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Background

New Jersey’s land use and planning agenda has undergone substantial reform during the past decade. A recent, powerful reform proposal is the Smart Growth Tax Credit Act. It is an unprecedented bill, giving businesses tax breaks to participate in smart growth and green building standards. Some might ask how, in this time of meager state budgets, can New Jersey afford it? The answer is, New Jersey, like many states, can’t afford not to. To quote Governor McGreevey from his State of the State address in 2003:

There is no single greater threat to our way of life in New Jersey than the unrestrained, uncontrolled development that has jeopardized our water supplies, made our schools more crowded, our roads congested, and our open space disappear. And, the irony is that the very promise that this development would lower our property taxes has turned out to be false. In fact, the opposite is true. Runaway development drives up our property taxes, it doesn’t lower them. We cannot; we must not; we will not let this trend continue. Because, if we do, the very appeal that our state has held for decades for aspiring middle class families will evaporate before our eyes.(1)

New Jersey has a difficult path to forge. It is the fifth-smallest, ninth-most populous, and the most densely-populated state. More than a thousand people per square mile live there and 40 percent of its 4.8 million acres are developed. Yet, the Garden State has a long history of land conservation, beginning with the Green Acres Program in 1961. Fast forward to 1999, when the Garden State Preservation Trust (GSPT) was signed into law by then-Governor Christie Whitman; its ambitious goal is to preserve one million additional acres of farmland and open space.(2) Three billion dollars was appropriated for the GSPT through 2009.

The GSPT’s success may depend upon on how development pans out in New Jersey in the coming years. Fortunately, the state has developed a policy framework to curb sprawl. The New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan, created in 1997, divides the state into five planning areas: metropolitan, suburban, fringe, rural, and environmentally sensitive. The State Plan Policy Map serves as the underlying land use planning and management framework that directs funding, infrastructure improvements, and preservation for programs throughout New Jersey.(3)(4)

The Smart Growth Tax Credit Act complements the State Development and Redevelopment Plan because it gives developers monetary incentives to build in areas of greater density. It encourages developers to use green building materials as well. In fact, those developers who choose to exceed smart growth and green building standards would receive the largest tax breaks.

New Jersey’s smart growth plan is not without its critics. Developers expressed outrage at Governor McGreevey’s smart growth agenda at the New Jersey Builders Conference in Atlantic City in 2003.(5) On the other side, environmentalists argue that the State Plan doesn’t go far enough to prevent sprawl and protect open space. One thing is clear, however – without an underlying land use planning and management framework that emphasizes location efficiency, public transit, and open space conservation, a Smart Growth Tax Credit could turn out to be just another tax break.

Sources:
(1) “New Jersey State of the State Address 2003.” Stateline.org. 15 January 2003. 26 September 2004 <http://www.stateline.org/stateline/?pa=story&sa=showStoryInfo&id=282305>.
(2) McQueen, Mike and Ed McMahon. “Land Conservation Financing.” Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2003: pp.28-29.
(3) “New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan.” New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Office of Smart Growth. 26 September 2004 <http://www.nj.gov/dca/osg/plan/index.shtml>.
(4) To learn more about New Jersey’s smart growth agenda, visit the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Office of Smart Growth at: http://www.nj.gov/dca/osg/.
(5) Jacobs, Andrew. “At Convention, Builders Talk Of a Common Foe: McGreevey.” New York Times. 4 April 2003. 26 September 2004 <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904E2DF1738F937A35757C0A9659C8B63>.

This package was last updated on September 27, 2004.