New Jersey County Planners Association

Year 2008
President Treasurer Secretary President Emeritus
Laurette Kratina Kamal Saleh Robert Lindaw Eric K. Snyder
Somerset County Union County Atlantic County Sussex County

Red Hill Activity Center at Tatum Park, Middletown

Township, Monmouth County N.J.

Meeting Minutes
February 15, 2008

Attendance:

Name Affiliation Name Affiliation

Robert Lindaw Atlantic John Peterson Atlantic

Shawn Smith Atlantic Andrew Levecchia Camden
John Sully Middlesex Mirah Becker Middlesex
Christine Marion Morris Sharon Mollick Cumberland
Robert Brewer Cumberland Kevin Sitlick Morris
Linda Brennen Monmouth Matt Pisarski Cumberland
Robert Bzik Somerset Laurette Kratina Somerset
Kamal Saleh Union Michael LaPlace Passaic
Ken Bogen Hunterdon Kyle Zenica Hunterdon
Leslie Gimeno Cape May Jim Smith Cape May
Bonnie Goldschlag Monmouth David Dech Warren
Eric Snyder Sussex

State/Other Agency or Group:

Martin Bierbaum Municipal Land Use Center at the State College of New Jersey
Lucy Voorhoeve COAH
Keith Henderson COAH
Karen Hatcher Celebrate New Jersey
Introduction:
County Planners Association President Laurette Kratina welcomed everyone, called the
meeting to order at 11:15am and then asked everyone to introduce themselves.

Agenda Items:

Overview and Discussion of COAH’s Round 3 Rules: Laurette Kratina introduced

Lucy Voorhoeve, Executive Director of COAH who was invited to discuss the 3rd Round Rules
with the County Planners Association. Lucy stated that she has been on the speech circuit
lately explaining the new rules and welcomed the opportunity to speak with the County
Planners Association. She broadly defined the areas she was to cover including the following:

• Regional Contribution Agreements

• Projections and how they interact with NJDEP rules and the Highlands
• Emerging issues

Lucy Voorhoeve noted that in January of 2007, COAH’s rules were in part upheld and
overturned. A team was established consisting of members of the University of Pennsylvania’s
Wharton School and members of Rutgers University to revise the COAH methodology. The
goal of the methodology revision is to provide affordable housing that municipalities can
accomplish through changes to the growth share approach. Lucy Voorhoeve noted that under
the old rules 1 out of every 9 market rate units had to be “affordable housing” while the new
rule calls for 1 out of every 5 units have to be affordable. Previously, every 25 jobs would
trigger the need for 1 affordable housing unit while the new rules call for 1 affordable unit per
16 jobs created. The new affordable housing need based on the new methodology is 115,000
units, an increase of 52,000 units from the previous round. Regional Contribution Agreements
will be increasing from $35,000 to $80,000 per unit. Lucy Voorhoeve acknowledged the need
for greater coordination among State agencies and the varying rules such as the wastewater
management rules that are pending. The public comment period for the new rules ends March
22, 2008.

The modified growth share approach being proposed allocates affordable housing need based
on the amount of residential and non-residential development within a municipality guided by
targets established through household and employment projections established by the
consultant team utilizing New Jersey Department of Labor numbers extrapolated into the future
(2018). Key to the development of these numbers was a vacant land analysis utilizing the
NJDEP 2002 Land Use/Land Cover data. This analysis included the Special Resource Areas
of the Pinelands, Highlands and the Meadowlands regions and accounted for their unique
protection and development characteristics. The land use analysis also included Planning
Areas 1 and 2, and sewer service areas which were then matched up with the six COAH
Regions. Lucy stated that a public policy decision was made to exempt facilities such as
schools from having to provide a fair share housing obligation. She concluded by noting that
the court stated that a pure growth share based on zoning is unacceptable given a
municipalities ability to down zone.

Bob Bzik asked Lucy whether other facilities such as prisons should be exempt from the new
rules. Bonnie Goldschlag from Monmouth followed up with similar question asking whether
military bases are exempt. Lucy replied that she did not know the answer to those questions.
Bob Bzik noted that Fort Monmouth – a federal facility is exempt from any type of local review.

Lucy Voorhoeve mentioned that Commissioner Doria was leading a Housing Policy Task
Force with recommendations due out by the end of March.

Lucy then entertained questions and John Sully from Middlesex asked what municipalities
should do with the 2018 household and employment projections. Lucy responded by saying
that municipalities need to use the projections as targets to be reached and if needed they
must ensure that adequate zoning is in place to meet those targets. John Sully suggested that
developing municipalities review their COAH projections against what is on the ground today,
since the State used land use data which doesn’t include the last 5 years’ development.
Bonnie Goldshlag stated that the NJ DEP data is not updated. Lucy Voorhoeve stated that
there is an adjustment process by which municipalities can participate should they believe they
can not meet future growth.

Mirah Becker noted that many State Agencies and Offices such as the Office of Smart Growth,
Council on Affordable Housing, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
all utilize different methodologies to determine buildout and that these various agencies should
work together. Christine Marion said that development is development and that DEP does not
distinguish between affordable and market rate housing. It was agreed that coordination
between COAH and the NJDEP is needed.

Kamal Saleh requested a definition of the word “constraints”. Lucy responded by saying she
did not know without doing some research. Additional questions regarding the 2018
employment projections were raised. Bob Bzik noted the awkwardness in dealing with
employment projections and Linda Brennan from Monmouth wanted to know what would
happen if a town builds to the projected number and ends up with excess affordable housing.
Lucy Voorhoeve responded by saying that she did not know what would happen.

