Another Case Of Democrats Using Social Justice To Mask Bad Policy
My friend Bill Potter, a longtime prominent land use, energy, and environmental lawyer, has an excellent Op-Ed running today at NJ Spotlight on the affordable housing “reform” bill (S50 [1R]) moving rapidly through he Legislature, read the whole thing:
I was particularly distressed by this conclusion:
Most troubling of all, the 76-page bill does not so much as mention the municipal mandates to protect the environment in all its many features and human impacts:
- Freshwater wetlands, preservation of natural stream buffers, no-build flood-prone areas, wooded hillsides and steep slopes, as well as such perennial hot topics in land use disputes as controlling stormwater runoff (sure to increase with global warming), traffic impacts, sewerage capacity and water supply, all are given short — if any — shrift in Sen. Singleton’s omnibus legislation.
The Supreme Court in each Mount Laurel decision eloquently described various environmental limitations to the allocation of affordable housing obligations. For example, “They do not extend to those areas where the State Plan discourages growth — namely open spaces, rural areas, prime farmland, conservation areas, limited growth areas, parts of the Pinelands and Coastal Zone areas” among others.
Affordable housing claims have long been used to attempt to over-ride sound land use planning and environmental considerations, and there are many disastrous developments and environmental damages that have been allowed under sham affordable housing claims. So I was stunned and appalled by the failure of the bill to address those issues.
Where the hell are the environmental groups who used to prioritize and work on land use and “anti-sprawl” campaigns?
I’m particularly disgusted that the NJ Chapter of Sierra Club seems to be AWOL in this debate, and my sense is that they will actually end up supporting the bill (if they haven’t already) under their twisted new direction set by Jeff Tittel’s retirement replacement, Anjuli Ramos-Busot.
I read the bill recently and shared Bill Potter’s assessment, but, frankly, I was so baffled by reading the bill that I couldn’t muster an analysis and sufficient clarity to criticize it!
It will be very difficult to stop this bill (I assume that Gov. Murphy and his former corporate lawyer DEP Commissioner support it), but Bill’s Op-Ed is an important first step in doing so. Perhaps Bill’s high credibility in NJ policy circles will open the eyes of some people in Trenton in policymaking or media positions.
That might be the only effective strategy to block this bill, because conditions have changed radically since I was active in NJ land use and environmental battles (roughly 1994 – 2017).
- There is no longer a credible environmentally oriented activist land use organization working on land use issues at the State level.
- The environmental groups that used to work on land use – like Sierra Club – have drank the “EJ” social justice Kool-aid and are likely to support the bill.
- The Democrats are in bed with the builders and very effective in using the EJ & social justice arguments to disguise bad policy.
- There is no press appetite or capacity to cover any of this stuff.
- There is no Foundation money to fund land use campaigns.
Perhaps the only approach that could work would be to try to get the bill injected into the polarized, partisan, culture and urban/suburban wars and hope for gridlock. I”m sure there are Republicans in the legislature eager to go there.
But my ethics won’t let me feed that beast, so, I’ll basically just try to do what Bill Potter has done: inject solid critical analysis into the debate and hope for the best.
If nothing else, that might shame the so called activists and public interest pretenders into doing something.