Pinelands panel offers aid to help towns meet new zoning rules
By KIRK MOORE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
The state Pinelands Commission will use up to $305,000 from a conservation fund to help towns implement new zoning rules that require clustering of new residential development in the Pinelands' rural development and forest areas, commission officials said Friday.
The new clustering rules require that future homes built in those areas be situated on one-acre lots, with additional acreage around the houses set aside as permanently preserved open space.
Under old rules, housing density limits in those rural areas led to single homes built on multi-acre tracts. Secluded forest homes and "farmettes" have been one outcome, but from an ecological perspective the practice led to more fragmentation and clearing of forest lands, Pinelands planners say.
They designed clustering to encourage building new homes closer to roads, minimize clearing for driveways and yards and preserve more land in its natural state. But environmental activists dislike incentives that award clustering by granting potential for extra homes while allowing farm uses to continue, said Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club.
"People can cluster and still have the horse farm," Tittel said.
The $305,000 proposed to help 37 towns with planning costs comes from the Pinelands Conservation Fund, established in 2004 with $13 million from Atlantic City Electric as part of an agreement to allow a power transmission line through Atlantic and southern Ocean counties.
The money is coming from part of the fund designated for community planning and design, according to the commission. It will offer up to $10,000 for towns with large forest and rural development tracts and complex zoning, and up to $5,000 to towns where the clustering changeover will be simpler. Local master plans and land-use ordinances need to be aligned with the plan amendments by April 6, 2010, and the commission is providing a model ordinance for that purpose.
By KIRK MOORE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
The state Pinelands Commission will use up to $305,000 from a conservation fund to help towns implement new zoning rules that require clustering of new residential development in the Pinelands' rural development and forest areas, commission officials said Friday.
The new clustering rules require that future homes built in those areas be situated on one-acre lots, with additional acreage around the houses set aside as permanently preserved open space.
Under old rules, housing density limits in those rural areas led to single homes built on multi-acre tracts. Secluded forest homes and "farmettes" have been one outcome, but from an ecological perspective the practice led to more fragmentation and clearing of forest lands, Pinelands planners say.
They designed clustering to encourage building new homes closer to roads, minimize clearing for driveways and yards and preserve more land in its natural state. But environmental activists dislike incentives that award clustering by granting potential for extra homes while allowing farm uses to continue, said Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club.
"People can cluster and still have the horse farm," Tittel said.
The $305,000 proposed to help 37 towns with planning costs comes from the Pinelands Conservation Fund, established in 2004 with $13 million from Atlantic City Electric as part of an agreement to allow a power transmission line through Atlantic and southern Ocean counties.
The money is coming from part of the fund designated for community planning and design, according to the commission. It will offer up to $10,000 for towns with large forest and rural development tracts and complex zoning, and up to $5,000 to towns where the clustering changeover will be simpler. Local master plans and land-use ordinances need to be aligned with the plan amendments by April 6, 2010, and the commission is providing a model ordinance for that purpose.
