New Jersey smart growth council created

New governor reverses course — fires planners one week, implements new cabinet-level program the next. Newly elected New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey laid off virtually the entire staff of the Office of State Planning as part of a larger cost-cutting measure in late January, and was immediately hit by a barrage of criticism. McGreevey responded by establishing the Smart Growth Policy Council and then rehiring some of the fired planners to implement the programs that this council will oversee. He also authorized the state attorney general to provide legal assistance to towns battling development proposals that do not conform to the state plan, which last year received a Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism as “the first state model plan promoting policies and practices consistent with the New Urbanism.” For the first time, according to the newspaper Ledger-Star, McGreevey also ordered that new school construction consider the elements of smart growth. Environmental and other groups were quick to praise the order and deem it the most comprehensive attack on sprawl every initiated by the State of New Jersey. “It is the best hope yet offered for New Jerseyans long frustrated with the loss of open space and the decay of our older communities,” says Barbara Lawrence of New Jersey Future, quoted in the Ledger-Star. The future of a popular, $3-million smart growth grant program remains in doubt. This program was just beginning to have an impact through the funding of regional and transit-oriented development plans, says Carlos Rodrigues, one of the planners who was rehired. He adds that the Office of State Planning has been active in educating citizens about human-scale development. “We’re making some progress,” he says. “The overall climate is more favorable to New Urbanism than it was five years ago.” This course of events represents something of a repeat from 1992, when former Gov. Christine Whitman took office. She fired key members of the planning staff only to reverse the decision within weeks. Whitman later became an advocate for smart growth, and now is the head of the EPA (see story on page 1).