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October 2005
<br />farmland preservation report
<br />property values and rising property taxes, further
<br />spurring relocation to newer areas, the report said.
<br />The report lists 100 communities with "unsus-
<br />tainable tax rates. They include Camden, one of the
<br />nation's poorest cities, and Haddonfield, Newark,
<br />Maplewood and Trenton.
<br />"We have the nation's highest property taxes,
<br />and a growing number of communities in the `trouble
<br />zone' of fiscal distress," the report's summary stated.
<br />The New Jersey State Development and
<br />Redevelopment Plan, first adopted in 1992, "needs
<br />to be better implemented," said New Jersey Future
<br />project director Chris Sturm. According to Sturm,
<br />the report does not indicate the state plan's goals of
<br />revitalization, conservation and adequate housing are
<br />not moving forward.
<br />"We're not saying that at all... we are promoting
<br />that towns [embrace the plan] . We are right in the
<br />middle of a third round of cross - acceptance," the
<br />process of making local plans compatible and in line
<br />with the state plan, Sturm said.
<br />The plan called for compact development and
<br />establishment of five planning area designations,
<br />from metropolitan, the most densely developed, to
<br />suburban, fringe, rural and, last, environmentally
<br />sensitive. The state plan was the end product of a
<br />long process the legislature mandated in the State
<br />Planning Act of 1985. It has gone through several
<br />updates, the last in 2001.
<br />According to Hawkins, the market is demon-
<br />strating an increased demand for urban redevelop-
<br />ment and traditional communities that include
<br />apartments, condos and "tear- downs," the purchase
<br />of older homes for rebuilding with greater
<br />floorspace.
<br />Public policy, however, despite the state plan,
<br />still favors detached single- family homes, the 20-
<br />page study said.
<br />Call for statewide housing policy
<br />The report calls for a statewide housing policy
<br />and has specific proposals for reaching a goal of one
<br />in five homes being in the "affordable" category. The
<br />group calls for directing infrastructure spending to
<br />favor redevelopment projects. A redevelopment tax
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<br />credit is also proposed.
<br />Nearly two- thirds of New Jersey communities,
<br />many in the central portion of the state, saw no
<br />multi - family housing during the 1990s. During the
<br />same period almost one -third of all housing units
<br />were large, "executive" homes, defined in the study
<br />as having more than nine rooms.
<br />The report states emphatically that New Jersey
<br />is facing a housing crisis. Most of the state's new
<br />jobs are in places without enough available housing
<br />for entry -level professionals or lower - income
<br />workers.
<br />Older suburbs that were booming just a genera-
<br />tion ago are becoming saddled with declining tax
<br />bases, the study states: "As our older cities remain
<br />impoverished, communities once considered havens
<br />from urban decline now face the same disinvestment:
<br />places like Morristown, Lawrence Township and
<br />Piscataway saw the real value of their taxable
<br />property decline between 1990 and 2003, by 19,
<br />13, and 5 percent, respectively (residential and
<br />commercial property values combined, and adjusted
<br />for inflation)."
<br />The group's call for property tax reform has
<br />hard realities behind it: Real values of taxable
<br />properties have dropped below 1990 levels in three
<br />of every 10 communities, while property taxes rose
<br />to as much as 45 to 47 percent of all state and local
<br />revenues. The national average is 30 to 32 percent.
<br />The group is also calling for transportation
<br />reform, urging a dedicated funding stream for the
<br />state's transportation trust fund, which has become
<br />an account used to service the debt on money
<br />borrowed for highway maintenance rather than a
<br />capital program. The Monmouth County Board of
<br />Freeholders has echoed the call for dedicated
<br />funding, urging in a resolution passed Oct. 11 that
<br />the legislature reauthorize the trust fund.
<br />Two years ago a Blue Ribbon Commission on
<br />Transportation declared that unless there is a major
<br />infusion of new, constitutionally dedicated revenue
<br />that is adjusted for inflation, the fund would become
<br />insolvent.
<br />For more information, see njfuture. org.
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