View from bridge at Double Trouble, NJ Pinelands. (c) Carleton Montgomery
The New Jersey Pinelands is in many ways the country’s most powerful regional land use regime. The Pinelands program encompasses a unique natural area, in this case the better part of the New Jersey Pine Barrens, and does not include any major city. New Jersey is famously the nation’s most crowded, most densely developed state. It is also a strong “home rule” state in which all land is incorporated and land use powers are, generally, accorded to these several hundred fragmented municipal governments. In these circumstances, the presence of a mandatory regional land use plan that aims to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of forest, wetland and farms is an extraordinary achievement.
A creature of federal and state legislation, the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) regulates virtually all development over at least 936,000 acres and 56 municipalities – all with the overriding purpose of preserving the region’s natural resources and character. The Pinelands Plan directs local zoning to create an overall regional pattern of interior conservation zones and peripheral growth zones, with local planning boards supplying neighborhood zoning that has to be consistent with the detailed strictures of the regional plan.
The rules can be very rigorous. In the core Preservation Area, the only new development permitted since the plan’s adoption in 1981 consists of native berry farming, forestry, beekeeping, and houses for those few people having direct family ties to the land prior to plan adoption. The Pinelands Plan not only restricts development in its conservation zones, but mandates minimum overall densities in its Regional Growth Areas. The Plan also includes a variety of environmental standards (such as protection of rare species habitat) applicable in both growth and conservation zones, as well as several innovative transfer of development rights (TDR) and cluster mechanisms.
Vital Statistics:
Chapter of the Book: 6
State: NJ
Year Established: 1978
Geographic Scale: 1.1 million
Mandatory or Voluntary over Local Government: Mandatory
Authorizing Laws: Federal & State
Agencies and Organizations:
New Jersey Pinelands Commission
Pinelands Preservation Alliance
New Jersey Conservation Foundation
Resources:
Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan regulations
Pinelands Protection Act of 1979 (pdf)
Selected References:
Collins, B.R. and E.W.B. Russell. 1988. Protecting the New Jersey Pinelands: A New Direction in Land-Use Managementq. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Forman, R.T.T. (ed.) 1979. Pine Barrens: Ecosystem and Landscape. New York: Academic Press.
Mason, R.J. 1992. Contested Lands: Conflict and Compromise in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Pinelands Commission. 1980. New Jersey Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan for the Pinelands National Reserve (National Parks and Recreation Act, 1978) and Pinelands Area (New Jersey Pinelands Protection Act, 1979). New Lisbon, New Jersey: New Jersey Pinelands Commission.
Zampella, R.A., N.A. Procopio III, M.U. Du Brul and J.F. Bunnell. 2008. An Ecological-integrity Assessment of the New Jersey Pinelands: a Comprehensive Assessment of the Landscape and Aquatic and Wetland Systems of the Region. New Lisbon, New Jersey: New Jersey Pinelands Commission.
