ASSEMBLY, No. 166

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblymen GIBSON and ASSELTA

An Act concerning the review of certain developments in the coastal area, supplementing P.L.1973, c.185 (C.13:19-1 et seq.), and repealing section 22 of P.L.1979, c.111 (C.13:18A-23).

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. The Commissioner of Environmental Protection, when applying the criteria set forth in sections 10 and 11 of P.L.1973, c.185 (C.13:19-10 and C.13:19-11) for the issuance of a permit for a development as required pursuant to section 5 of P.L.1973, c.185 (C.13:19-5), shall not refer to or base its decision on the provisions of the comprehensive management plan for the pinelands adopted pursuant to section 7 of P.L.1979, c.111 (C.13:18A-8).

    2. The Commissioner of Environmental Protection, when adopting regulations pursuant to section 17 of P.L.1973, c.185 (C.13:19-17), shall not incorporate by reference any of the provisions of the comprehensive management plan for the pinelands adopted pursuant to section 7 of P.L.1979, c.111 (C.13:18A-8). Any such provision in existing regulations is void.

    3. Section 22 of P.L.1979, c.111 (C.13:18A-23) is repealed.

    4. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill would provide that a Department of Environmental Protection and Energy review of a permit pursuant to the "Coastal Area Facility Review Act" (CAFRA), be based on the regulatory standards of that act and without any reference to the comprehensive management plan for the pinelands.

    Part of the coastal area subject to CAFRA review is also in the boundaries of the Pinelands National Reserve. When the "Pinelands Protection Act" was adopted in 1979, it envisioned that a plan be adopted by the Pinelands Commission for the pinelands area, a subset of the Pinelands National Reserve. That plan would serve as a land use plan in that limited area. For the remainder of the Pinelands National Reserve that is outside the pinelands area, nearly all of which is in the coastal area and thus subject to CAFRA, the act envisioned that the department would regulate development in that area pursuant to CAFRA. In fact, the "Pinelands Protection Act" required that the CAFRA environmental design be changed if necessary to effectuate the purposes of the "Pinelands Protection Act." In 1980 the CAFRA regulations were reviewed and deemed to be consistent with the pinelands comprehensive management plan.

    Despite this legislative intent, the Pinelands Commission and the department have devised a CAFRA review process whereby regulatory control of permitting in the CAFRA/pinelands overlap area has been ceded from the department to the Pinelands Commission through a memorandum of agreement. Under this MOA, the Pinelands Commission serves as a reviewer of the permit. This, together with the fact that the CAFRA regulations attempts to incorporate the pinelands comprehensive management plan by reference, has led to the confusing and often frustrating situation where a person proposing to construct a development in the overlap area is denied a permit because of violations of the pinelands comprehensive management plan, even though the permit is in conformity with all the regulations adopted under CAFRA. Developers and others are uncertain in any given case what regulations will be applied to them and what criteria they have to meet.

    This bill would resolve this confusing regulatory scheme by clarifying that the CAFRA regulations, and not the pinelands comprehensive management plan, govern development in the CAFRA/pinelands overlap area. The bill provides further that the department may not adopt the pinelands comprehensive plan merely by reference to it. Rather, if the department believes that any or all the provisions of the plan should be applied in the coastal area, the department would be required to adopt explicitly those provisions so that the public will be able to comment upon them and subsequently be aware of the standards and requirements they must meet in order to obtain a permit.

Clarifies applicable standards and regulations for the area subject to CAFRA review that is within the Pinelands National Reserve.