Minutes:
Laurette Kratina asked if anyone had questions regarding the minutes of January 18, 2008.
There being no comments or changes, Bob Brewer motioned, seconded by John Sully to
approve the minutes. The motion passed unanimously and the minutes were approved.

Treasurer’s Report:
The Treasurer’s Report for the 1/05/08 through 2/15/08 period was described by Kamal Saleh.
Copies of the report were available for review and comment. Given there were no comments
on the report, John Sully motioned, seconded by Bob Bzik to approve the Treasurer’s Report.
The motion to approve the report for the latest reporting period passed unanimously.

New Business:
Marty Bierbaum of the Land Use Center at the College of New Jersey to
Discuss the NJ Wayfinders Signage Program:

Mr. Bierbaum noted that it has been awhile since he last attended a County Planners meeting,
but he was looking forward to discussing the NJ Wayfinders Signage Program. Mr. Bierbaum
stated that cultural and historic signs are common around the state and that a meeting was
held up at NJDOT, with about a 100 people attending, discussing ways to improve the State’s
Request for Proposal regarding New Jersey’s signage. The meeting was held at the NJ
Department of Environmental Protection on December 7, 2007. It was mentioned that nothing
in New Jersey is simple or easy and that signage is a complex issue. The replacement of old
State signs with newly formatted signs is occurring, however, gaps still exist between the
State and local points of interest signs. Mr. Bierbaum then introduced Karen Hatcher,
Executive Director of Celebrate New Jersey.

Karen Hatcher said that Celebrate New Jersey, a nonprofit organization, began back in the Fall
of 2004 as a collaborative effort between the Crossroads of the American Revolution
Organization and a coordinating group that included many statewide organizations. Given
New Jersey’s prominence in the Revolution, participants believed New Jersey needed an
identity or theme to rally around. Marguerite Chandler – an early organizer of Celebrate New
Jersey, noticed that New Jersey didn’t have a State celebration and that a Statewide identity
must be established in order to help retain and attract young adults. The “Celebrate New
Jersey Month” was established in June 2005.

Karen went on to describe wayfinding as the creation of signage to easily find points of interest
and may include symbols and/or words. Across New Jersey there is a need for coordination
among all levels of government (State, County, and local) and among all of those
organizations that post signs throughout New Jersey utilizing all available technologies
including GPS, Icons, Maps, and symbols. Karen noted that the Tourist Oriented Directional
Signage Program (TODS) run by the New Jersey Department of Transportation is a good
starting point and that Celebrate New Jersey is looking for someone to work with in
establishing a pilot signage initiative. Lastly, Karen encouraged County Planning members to
check out Celebrate New Jersey’s web site.

Communications and Correspondence:

Laurette Kratina mentioned that she was trying to schedule Larry Baier of DEP for the March
meeting to discuss the Water Quality Management Rules. Laurette also noted that both the
New Jersey Lands Trust and the sponsors of Transaction – the transportation conference held
in Atlantic City will be offering American Institute of Certified Planners Continuing Maintenance
credits. County Planners will also have the New Jersey Association of Counties Annual
Conference to look forward to in June 2008. Laurette also said that the NJAPA will be
sponsoring our meetings and programs for continuing maintenance credits.

Committee Reports:

Executive
Laurette Kratina highlighted her efforts to continue down the path of submitting the required
documentation to APA in order to receive continuing maintenance credits for some of our
meetings.

Environment
There was no one present to present a report on the “environment”.

Open Space and Agriculture

Dave McKeon could not attend but provided Laurette with the following update:

• Farmland Plans and Planning Incentive Grant applications were due at the State
Agriculture Development Committee (SADC) in December. This is the new
process required for the receipt of farmland preservation grants. I believe most
participating Counties complied with the deadline. The SADC will be providing
comments and feedback to counties in February.

Mirah Becker suggested that County Planners invite Susan Craft of the SADC to discuss the
topic of farmland preservation.

Smart Growth

Bonnie Goldschlag stated that she wants the Smart Growth Maps separated from the State’s
Cross Acceptance Plan. Laurette reaffirmed that position citing the need to utilize the State
Plan maps in their efforts to develop wastewater plans and will be writing a letter to the Office
of Smart Growth emphasizing that point. Laurette also mentioned that she has not yet
received a response to the letter on behalf of the County Planners Association regarding the
need to have the State Plan prepared and completed.

Legislative

Christine Marion had to leave. However, earlier during Karen Hatcher’s presentation, she
noted State Senator Jeff Van Drew had reintroduced the bill (S896) regarding directional
signage for agricultural establishments. In this version of the bill, county planning boards were
no longer involved in the agricultural signage program. Ms. Hatcher thought the bill had been
pulled from the legislative agenda during the previous session and stated that she would check
on this new development.

Utilities, Transportation and Infrastructure

Bob Bzik mentioned that there were a bunch of bills in various stages of development all
regarding the topic of energy.
Education and Technology

Laurette mentioned that Somerset had purchased some CDs to be used for educational
purposes and APA continuing maintenance credits. Kamal Saleh stated that $475 is in the
budget for the purchase of APA educational CDs for County Planners to make available to
their members in an effort to obtain a portion of their continuing maintenance credits. Bob
Brewer motioned, seconded by Bob Bzik to approve the purchase of those CDs by County
Planners for the estimated dollar amount of $475 for 2008. The motion passed unanimously.

Housing and Community Development

Kamal Saleh mentioned that COAH’s newsletter is available on-line.

State Agency Reports

There were no State Agencies present at this time so there was no report.

Old Business:
Kamal Saleh said that he will finalize the 2008 Budget and send out the 2008 Membership bill.
Kamal will also confirm the cost of the educational CDs for CM purposes with the American
Planning Association.

There being no other business Laurette Kratina adjourned the meeting

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Lindaw, Secretary