Citizens Campaign Snatches Defeat From the Jaws Of Victory
Another Dodge Foundation funded project designed to derail Statewide legislative mandates and dampen any criticism of the Christie Administration’s failures on climate change and coastal land use policies
No Blame – No Game
[Update below]
It is well known that the Christie Administration has repeatedly refused to consider climate change in various state level land use, DEP regulatory, and Sandy recovery policies and programs.
Thus stymied by Gov. Christie’s intransigence at the State level, in an effort to get something moving at the local level, a little over a month ago, a bill was heard in Trenton that would require NJ’s towns to consider climate change, storm resilience, and smart growth policies in their local Master Plan.
NJ Spotlight wrote about that bill here:
Should New Jersey towns be required to incorporate smart-growth policies and storm resiliency projects into their municipal master plans?
According to a bill (S-2424) moving through the Legislature, the answer is “yes” — especially given the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Sandy and other extreme weather on the state’s energy and environmental infrastructure.
The bill was not released from Committee that day, but it opened the debate and, if backed sufficiently by the State’s professional planning and environmental advocacy groups, the bill provided an opportunity for statewide reforms.
Not surprisingly, the bill was opposed by the NJ Builders Association (NJBA) and the League of Municipalities.
The Builders and League argued that the bill was unnecessary, because the Towns were already authorized to conduct that planning under the current Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL) and that many towns were doing good planning along those lines.
“We are concerned with adding an additional requirement, which will drive up costs,’’ said Michael Cerra, director of government affairs for the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, which represents local governments in Trenton. “We are doing this already.’’ ..
Jeff Kolakowski, vice president of government affairs for the New Jersey Builders Association, agreed, saying the state should leave a it to municipalities to decide whether to incorporate these considerations into their master plans.
But Legislative leaders rejected these arguments, thereby suggesting that the bill was politically feasible and had some chance of leading to real statewide reforms:
Those views did not resonate with lawmakers. Codey argued he has yet to receive a single call from a mayor complaining about the bill. In the past, if a bill proved objectionable to local officials, he said his office would be flooded by calls.
Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the chairman of the committee, added, “I don’t see this as any bad thing.’’
So, at just this critical moment, with the bill’s fate in limbo, did professional planning groups like NJ Future and environmental groups join forces and mount a public campaign in support of the bill?
Nope.
The reality is worse.
There was an indirect campaign formed.
The so called grass roots “Citizens Campaign” parachuted into the climate/land use fray, into an entirely new policy field that they have no organizational involvement in to date.
The Citizen’s Campaign is based on an organizing model that is focused at the local level and reliant upon a non confrontational “no blame approach”.
(does that mean that citizens can’t blame the Christie administration for massive policy failures or support state level legislation to mandate local action?
Just what we need, another weenie encroachment into politics and State policy under the guise of a non-political model.)
And the Citizens Campaign advocates basically exactly what the Builders Association and League argued to oppose the bill – voluntary home rule:
[…]
Better preparation starts with better planning. Towns must explicitly incorporate flood protection and stormwater management into their master plan — the policy document that guides the use and development of land within a municipality. Doing this kind of planning, particularly around any additional infrastructure needs, provides the added advantage of moving a municipality to the head of the line for available government and private grant funds.
Toward that end, The Citizens Campaign Legal Task Force has prepared a model Storm & Flood Protection Master Plan Amendment in ready-to-adopt form for citizens to introduce and advance in their own hometowns. (Interested citizens and Planning Board members can find the resolution and an accompanying background memo on The Citizens Campaign website: www.thecitizenscampaign.org.)
The Citizens Campaign has a model local ordinance – so obviously towns must already be authorized under the MLUL, just like the Builders Assc. said, right?
Citizens Campaign’s organizing model is based on the assumption that towns will listen to rational arguments by non-political and non-confrontational “no blame” citizens and voluntarily adopt them. (all while fiercely opposed by the politically powerful builders, the banks, the land owners, and the rest of the development lobby that has produced the chaotic NJ landscape.)
NO NEED FOR STATE LEGISLATION! NO MANDATES! HOME RULE! YAY!
This is beyond naive.
But it’s just what the NJ Builders Association ordered. They would not have designed a PR campaign any differently. Citizens Campaign is effectively doing their bidding
And the timing stinks to high heavens –
Dodge is funding similar ineffective local home rule based, voluntary, consensus driven, non-political efforts by NJ Future and Sustainable NJ.
[*Even if these efforts were effective – which they are not – they would only impact a tiny handful of town. So, Dodge funds an ineffective and limited approach that directly undermines statewide effective campaigns! – while starving them for resources]
So this one smells like another Dodge Foundation funded project designed to derail Statewide legislative or regulatory mandates and dampen any criticism of the Christie Administration’s failures on climate change and coastal loans use policies.
As Citizen Campaign says, that’s all part of “our signature no-blame strategy”.
No blame – No game.
[Update: 12/15/14 – Heather Taylor of Citizesn Campaign was kind enough to forward their model ordinance material.
It is worse that I suspected.
Not only is it an opportunistic (grant or fundraising driven) diversion of resources and focus that reinforces the NJBA opposition to statewide State mandates while duping well meaning citizens, it actively promotes a development agenda:
Storm resiliency should not be viewed as a bar to development, rather it seeks to advance responsible planning and design criteria to better attract development and economic opportunities, and safeguard our cities against future natural disasters.
That’s all we need – to have so called climate resilience advocates in thee “public interest” promoting efforts to “better attract development”.
The model Resolution does not even mention climate change and recommends a host of discredited engineering structures, like bulkheads, jetties and se walls, and fails to mention the use of State and local regulatory tools to restrict development in unsafe locations.
Read like it could have been written by the Builders Association.
Heckofajob Dodge! ~~~ end update]