"The added time and expense of smart-growth redevelopment are on top of unfunded mandates like affordable-housing contributions and prevailing wage requirements that were already rendering the easily developable greenfield sites financially questionable. You're seeing smart-growth redevelopment projects scaled back, postponed or killed. This is not an option for a state that has nowhere else to grow jobs and housing.

"In the final analysis, large-scale smart-growth projects outside of sure-bet places like Hoboken and Princeton won't begin to move forward without exemptions from many state regulations that are more relevant to sprawl development and gap financing in the form of new incentives and grants. And without development in smart growth areas--in the suburbs, in the urban core, on brownfield sites and abandoned railyards, along waterfronts and above train stations--the economic engine of New Jersey will ultimately grind to a halt.

"Governor Corzine has stated that the state can't tax its way out of the fiscal mess in Trenton but must grow its way out. Well, that growth will require affordable housing for the workforce of companies considering expanding or relocating here, and tracts of land large enough to support new research labs, office headquarters and distribution centers. The simple reality is that with development restrictions on much of the Highlands, Pinelands, Meadowlands and Coastlands, it all comes down to Planning Areas 1 and 2. If not there, then where?"