Published: December 29, 2011
By James Flachsenhaar

In Belmar, developers of commercial district projects must achieve a minimum number of points on the borough’s sustainability checklist in order to proceed.

In Morristown, Jonathan Rose Companies, a green urban solutions planner, is guiding redevelopment and master plan revisions.

In Somerset County, stakeholders are discussing “Sustainable Somerset: The Strategic Plan for Somerset County,” a framework to foster the interrelated goals of regional economic growth and infrastructure, sustainable communities and environmental protection.

In instances large and small, New Jersey governments are embracing sustainability: strategies that are simultaneously beneficial to social, economic and ecological interests — or people, prosperity and the planet.

And in many ways, New Jersey is leading other states.

New Jersey is the first state in the nation to have a comprehensive sustainability program, called Sustainable Jersey, for communities that links certification with state and private financial incentives.

Sustainable Jersey identifies actions municipalities can implement to become “certified” — and be considered leaders on the path to sustainable communities — and it provides access to grants and funding opportunities to help municipalities make progress. Of New Jersey’s 566 communities, 354, or 62 percent, are registered in the program, and 96 have achieved either bronze or silver certification.
And in September, New Jersey surpassed California as the state with the largest commercial solar market, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group. New Jersey’s photovoltaic installations now account for 24 percent of all those in the United States — up from 15 percent at the end of March.

But even as New Jersey makes gains in some areas, say environmental leaders, progress erodes in others.

“Governor (Chris) Christie has released a 10-year energy master plan that, unfortunately, significantly scales back our renewable energy goals,” said Matt Elliott, global warming and clean energy advocate for Environment New Jersey, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. “It provides few new ideas to help residents and businesses reduce energy demand more swiftly and it offers no strategy to help us get off oil in our cars and trucks.”

Elliott is also sharply critical of Christie’s May 26 announcement to pull New Jersey out of the Region Greenhouse Gas Initiative — a 10-state agreement, from Maine to Maryland, that caps power plant pollution, requires polluters to pay for their emissions and invests that money in clean energy programs.

“The governor — to the delight of out-of-state, multibillionaire oil tycoons, wants to cut and run,” Elliott said.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a regional policy watchdog organization, is critical of another decision by Christie: pulling out of the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel project in 2010.

“It would have created more one-seat train rides for New Jersey residents, created 6,000 construction jobs and 45,000 permanent jobs, boosted home values by $18 billion, reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 70,000 tons annually and improved the overall quality of life for many New Jersey residents,” said Janna Chernetz, the campaign’s New Jersey advocate.

And Jeff Tittel, executive director of the Sierra Club in New Jersey, says even New Jersey’s top-dog status on solar panel installations will be a temporary victory. Why? Because, Tittel said, Christie’s new energy master plan reduces the goal for the use of alternative sources from 30 percent to 22.5 percent, which will depress what has been a burgeoning market.

“This is one of those things where I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Tittel said.

The administration disagrees, asserting that its new master plan refocuses alternative energy efforts on more realistic terms.

“There will be changes in momentum over time, particularly as the federal government diminishes its subsidies,” Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said. “But that is the nature of the beast. … The subsidies were meant to foster or prime the industry, not to serve as a continual crutch.”

A dip in solar installation might be coming anyway, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association report.

“Many installations currently being completed in (California, New Jersey and other states) are the result of project pipelines built up by installers/developers, while new projects are hard to find,” the report says. “When will the backlog run its course, and will market conditions improve or incentives be improved/reintroduced before this happens?”

Others see New Jersey’s sustainability glass as half full.

“Over the past year, some tremendous strides have been made,” said Lucy Vandenberg, executive director of PlanSmart NJ.

“The new state plan is moving forward for the first time in many years,” she said. “It’s important because we need a framework that helps us decide where we want development. In its absence we end up with sprawl and congestion and houses away from jobs.”

Another highlight, Vandenberg said, is a $5 million federal Housing and Urban Development Sustainable Communities grant for New Jersey to do planning around transit-oriented development in the state’s 13 northern counties.

“When we concentrate development around public transportation hubs, we’ll have a stronger economy because employers will want use find their work force there,” she said. “And our air quality will be improved.”

Somerville, for example, was designated by the state in 2010 as a Transit Village, allowing the borough to draw funds to plan mixed-use developments near NJ Transit’s Somerville Station.

That development includes plans for retail space on a current landfill and housing units near a ShopRite supermarket that opened in October.

The borough this year received a $230,000 grant through the Transit Village program for streetscape work near the station. The award was part of $7.6 million in grants to 33 municipalities for public transportation, safe roads and bikeways projects.

“When it comes to planning and redevelopment, New Jersey is friendlier to the environment than other states,” said Peter Kasabach, executive director of NJ Future, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes responsible land-use policies.

Part of using land wisely, Kasabach said, is concentrating growth in existing communities, and around mass transit hubs, rather than developing open and rural spaces.

“Since 2008, there have been significantly more building permits issued in the state’s ‘centers’ — cities, towns and boroughs — than in suburban and rural townships,” Kasabach said.

Embracing sustainability is easier than you think, said Belmar Borough Administrator Robbin Kirk, whose “Sustainable by the Sea” program guides commercial district redevelopment.

“We were working on a pilot program with the U.S. Green Building Council on incorporating the standards for LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) buildings, and we came up with an environmental checklist that we built into the redevelopment plans for our commercial district,” Kirk said. “And I think if more and more people understood the process they would see it’s not a difficult thing to do to be sustainable.”