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State Plan

Statewide policies to coordinate government actions to direct government investments and regulated
development into areas with infrastructure and preserve the environment

Purpose

The State Plan is the expression of the state's intent to coordinate government investments, planning and regulatory activities to achieve statewide objectives in the following areas:land use, housing, economic development, transportation, natural resource conservation, agriculture and farmland retention, recreation, urban and suburban redevelopment, historic preservation, public facilities and services, and intergovernmental coordination (NJSA. 52:18A-200(f) Adobe PDF icon 103kb)

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Information Sources

State Government

Other Organizations working on State Plan issues

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Background

The 1987 State Planning Act extended regional planning to the entire state by calling for the creation of a State Development and Redevelopment Plan. The State Planning Commission adopted the first Plan in 1992 after a unique consensus building process (Cross-Acceptance) that incorporated state, county and municipal recommendations on land use and infrastructure. Using the same process, the Commission revised and readopted the Plan in 2001 and a new edition is planned for 2009.

The State Planning Act mandated that the Plan provide a mechanism to achieve a series of quality-of-life and economic goals for the benefit of the whole state. The State Plan designates where growth should go and what areas should be preserved.


The State Plan Policy Map identifies how the policies in the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (SDRP) shall be applied in areas for growth, limited growth, agriculture, open space and conservation as required by the State Planning Act. The map integrates the major planning concepts of the Plan. Planning Areas that depict areas of environmental sensitivity, areas of existing infrastructure areas appropriate for agriculture and Centers. The map delineates five major planning areas each based on established criteria:

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"Smart Growth," A term that has come to mean the promotion of development in centers with existing public transit and other infrastructure and the protections of open space and natural resources, is a primary goal of state planning. The Act did not require municipal compliance, but offers benefits such as priorities for infrastructure funding in appropriate places, resource protection, accelerated permitting etc. for municipalities whose local planning is consistent with that of the State Plan. State agencies have also incorporated consistency in regulatory programs in the Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) zone and other land use programs.

Cross Acceptance is the State Plan consensus building process. To initiate the process of a State Plan revision and update, the State Planning Commission issues a Preliminary Plan and a Preliminary State Plan Policy Map as well as a Cross-Acceptance Manual. All municipalities in the state are asked to file a Cross-Acceptance report with their county. In this report, the municipality reviews its own land use plans and compares them to the goals and objectives of the State Plan and the Policy Map and notes any inconsistencies. The municipal reports are combined into a county Cross-Acceptance report and the county then becomes the “negotiating entity” with the Office of Smart Growth (OSG), which is the staff of the State Planning Commission. The OSG staff meets with each county’s planning staff to negotiate any inconsistencies and then a public hearing is held in each county. A municipality that disagrees with the county report can also file a dissenting report directly with the OSG.

The Cross Acceptance process for the 2009 State Plan is in its final phase. The State Planning Commission will release a draft final plan and an accompanying Impact Assessment for public hearings and base on these comments adopt ad new 2009 State Plan. Until that adoption takes place the current plan is in effect and plan endorsements continue to be processed.

Plan Endorsement is the process undertaken by municipalities, counties or regional entities to have their master plans endorsed by the State Planning Commission as being consistent withe the state plan. Enabled by the 1947 New Jersey Constitution to delegate land use controls to the local governments, the Legislature adopted the Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL) to codify that delegation. The implementation of the MLUL has been modified for regional purposes in the Meadowlands, Pinelands, Highlands and CAFRA zones.

Implementation of the State Plan depends on action at the local level. Municipal compliance with the State Plan is determined through a Plan Endorsement petition process. A municipality submits a petition, which includes all of its planning documents, to the Office of Smart Growth (OSG), where it is reviewed in concert with other state agencies for conformance with the State Plan. Local government officials work with the OSG to bring the local land use planning into conformance with the policies in the State Plan.
More information on Plan Endorsement can be found on the state website.

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Involvement Opportunities for Environmental Commissions and Citizens

Environmental Commissions play an important role in the state planning process. As keepers of the municipal Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI), which should be the basis of land use planning in the municipal master plan, a commission should participate in the preparation of the new State Plan and in the Endorsement Process. Commissioners should review the draft State Plan when it is released and comment on places where local resource information or local policy does not seem to be accurately reflected in the state document. Environmental Commissions should work with the town during the Endorsement Process again to ensure that local data is reflected accurately. Commissioners can use information generated by the planning process and, in turn, inform the process by utilizing the ERI as a database in delineating center boundaries, and Critical Environmental Sites. Commissions also should be consulted on how the goals of the State Plan can be met through local action.
Once municipal petitions for Endorsement are underway, the EC should have a representative on the town's Plan Endorsement committee or be a partner to that committee to ensure that it considers environmental resources in all plans submitted to the State Planning Commission.

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6/09