersey Light Rail System”

New Jersey Sierra Club emphasizes the need to do a much better job on reducing air pollution in Environmental Justice communities that have been overburdened by a disproportionate amount of pollution. During the current health emergency this is even more important because several studies, including a Harvard study have linked coronavirus risks to air pollution.

“The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has clearly shown that we have two separate societies in NJ. There are those communities that have a good environment, clean air, and access to healthcare and education, and those that don’t. It’s no surprise that the pandemic had a bigger impact on low-income, minority, and overburdened communities. This reopening is a chance to fix the social and environmental inequities of the past and present that are still affecting people. NJ needs to ensure social justice, equity, and a good environment as part of its reopening,” said Tittel.

A new economic analysis from the Political Economy Research Institute reveals the path forward – with a bold stimulus plan, we could provide family-sustaining jobs on a national level for over 9 million people every year for the next 10 years while building an economy that fosters cleaner air and water, higher wages, healthier communities, greater equity, and a more stable climate. That includes supporting over 1 million manufacturing jobs each year. New Jersey can generate a part of that job growth based on our population. New Jersey used to have over 11,000 clean energy jobs but is now at 6,000.

“Rebuilding our economy can be done in an equitable way that supports public health and our environment. Sierra Club came out with a national report showing how the U.S. can create jobs while promoting clean air and water, healthier communities, and greater equity. We can do this in NJ too. We can create jobs and stimulate the economy by encouraging research and development, manufacturing, and installation of renewable energy and electric vehicles,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need the Murphy Administration to consider the best interest of the public and the environment. We need to make sure our water is clean to drink, our air is clean to breathe in, and our food is safe to eat. These are the necessities of making sure our environment and our health is maintained for now and for the future.”