NJ Conservation Foundation Whitewashed The History Of A Huge Regulatory Battle That Stopped A Massive Corporate Office Park Development

Massive Corporate Office Park Sprawl Blocked By Local Citizen Activists

DEP Category One Water Quality And Steam Buffer Regulations At The Core Of The Victory

NJCF and StonyBrook Watershed Failed To Fight Corporate Development

“If adopted, the [C1] rule would have a devastating affect on BPG’s ability to redevelop its property because of the imposition of a 300 foot special water resource protection area… ~~~ Pepper Hamilton, LLP (link below)

A friend just sent me the NJ Conservation Foundation’s Winter 2017 newsletter. She reached out to me and was focused on the Pinelands wildfire issues I’ve been writing about.

But in reading that NJCF document, I came across an NJCF celebration of the dedication of a new NJCF “Mt. Rose Preserve”. I must admit that I was unaware of the formation of the NJCF  “Mt. Rose Preserve”.

Here’s how NJCF described the history of how that Preserve came about – and it is quite revealing in exposing the cowardly game that NJCF and the land trusts and watershed associations play:

“The open land around the office buildings was preserved in 2015 after a long legal battle over development proposals that would have brought significant traffic to the area.”

So, one would think that the opposition to the massive corporate office park development project was all about “significant traffic to the area”.  And that NJCF played some role in the “long legal battle”.

I was a player in that development battle and can tell you that that is a flat out lie.

NJCF even fails to mention what the “long legal battle” was all about, which is a hugely significant question I framed as:

Do Environmental Concerns Involve a “Public Interest” – or Are They Merely Private Disputes Under Land Use Law?

The political and legal battle to stop the massive Berwind corporate office park development had very little to do with traffic. And the cowardly pro-corporate NJCF and their conservation and watershed friends sat on the sidelines in that political and legal battle.

Neither NJCF nor their various  conservation”partners” did jack shit to stop that massive corporate development.

• They failed to mount a local campaign of public opposition.
• They failed to participate in the Hopewell planning board’s review and approval of the Berwind General Development Plan (GDP).
• They failed to work on regulatory issues and failed to criticize DEP regulatory loopholes created to exempt the Berwind project from strict DEP Category One stream water quality standards and 300 foot buffer stream protections.
• They failed to litigate the planning board and DEP approvals.

(and they failed similarly and for the same reasons in the controversial Merrill Lynch and BMS battles in Hopewell.)

Here’s how my May 29, 2008 testimony to the Hopewell planning board opposing the project explained that, using the words of the developer’s own lawyers:

Repeat:

“If adopted, the [C1] rule would have a devastating affect on BPG’s ability to redevelop its property because of the imposition of a 300 foot special water resource protection area

NJCF fails to mention any of that.  Why would they want to mischaracterize a huge battle involving DEP water quality and steam buffer protections as one about traffic?

It’s almost as if they don’t want conservationists to be aware of critical DEP regulatory tools that can block massive sprawl developments.

The primary tool NJCF works on is land purchase from willing sellers –  they loathe regulation as a barrier to cultivating willing sellers (ofter corporate and wealthy landowners).

NJCF did NOTHING to support the DEP C1 regulations. DEP C1 regulations are about protecting water quality and have zero to do with “traffic”.

(and the reasons that the StonyBrook was not classified by DEP as a C1 water is because many of these same “conservationists” convinced Hopewell Township to oppose it. We (i.e. the original DEP C1 Team) had planned to classify all Delaware Tributaries from Trenton north as C1 waters.)

Here’s how I concluded my May 29, 2008 testimony to the Hopewell planning board:

So here’s a summary of what really what went down in this winning battle against corporate sprawl.

A small group of dedicated Hopewell residents – with no technical, political, or financial support from NJCF or the Watershed – stopped that corporate office park development.

To assist that effort, I testified to the planning board on May 29, 2008 and later worked closely with the lawyer who litigated and ultimately won a NJ Supreme Court case, see:

https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/attachments/08_4_6_njpeer_testimony.pdf

While I was Director of NJ PEER, we blasted the DEP regulatory loophole specifically created for this corporate development (but NJCF and the rest of the conservation and watershed crowd were silent about this corrupt DEP sellout), see:

• “Grandfather” Stampede in Delayed New Jersey Stream Rules

https://peer.org/grandfather-stampede-in-delayed-new-jersey-stream-rules/

I worked with the lawyer representing the citizens group (which didn’t include NJCF or the Watershed)

• NJ Supreme Court Hears Challenge to Massive Berwind Development in Hopewell Township

http://www.wolfenotes.com/2010/10/nj-supreme-court-hears-challenge-to-massive-berwind-development-in-hopewell-township/

• Hopewell Citizens Group Wins NJ Supreme Court Victory

http://www.wolfenotes.com/2011/01/hopewell-citizens-group-wins-nj-supreme-court-victory/

• The Power of a Category One (C1) Designation by DEP

http://www.wolfenotes.com/2011/08/the-power-of-a-category-one-c1-designation-by-dep/

NJCF then came in after the battle was over and took credit.

They did this after local citizens spent all the money and effort and took all the political risks and I did much of the technical, regulatory, and strategic work.

Totally disgusting.