SPRING 2007
CROSS ACCEPTANCE COMES TO A CLOSE
On Tuesday, May 8th, 2007, the Office of Smart Growth (OSG), together with members of the State Planning Commission, conducted a Public Hearing on Bergen County’s Draft Cross-Acceptance Report and the mapping changes proposed by each municipality over the course of the process. The aim of this hearing was to finalize the Cross Acceptance Phase of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan, wherein municipal, county, regional, and state planning initiatives are reconciled with one another in order to develop a unified mapping and policy element. CLICK HERE for the Bergen County Cross-Acceptance Report (in .pdf format).
This Public Hearing afforded the municipalities and the general public the opportunity to comment on the State Plan, its policies, and the map. This event marks the close of over three years worth of effort on the part of the Department of Planning and Economic Development to finalize the Cross Acceptance process, and its role in coordinating and facilitating policy and communication between local governments and the State. CLICK HERE for the minutes of the May 8th Public Hearing.
What did this round of Cross-Acceptance accomplish? This round of Cross-Acceptance featured a number of significant changes. As a result of these changes, the County’s role took on added importance. These changes entailed the following:
Participation of State Agencies (The Departments of Community Affairs, Transportation, Agriculture, Treasury, and the Council on Affordable Housing). Each agency’s goals and policies was to be incorporated into the Plan, with special attention to ensure that one agency’s goals, objectives, and programs do not contradict another’s.
Role of the Map Another important change was the role of the State Plan map. The intent here was to use the map to promote smart growth, and corollary preservation of environmental resources. To achieve this end, Development Permitting will be attached to the map – with more stringent permit procedures in environmentally sensitive areas, and conversely, streamlined permitting in areas designated for Smart Growth. The State had also discussed the potential for the map to aid in prioritizing funds and directing future infrastructure investments into those areas that make the most sense – the Smart Growth areas. These areas will be prioritized for much-needed infrastructure investment.
Public Outreach Efforts This initial kickoff meeting was not the only forum municipalities and local officials had into the process. Regional Outreach Meetings were held to discuss broader-reaching issues related to the State Plan – and any other planning and development related concerns our constituent municipalities may have. These meetings were conducted for each of our 6 planning areas throughout the County, and provided a forum to discuss issues both common to the overall area, and particular to that individual community. In addition, in order to capture more localized and specific issues of concern to the municipalities, the Department applied to the Office of Smart Growth for a grant to enable us to reach out individually to each of our 70 municipalities, to guide them on specific policy or mapping issues, and help them to voice items of concern and draft changes to the overall State Plan Map.
What was the Department’s Role in Cross-Acceptance?
The Bergen County Department of Planning and Economic Development was not only an active participant in the Cross-Acceptance process under the auspices of the State Plan, but played a key coordinating role for information dissemination, a liaison role for changes to the State Plan map, and served as the negotiating entity for inconsistencies between municipal planning and the overarching State Plan.
How did the County and Municipalities participate in the process?
Bergen County had approximately six (6) months in which to complete our Cross-Acceptance report for the county and our seventy (70) municipalities. The Bergen County Department of Planning and Economic Development acted as the coordinating entity in carrying out Cross-Acceptance. Each municipality’s responsibility in this process started with the following steps:
- To have appointed an official municipal representative as their regular liaison to the county throughout the process -- someone who is familiar with municipal master plans, ordinances and policies;
- To have adopted a municipal resolution to denote their municipality’s participation in Cross-Acceptance; and
- To have updated the county’s existing files and databases containing all municipal Master Plans, Land Development Regulations, and Capital Budgets. The County sent a questionnaire to Cross-Acceptance representatives to provide this information. Municipal Master Plan documents and local ordinances were particularly important to Cross-Acceptance this time, in that their stated goals, policies and implementation mechanisms were to be reviewed to see how they match the new State Plan as well as to identify environmentally sensitive features in your community that should be preserved and protected. If the State Plan is to protect certainareas of your municipality, municipalities needed to provide documentation as to how your municipality is working to protect these areas as well.
If your municipality chose not to participate in Cross-Acceptance, written confirmation was required for our County Cross-Acceptance Report. Written notification of non-participation should have been sent by the December 8, 2004 deadline.
The big incentive for all of us, county and municipalities alike, is that investments and permits will be tied to how our communities are mapped, what our individual planning policies are, and on how your local policies support the map. Naturally, we want to succeed, individually and as a region. We are a mature, inner suburb – nearly fully developed. Our investments should be geared toward sustaining our economic strength and protecting our environmental assets.