Policy Notes: January 2025

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Uplifting Updates
It’s been a good year for forest protection in the Pinelands!

Pomona Woods
The Pomona Woods are now public land! Just before the new year, the NJ DEP Green Acres program finalized the purchase of the Pomona Woods in Hamilton Township (Atlantic County), permanently protecting this critical forest. In early 2023, the woods faced threats of redevelopment into a youth sports complex, hotels, arenas, and retail spaces. PPA worked alongside residents to coordinate opposition to these proposals, including a rezoning effort that would have facilitated such sprawl. With public pushback and the Pinelands Commission’s intervention, the plans were abandoned. PPA then collaborated with the landowner and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation to submit an application to Green Acres for permanent protection. After over a year of effort, this vital step has been completed, with the land now added to the existing Pomona Woods Preserve. This victory ensures the forest remains safeguarded for future generations, highlighting the power of community and conservation partnerships.

Pole Bridge Forest
PPA spent decades opposing plans to replace Pole Bridge Forest with retirement condos, culminating in a significant victory for the forest in Pemberton Township. Early on, PPA staff emphasized the site’s critical habitat and pushed for substantial endangered species reviews, until the 2008 housing recession delayed the project for another decade. When the proposal re-emerged in 2019, PPA staff maintained pressure to demand strict protections. Planning board meetings began in 2023 to review the proposal, despite its deficiencies. PPA identified legal weaknesses in the proposal and partnered with township residents to lead a massive grassroots effort, which led to the repeal of the underlying “redevelopment plan”. PPA hired a land-use attorney to challenge the development proposal and brought experts like Joe Arsenault, Bob Zappalorti, and Emile DeVito to provide key testimony on habitat quality and wetlands. On December 5, 2024, the planning board voted against approving the proposed retirement community, greatly reducing the immediate threat of development. While this victory diminishes the development threat, permanent protection is still needed. PPA hopes the Pole Bridge Forest achieves its happy ending, much like Pomona Woods, through NJ Green Acres preservation.

Support Swells for Black Run Protections

 Last month’s Pinelands Commission meeting was overrun with supporters of the Black Run Preserve. The room was packed with people AND a stuffed beaver toy, which was used as a proxy for the children who benefit from this gem of a natural space. The public comment period at the end of the meeting became a showcase for many moving anecdotes and appeals to protect the headwaters of the Black Run Preserve. This groundswell of support mirrors the overwhelming response that PPA received to our petition, which garnered over 4,000 signatures!

CMP amendments for this area have been in the works for a while now—with commissioners, staff, and the public broadly in agreement over what changes needed to be made. However, administrative hurdles had slowed progress to the finish line. Thanks to your demonstration of support, commission leaders announced that the new rules were on their way to the Governor. If everything goes smoothly, we can expect to see the publication of the CMP amendments in one of the next editions of the NJ Register. Victory is on the horizon for the people (and beavers!) who love the Black Run Preserve.

Climate Issues Take a Backseat or Center Stage?

When discussing the meeting schedule for 2025, commission leaders announced that they would be combining the Pinelands Climate Committee with the monthly Policy & Implementation (P&I) Committee meetings. Difficulties achieving a quorum and the administrative strain of staffing an additional committee were cited as factors that contributed to the change. 2024 was the first year that the Climate Change Committee had its own dedicated meeting days; in previous years, the Climate Change Committee meeting took place directly after the P&I committee. As a result, climate meetings felt like an afterthought. Discussions were often rushed so as not to get in the way of lunchtime.

Will this new arrangement cause the climate committee’s work to take a backseat or center stage? We hope for the latter. Rather than being cordoned off into a separate committee, there is the potential to recognize climate impacts as an integral part of all the commission’s work. However, continued advocacy from the public and leadership from commission members is needed to ensure that climate priorities do not fade into obscurity.

Many commission members are motivated to take action on climate change, but their ambitions are limited by the capacity of commission staff to actually execute the changes. The commission has requested funding to hire staff who could be dedicated to climate issues, but their bids for additional funds from the state budget have been unsuccessful for two years.

Like many environmental agencies, the Pinelands Commission faces declining financial and staff support. State funding has stagnated and been stretched thin by inflation. This lack of resources has slowed progress on important reforms to address climate change and protect endangered species. Continued state support for staff is crucial to uphold environmental protections.

This committee was first established in late 2018. The full commission adopted a resolution in 2020 outlining the agency’s climate-related responsibilities. Commission staff have done much work to increase the sustainability of their internal operations, such as energy efficiency improvements to their offices. However, far-reaching policy changes have yet to be made. In 2021, PPA published a white paper of climate solutions that we would like to see implemented by the Pinelands Commission, some of which were reflected in the priorities set by the committee the following year.

Perhaps the time is right to consider a different model: an advisory committee made up of external members. The Delaware River Basin Commission provides a good example of this. Their Advisory Committee on Climate Change (ACCC) is composed of members from various government agencies, academic institutions, and businesses. Such a model would not alleviate the need for commission staff resources to make the meetings happen and implement policy changes, but it does open the door for more leaders to contribute their energy and expertise to the climate goals of the commission.  The Pinelands Commission did previously employ this model for forestry.

The P&I Committee sure has a lot on its plate in the new year—we sincerely hope that they can get it all done!

Finally, REAL redevelopment!

Many undeveloped tracts of land in South Jersey, are threatened by a law that was originally meant to transform “blighted” areas. A Hamilton Township ordinance that was approved at the last meeting of the Pinelands Commission was a rare departure from this trend.

This redevelopment plan would turn a former industrial site into a cannabis cultivation and processing facility. The majority of the parcel is forested, with the exception of a 10-acre clearing that was already developed for prior industrial uses. The redevelopment ordinance restricts the new development to this already-disturbed area. Imagine that—real redevelopment! Better yet, the developer plans to use the existing buildings, rehabilitating them for new uses. The commission’s full report is available online (pages 19-26).

Overhead shot of the former industrial site and clearing that is going to be redeveloped.

Such projects—dubbed “redevelopment” — are provided a simplified approvals process and other benefits to incentivize building on sites that may require some demolition or remediation of previous uses. This approach has yielded benefits for urban areas by facilitating the rejuvenation of derelict properties. However, in more rural parts of south Jersey, we actually see the opposite effect. You can read an op-ed about the problem here.

Nearly every other “redevelopment” project that has come before the Pinelands Commission in recent years is actually targeting an undeveloped forest or field—such as the Pomona Woods or Pole Bridge Forest. The commission is not actually tasked with determining whether the redevelopment designation is valid—that task falls to the NJ Department of Community Affairs, which seems to just rubber-stamp decisions made by township leaders. The Pinelands Commission treats redevelopment projects like any other proposed development—no special treatment here. However, commission members often make known their displeasure that deforestation is being rebranded as “redevelopment”.

PPA has been working on legislation to reverse this trend and encourage more real redevelopment. Our team is seeking changes that would exclude farmland and forests from eligibility for redevelopment. Bills S-609/A-3820, would represent a step in the right direction, if they become law.

Pinelands Municipal Council Watch

Months since the council last met: 26

Could 2025 be the year that the PMC is restarted?