I thought it important to post this extraordinarily brave and cogent letter by Highlands Council member Tracy Carluccio. Obviously, she was on the inside and is knowledgeable of the critical debates and compromises in the Highlands Plan.
Environmental groups are urging Governor Corzine to veto the Plan and send it back to the Council with specific instructions on how to fix fatal flaws and weaknesses. This letter surely strengthens those arguments.
Turned to mush
Thursday, August 07, 2008
The beauty of the Highlands plan is that it was developed based on a policy of analyzing what’s needed for water resources and developing a plan to responsibly safeguard, restore and use what we have.
But then the data showed most of the Highlands was already built out beyond sustainability. There was little room for development. A fatal assumption took hold — that to win over towns to the plan, compromises were needed. The science-based policies unraveled.
The 10 amendments council members offered would have allowed us to remain true to our vision of a plan firmly embedded in what the science required — stopping growth where there isn’t enough water and no longer paving over streamsides, polluting groundwater and streams or allowing politics to define where development can go. These concepts have been hopelessly loopholed to mush.
Chairman John Weingart asks why a pitched battle? It’s not that environmental groups are too powerful, as he claims, or “petulant.” It’s that we have already lost far more than we can ever know, and providing water for half the people of New Jersey requires firecely fighting for all that’s left.
— Tracy Carluccio, East Amwell Township
The writer is a Highlands Council member.
http://www.nj.com/opinion/ledger/forums/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1218083857130230.xml&coll=1
Three cheers for Tracy!
Here’s a FACT for you also – the Star-Ledger’s Editorial page editor refused to allow a rebuttal piece to run either with Weingart’s missive, or at a later date.
Ah, the power of the press. No wonder they are going down the tubes financially!
I agree, an excellent letter. Somewhere along the way, politics intervened, & the focus shifted from protecting crucial natural resources to property & development rights.
you mean money intervened.