Fog Over Foliage at Black Run Preserve by Amy L Golden
Policy Notes: February 2025
Policy Notes are designed to update the public on the activities of the Pinelands Commission, which have been summarized by Pinelands Preservation Alliance staff who attend all public meetings of the Commission.
Black Run Protections Updates
Update as of 2/28/2025: PPA was informed on 2/28/2025 that the CMP amendments were completed and submitted to the Governor’s office. Now we await the Governor’s review and approval.
Package Deal Spoiling a ‘Watershed Moment’ for the Black Run?
Imagine: you ask a friend to take care of an important item on your to-do list that is very urgent, and the friend says that it is done. So you stop worrying about it, trusting that it was taken care of. When you come to find out that the friend never completed the task, and you’re now at risk of missing a deadline—do you trust this friend’s word again when they insist that they are getting it done now? How about a third time?
This groundhog-day scenario has been playing on repeat for advocates of the Black Run Preserve in their quest to seek protections from major development in neighboring forests. Advocates for the Black Run Preserve thought that we had claimed victory at the December 2024 Pinelands Commission meeting, but are still empty-handed a whole two Commission meetings later.
At the February meeting, Commissioner Wallner requested an update on the CMP amendments to protect the Black Run. The amendments would significantly down-zone the area, limiting how much construction would be possible by changing the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) designation from Rural Development Area to Forest Area. Director Grogan once again provided assurances that completion of the amendments is just around the corner.
Equal Importance is Not Equal Urgency
Director Grogan laid some of the blame on a process choice: Pinelands Commission staff prefer to ‘package’ multiple CMP amendments together so that they can go through the public comment and Gubernatorial review processes all at the same time, with a single round of paperwork to cover the whole bunch. In normal circumstances, this approach is efficient and reduces redundant paperwork for staff. However, the advantage of this approach can also be its downside: a hold-up to any one of the pieces will end up being a hold-up to all.
In this case, Pinelands Commission staff seem to be struggling to even complete Step 1, which is writing the first version of the proposal. Even with no significant setbacks, Director Grogan estimates that the full process would take 6-9 months for the CMP amendments to finally go into effect. And that’s assuming that she and her staff have already completed Step 1.
Perhaps Director Grogan’s assurances from months ago were true, and the Black Run amendments were complete—but waiting to be packaged with other amendments that were still coming down the pipeline. This includes more bureaucratic changes (that Grogan described as less ‘glamorous’) such as amendments dealing with application fees and expiration dates.
We can agree with Director Grogan’s characterization that these amendments may be “of equal importance”, but that is not the same as being of equal urgency. Sometimes you need to change your work plan to accommodate an impending deadline.
The proverbial ‘deadline’ is whatever moment the land owner decides to submit a development application that follows the current zoning. This locks subsequent negotiations with the Pinelands Commission into the rules as they currently stand, instantly undercutting the CMP amendments that advocates have been pushing for, regardless of how close Commission staff say they are.
Sticker Shock or a Justified Expense?
If you plan to purchase something, but find out that the price tag is forty times more expensive than you originally thought—you might second-guess your decision, right? A similar situation may reveal how serious or uncommitted the Black Run property owners are about building in this area.
On November 27, 2024 the Pinelands Commission received a request from the owners to review wetlands and T&E (Threatened & Endangered Species) paperwork—an important first step towards building anything in the NJ Pinelands. However, the owners were under the impression that getting this work done by the Commission would cost just $333.33. On February 7, 2025, the Commission staff notified the applicant by letter that the work would cost $14,354.17— over forty times more expensive than they had originally thought. As of 2/25/2025, the applicant still has not paid the difference in required application fees, so the development idea stands in limbo.
Commissioner Wallner expressed concerns at the last Pinelands Commission meeting about these recent actions taken by the owners to assess the development potential of the Black Run area. Pinelands Commission Executive Director Grogan pushed off these concerns, saying that the owner was just “trying to make sure they have a clear understanding of the property”, implying that they don’t necessarily intend to develop the property.
Pure curiosity? This feels unlikely, given that the 11/27/24 request was associated with a concept plan to subdivide the property into 258 lots to accommodate the building of 256 homes. However, if this is true, then the owner’s next step may be an effective litmus test: $333.33 may be a reasonable amount to satisfy one’s curiosity, but paying $14k+ would indicate that these ambitions are more serious.
Will this change in price tag dissuade the owners from trying to “understand” their property? Or will they view this as a small price to pay in order to make way for a 256-home development? We don’t think that Pinelands Commission staff should be waiting to find out.
