State Commission Okays Updated Growth Plan to Discourage Sprawl

TRENTON-The New Jersey Planning Commission feels it has done its job, nearly unanimously approving a growth control plan to replace the controversial and generally unloved plan in effect since 1992. One of the reasons the old plan was unloved is that 350,000 acres of open space have been bulldozed since it was implemented. Developers never really understood it, nor did it contain much in terms of incentives.

“We had a sense of urgency about adopting and implementing this plan,” commission chairman Joseph Maraziti said late last week at the public meeting at which the vote was taken. The lone dissenter was David Fisher, who is also the only commissioner actually in the development business.