Pinelands rep declines to discuss rule changes

Jul, 01-2009 2:23 pm

By STEVE PRISAMENT
Staff Writer

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP – New Jersey Pinelands Commission spokesman Paul Leakan declined comment on planned rule changes for the use of Pinelands Development Credits – drawing an immediate sharp rebuke from Township Mayor Tom Bassford.

“Nothing has even been proposed,” Leakan told The Current Monday, June 29. “So I don’t know what I could say.”

He could – and should – say plenty, according to Bassford, who had held a press conference June 23 to go over how the suggested rules changes would add to development costs in the Pinelands.

Discussion of a 6,000-word document, titled Draft Rules – Pinelands Development Credit Program and Growth Densities, was on the agenda for a Pinelands Policy and Implementation Committee meeting about six weeks ago.

Galloway Township Planner Tiffany Cuviello saw it on the agenda and requested and received a copy of the report. Her analysis, which the mayor presented at the press conference, showed the effects the proposed rules would have on various approved projects in the Pinelands areas of the township.

According to Galloway Township Economic Development Committee Chairman Steve Moliver, 69 percent of the land in the township falls under Pinelands Commission jurisdiction.

Bassford said the changes, which would require Pinelands Development Credits to be purchased for projects that didn’t need them before, would increase the cost of residential and commercial development to various and significant degrees.

Pinelands Development Credits are what property owners get when Pinelands regulations make it impossible to build on their property. They are like currency and can be sold or bartered.

Requiring PDCs where they are not required now will discourage developers and have a chilling effect on the economy, Bassford said.

The item was pulled from the Pinelands committee agenda and rescheduled for discussion on Friday, June 26, but it was subsequently removed from that agenda also.

The Policy and Implementation Committee is a subcommittee of the Pinelands Commission. It is made up of commissioners who decide on items to pass on to the full Pinelands Commission for action.

“I don’t want to get into a long list of proposals,” Leakan told The Current when asked for an explanation of the changes and what triggered them. “Maybe down the road we can arrange an interview with some of our executive staff.”

Bassford said Tuesday, June 30 that the Pinelands Commission has a history of acting in secret.

“Just because it hasn’t passed, they try to act like it doesn’t exist,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic County representative to the Pinelands Commission, Paul Galletta of Hammonton, suggested getting other interested entities involved.

“This would be a good time to get the League of Municipalities, Pinelands Municipal Council and Mayors Council actively engaged in delaying this proposal until the New Jersey Senate and Assembly have acted on the Pinelands Protection Act Amendment,” he said in an email, referring to Senate Bill 2822 introduced by Sen. Jeff Van Drew and Assembly Bill 3950, introduced by Matt Milam and Nelson Albano, all of Cape May County.

Galletta also pointed out problems with the composition of the Pinelands Commission.

“The makeup of the commission is not equally represented – conservation-resident/local government – at present, the way it was intended at its inception,” he said.

Galletta said he thought any action by the full commission would be more just than what the committee was likely to propose.

“I believe that a full commission voting on these issues will have a fairer, more balanced outcome,” he said.



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