Did anyone else read the article in the NN about the DEP loosening the definition of Impervious Surface? The way I read it was that they are gradually taking all the bite out of the Highlands Act step by step.
There was another article in today's Star Ledger about these changes. The environmental groups are screaming about it. Basically it includes grass/lawn as impervious surface (which sounds good at first), but then it says that the impervious surfaces are the areas that builders ARE free to develop on. So now they can build on anything including grass and not have any increase in IS in their projects. Not good.
I want to be sure that I have this right. Builders can build on surfaces that allow water to pass through them (like lawns, grass fields, etc). So, is that to say that they can not build on non-impervious surfaces like concrete, bedrock, asphalt and existing building footprints and so forth? Isn't that bass-ackwards? Or, is it really saying that you can build on anything whatsoever?
My take on it is basically anything. Bass ackwards, absolutely. I couldnt find the article online so I could paste it here, but it appears to say that the DEP agrees that anything can be IS including lawn under the right circumstances so they are no longer classifying IS by material, just properties and circumstances. In other words they are allowing a loophole in the law big enough to drive a truck thru and allowing any developer to make a case for building anywhere regardless of the material. So out goes the limitations on footprint because now the footprint can include all of the lawn area too. Sounds like someone got a big xmas check in their stocking from some developers.
Well, New Jersey did not get its reputation as being the most politically currupt state in the union without our politicians trying hard to achieve that goal.
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