A ‘Watershed Moment’
In the public comments that followed, it was clear that advocates were losing their patience. Dr. Amy Golden brought the receipts, detailing all of the previous statements that Director Grogan had made, first stating November 23, 2023 that she aimed to send the proposal to the Governor by the end of 2023, and then again—more than a year later—on December 13, 2024 stated that the rule proposal was ‘almost complete’ and would be sent to the Governor before the end of the new year. She exhorted Commissioners and staff that this was “a watershed moment; figuratively and literally”
John Volpa, founder of the Black Run Preserve, asked the gathered Commissioners and staff: “what would it actually mean to build 256 houses with wells and septic systems” on this 728 acre property? Referring to a 2017 Development Concept Plan (not an official application), Volpa opined about the consequences that such development would bring to the Black Run Preserve, such as increased vehicle traffic and the replacement of Pinelands forest with resource-intensive turf lawns.
The Pinelands Commission has long recognized that the ‘Rural Development’ designation is not appropriate for this area and the sensitive ecosystem found in the Black Run Preserve. However, attempts to find a solution have made only small progress since 2015.
Given the long history of delay, Stephen Elliott of PPA summed up the fears of advocates well, saying “It is hard to believe that this Commission has not acted in bad faith, continuing to delay a CMP amendment that is not new. It has been in the works for many years, while developers plot the Black Run’s destruction in the background.”
The community remains deeply concerned about the fate of Black Run and urges timely action to finalize and implement the protective amendments.
Water Allocation Hearing Postponed
In early January, PPA called for a public hearing regarding a water allocation request made by the Pinelands Golf Course in Winslow Township. Our organization marshalled our members to attend the hearing and discourage the NJDEP from rubberstamping the request. We were blown away by the interest from our members who were prepared to virtually ‘show up’ en masse and speak up for Pinelands water resources. However, before they even had the chance, the hearing was inexplicably and indefinitely postponed. Did the NJDEP or the applicant have a change of heart? In its monthly management report, Pinelands Commission staff describe how they were notified of the hearing and subsequently met with NJDEP staff to let them know that the increase in water withdrawals would be incompatible with Pinelands aquifer protections. As a result of these “inconsistencies” they advised that the “NJDEP could not issue the requested Water Allocation Permit.”
When water is taken out of the ground at a faster rate than the aquifer can be replenished, this lowers the water table. Wells must be dug deeper to reach the remaining water, but plants and water bodies that are fed by these water resources do not have this same ability to dig deeper. When left high and dry, entire ecosystems suffer. It is great to see increasing cooperation between agencies to ensure the faithful execution of Pinelands protections, but we shutter to think of what might have happened if PPA had not called for the public hearing and raised awareness about the application.
Changing Bureaucracies for a Changing Climate
Remember the recent drought warning? While farmers were struggling to keep their crops alive, and firefighters battled wildfires—it was business as usual for golf courses, which were allowed to continue watering their extensive lawns. When drought strikes—as it increasingly will, due to climate change—New Jersey does not require any cutbacks in water usage. Any water conservation is voluntary. In his comments, Fred Akers of the Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association wrote:
If this use is granted, the Pinelands Golf Course will have no incentive to conserve water during drought conditions. (Note: During the 2002 drought, NJDEP proposed a 50% use restriction. If this happened again after a 225% allocation increase, this applicant would still have 3.5 MGM month, which is 12% more than the current 3.1 MGM allocation limit).
Once water allocations are granted, they are essentially set forever. There is no systematic review and revision of existing allocations. This static approach is incompatible with the dynamic reality of climate change, which requires us to re-examine every aspect of our lives in light of this growing threat. Every other department of the NJDEP has been grappling with how to adapt to climate change. The folks handling water allocations seem to have missed that memo.
Local water resources are overdrawn, and the problem is only getting worse with climate change. The fact that this golf course has increasingly come up against its monthly limits for withdrawal during the hottest months stands as a testament to this fact. The DEP staff report shows the troubling trend of summer withdrawals consistently exceeding their current allowances during summer months—this is precisely when additional drawdowns would be the most harmful.
Studies that were performed to inform the recent CMP amendments to protect the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer show that Pinelands Ecosystems are harmed when the water table is drawn down more than 4 inches. With such slim margins dividing sustainable use from ecological damage, it is a wonder why the DEP would be rubberstamping applications like this. Greater coordination with the Commission’s experts is needed—and may be the reason why the hearing was postponed. With this small victory won, our team is shifting focus now to advocate for large-scale changes to the systems that govern our water supply.