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Modules 1 and 2: Current Municipal Conditions and Build-out Analysis,
Land Use and Resource Capacity Analysis
Municipalities that have filed a Notice of Intent will need to complete
the Conformance process before December 8, 2009. Due to the very tight
schedule and the interdependence of the various modules, Modules 1 and
2 must be completed early. They are interrelated and will provide the
basis for subsequent modules, in particular Module 3. Environmental
commissions should participate in their preparation by communicating
with municipal professionals, usually the planner and engineer. It is
important that your commission's local knowledge be incorporated in
these analyses.
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What is a build out analysis and why is it important?Basic information
on build-out analyses can be found at www.anjec.org , "Tools and
Resources", Smart Land Use: "Build-out and Carrying Capacity
Analysis". The build-out analysis is an essential step in municipal
planning. A build-out analysis allows planners, citizens and municipal
officials to "view the future" by visualizing the "end
result" of their current planning framework. In sum, the process
is a "reading before the fact" of what full development will
be as a result of the existing planning framework. A build-out analysis
can then compare the allowable future development with the carrying
capacities of the natural systems such as water quality and quantity,
wildlife habitat or air quality and with the capacity of man-made infrastructure
such as water supply systems, wastewater treatment systems, roads or
schools. The Highlands process for conducting a build-out analysis has
unique requirements and provisions. During the Highlands Conformance
Process, the future development of your municipality under your existing
zoning will be compared to the goals, policies and objectives of the
Highlands Regional Master Plan (RMP) to assess the type, location and
amount of change necessary to bring your community into conformance
with the Highlands Act and the Regional Master Plan. By the end of the
conformance process, you will have a modified and amended Master Plan,
new land use ordinances and other planning elements needed to effectuate
the goals of the Highlands Act.
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The
process begins with documenting the current municipal conditions. See
(www.highlands.state.nj.us/njhighlands/planconformance), Plan Conformance
Grant Program, "Module 1: Current Municipal Conditions and Build-out
Analysis". It is vital that the municipality be able to accurately
map and measure the land area of both "developable land" and
"preserved lands" in the municipality under current zoning
and regulation. Examples of lands that should be removed can include
parks and other preserved lands, other restricted lands, water bodies,
wetlands, steep slopes and floodplains that preclude development under
current regulation. Generally these should not be counted as "developable
land".
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As can be anticipated, defining what these areas are is the more difficult
part of the analysis. Once the lands to be removed from the calculation
are agreed upon, map preparation and area estimation are relatively
easily accomplished using GIS, provided the spatial data required are
available. This process is far more laborious and difficult if digital
data and GIS technology are not available. In reality, there will be
a back and forth process as available data is compared to desired results.
Missing data will need to be created or the output changed. In the Highlands
Conformance process, municipalities should pay particular attention
to preserved open spaces. Few municipalities have accurate mapping or
information on the many conservations easements they currently hold.
Many of these lands do not appear on the Highlands Council's data. As
permanently preserved lands, they should be removed from consideration
as "developable" land. The Council will also provide spatial
and tabular data concerning the location and capacities of sewer and
water systems. Areas served by these utilities are those where pipes
are actually in the ground, not those areas previously planned for service.
The base grant amount for this Module is $15,000. The "Current
Municipal Conditions & Build-Out Analysis Module" on the Council's
website has detailed information concerning timing, procedures and submission
requirements.?
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Map
Updates
In pursuing the build-out analyses, the Council's data will need some
degree of factual revision. This is a result of changes that have occurred
since the original data were developed, the scale of the original data
and the fact that some municipal data were not available to the Council.
Municipalities will have the opportunity to view these data, compare
them with known local conditions and submit revisions to the Council.
In the Highlands Conformance process, these types of changes are considered
"RMP Updates" and must be based on factual conditions, for
example, when a previously vacant parcel has been developed or sewer
lines extended. A licensed professional must certify these requested
changes and submit them in accordance with Highlands Council data specifications
and requirements. RMP Updates may be submitted at any time, with full
verification in accordance with Highlands Council specifications and
requirements. Highlands Council approval of RMP Updates is not required
for completion of the Current Municipal Conditions and Build-Out Analysis,
but updates may be funded under this module. However, data reports on
current municipal conditions (or verification that none are required)
that are submitted in accordance with Highlands Council data requirements
are required for this module. When the information has been properly
submitted and verified, the Council staff will revise the "Municipal
Build-Out Geodatabase" and return it to the municipality. The corrected
Geodatabase, containing spatial and tabular data, will greatly assist
you in the Conformance process. The Council staff will provide the municipality
with the maximum build-out potential of the municipality "based
on available land, infrastructure and environmental carrying capacity,
consistent with the RMP". Environmental carrying capacity and infrastructure
capacity will be expressed in gallons per day, rather than in number
of dwelling units. ? Module 4: The Environmental Resource Inventory
and Its Problems
Module 4, the Environmental Resources Inventory, created by the Council,
will arrive late in the process. A draft "Sample Environmental
Resource Inventory" is available on the Council's website under
"Plan Conformance." ANJEC has prepared detailed comments on
this document, available on our website (www.anjec.org). While the draft
appears to meet the bare bones requirements of "Basic Conformance,"
it is far from comprehensive and will not meet the requirements of a
municipal ERI. There is little harm in adopting the document as presented,
but the environmental commission should supplement it with information
now or during "Final Conformance" to meet the requirements
of a good municipal ERI. Some deficiencies of the Highlands ERI include
the lack of geologic or soils information, an inadequate cultural resources
component and an incomplete open space component. The Highlands ERI
does contain accurate information specific to the Highlands process
and new information unlikely to have been developed by a municipality,
such as water availability. Please note that the Highlands ERI is a
digital document, meant for use with a GIS system. Municipalities with
existing non-digital ERIs will need to convert to a digital format.
If you do not have an ERI, your commission should plan to create one.
If you have a non-digital ERI, the commission should plan to bring your
existing ERI up to date and convert it to digital (GIS) format. Because
a consultant usually does the work of conversion to a digital GIS format,
control of ERI data often is shifted to a municipal professional, usually
the municipal planner or engineer. Commissions should take care to remain
actively involved in ERI preparation and maintain an ongoing relationship
with the administrator of the digital product. ANJEC has a Resource
Paper on environmental resource inventories at www.anjec.org/pdfs/EnvironmentalResource04.pdfGood
practice dictates that an environmental resource inventory (ERI) be
prepared first to inform the development of the municipal master plan
and build-out analyses. Because of time constraints in the Highlands
Conformance process, this normal progression of planning has been altered.
Municipalities often perform a build-out analysis as part of master
plan development after they have produced an ERI. The ERI delineates
the natural features of the municipality and allows the assignment of
"values" to these natural features. A build-out analysis without
a comprehensive ERI may leave out some constraints and opportunities
because they have not been identified. In the Highlands Conformance
Module series, the ERI is preceded by "Module 1, "Current
Municipal Conditions and Build-out Analysis, "Module 2, Land Use
and Resource Capacity Analysis" and "Module 3, Housing Element
and Fair Share Plan."
Thus, in the Highlands process municipalities will develop the build-out
and capacity analysis and the Housing Element and Fair Share Plan before
a new ERI is adopted. This inversion of good planning practice places
an additional burden on the existing ERIs and on environmental commissions.
Commissions must assure that, in the completion of Modules 1-3, the
natural resources of the municipality are protected. If your municipality
has an ERI, you will want to make full use of it during the build-out
analysis. The preparation and keeping of an ERI empowers and strengthens
your commission. Commissions should use the Conformance process to create
and maintain the best possible environmental resource inventory.