Derman Mum on Site Standards for Now
At a June 19 meeting with NJ Dept. of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Harriet Derman and staffer William Connolly, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Middlesex Somerset Mercer Regional Council, Assoc. of New Jersey Environmental Commissions and others learned that the Department is "field-testing" the proposed regulations (draft 5/3/95) recommended by the Site Improvement Advisory Board. The Dept. issued a RFP and has shortlisted several planning and engineering firms, to be narrowed further, that will choose recently developed tracts in NJ and "apply" the proposed site standards to determine what would have been different or disallowed, and what the impact would have been, had the standards been in place. The chosen firm(s) will produce written work products for departmental and public review near summer's end. In the meantime, the department is continuing to meet with interested parties in an attempt to iron out problems. When asked whether the RFP was drafted so to require the firms to choose developments that covered all of the types of street networks, including the neighborhood street model, as defined the Board, Connolly answered no. He felt that the standards proposed did not affect access to alternative transportation modes positively or negatively, and, for that reason, explained that the firms being considered for the field test would not necessarily have transportation planning experience. He asked for "specifics" as to how such access and mobility would be affected by the proposed uniform standards. This request along with the absence of alternative mode transportation planning experience as a factor in consultant selection may mean that the transportation-related standards (street width, right of way, parking, bike lanes and sidewalks) have not benefited sufficiently from recent treatments to promote pedestrian safety, sidewalk connectivity and bicycle and transit access/design standards. Com'r Derman said little but took notes; she has one year from the date the May 3rd draft regulations were handed up to her to accept or reject them, with her authority to do so severely circumscribed. MSM's Dianne Brake proposed a performance standards approach, while Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic's Bill Sullivan suggested that the ADT trip-generation basis for all modal standards would lead to more auto-dependent sprawl. The department's view was contrary, but it seemed willing to listen. Meanwhile, the NJ Assembly's Policy and Rules Committee considered but did not release A.2388, a bill that would scuttle the design and policy aspects of the uniform site standards regulations in favor of a strictly engineering approach. That bi-partisan bill, sponsored by Assemblymen Pascrell and Arnone, recently picked up important Republican sponsor Richard Bagger of Westfield, who opened the hearing with a strong statement opposing uniform site standards. Connolly, testifying on behalf of the DCA, opposed A.2388.
