Law Deals Favor Developers Over Environment & Citizens. Affordable Housing Too Many Questions Left Unanswered. Too Many Deals

Recently Parsippany under the pretext of saving tax payers expense for litigation in lawsuits concerning “developers remedy” has made agreements to allow rezoning to accomodate luxury housing including a so-called affordable housing element.

Here is the impropriety. This particular landscape 700 Mountain Way, Block 14 Lots 9, 9.01, 10 and 6 are Environmentally Sensitive Landscapes; Steep Slopes, Forested, and most importantly aquifer recharge areas. COAH Environmental Policies allow Municipalities to reduce the number of acres available for development by showing how much land it has in each of the following categories. This from ANJEC:

A municipality can reduce the number of acres available for development by showing how much land it has in each of the following categories.

• Restrictive covenants that run with the land (such as conservation easements);

• Steep slopes over 15 percent if regulated by a local steep slope ordinance;

• Wetlands (as delineated by the State);

• Floodplains (as delineated by the State);

• Sites listed on the NJ Register of Historic Places, plus a "reasonable" buffer area;

• Land that the town plans to purchase within one year for active or passive recreational purposes.

COAH does not, however, exclude land protected by other "critical area" ordinances, such as stream corridor or wellhead protection ordinances. Towns can keep unwanted Builder's Remedy developments from those areas only by proactively finding and designating other appropriate areas for affordable housing.

Parsippany’s Master Plan has a “steep slope” ordinance as stated above. 700 Mountain Way has these features and associated wetlands and repairman zones. Parsimony is using affordable housing as a feat tactic which it did at waterview to allow another shopping mall, despite overwhelming public opposition and a Council No Vote. Now they are using public housing as a tactic to help corporate developers overcome their hardships in rezoning landscapes, to accommodate developers plan, that are not appropriate to the land characteristics ignoring all environmental factors. Engineering Mitigations never equal what nature has given us for free. From Parsippany’s Master Plan, Goals & Policies, the Township takes cognizance of the fact that there are numerous sites in the municipality that are typified by extensive environmentally sensitive features and therefore may not be able to accommodate its full zoned development potential.

To protect and conserve the water supply serving Parsippany-Troy Hills community. Policy Statement: The Township acknowledges the State Department of Environmental Protection correspondence that the township exceeds its water allocation at various times of the year. The Township recognizes the delicate balance of demand and supply of potable water and its relationship to current and future growth of the community, and has incorporated this concern in its land use planning efforts. (It goes on).

Land and water are organically linked. Parsippany landmass in within the buried valley aquifer; however due to exceeding usage it now relies on two other sources for its water supply (JCMUA & MCMUA) without which it could not meet its demands. New Jersey within a water crisis as Highlands Research has discovered. Excessive withdrawals and intensifying pollution are threatening the supply. Parsippanys HSG A hydrologic soil group, present in any areas is among the best nature has to offer in the phenomena of ground water recharge. Other Ecological advantages are organic matter soils of which give great power to water retention; “ Each 1 percent increase in soil organic matter helps soil hold 20,000 gallons more water per acres”.

How can a Municipality be held hostage by developers lawsuits to the point of surrounding their own Master Plan or right to Home Rule. Parsippany has chosen not to conform to the Regional Master Plan; that prevents such lawsuits and enforces environmental laws in favor of both citizens and developers, as Parsippany is entirely in the planning zone ; which is another indication that we have given our Township up to corporate developers and what ever land they own to do as they please. This situation is contrary to Environmental Rights available to citizens and the powers of the state, county or town; contrary to private economic interest, not in the best interest of the people, short and long term. In our age we can no longer ignore our shrinking natural resources which all life stems; we can have ecology and economy.

Going back to;Towns can keep unwanted Builder's Remedy developments from those areas only by proactively finding and designating other appropriate areas for affordable housing. Parsippany has not performed its due diligence nor given any strict scrutiny to the matter of housing obligation. We were told initially that Parsippany was in good standing with their housing policies and accommodation .Suddenly now we are told our obligations are and will be higher than expected. This can only be true in the light that we are accommodating developers in a housing speculation market sprawl. Parsimony has become a target only because of its land, seen as real estate, not for its natural resource value in sustaining quality of life and beauty for its citizens and in keeping our drinking water safe.

We have never been told any numbers exactly for the housing obligation, because it is not known. The obligation also has elements of smart growth and cannot simply use Parsippany or any other Town as a dumping ground for developers. What is exactly affordable? Where will the residents work? How will it effect local taxes and infrastructure? How can “deals” be made with corporate developers behind closed doors if these facts are not known. We only have conjecture and fear used as tactics to assist private not public interest here in Parsippany. We now have an absurd outcome of developing land that is necessary to sustain our water supply; paving over ground water recharge areas diminishes water supply, loss of soil, trees and indigenous plant life leads to dirty air, and evasive non-native plant species erasing our America and surely leads to future costs with the loss of quality of life. Something is radically wrong with how this housing issue is manifesting. There should have taken place a housing ban moratorium until these issues were worked out; or we should turn more already built housing affordable.

Picture: giant trees of yes; Connecticut our oldest trees are in Cumberland County and Haddonfield, NJ.