Activity Report
August 2002
We continue to aid Friends of Holland Highlands in opposing a 15 lot
"McMansion" development on the top of Musconetcong Mountain in Holland
Township, in the Highlands. The 90 acre property includes a C1 stream,
steep slopes with a nice mosaic of habitats including limited wetlands,
and historical stone structures of archeological significance. Groundwater
yield, septic suitability, and stormwater management to support the
development are all questionable. The county is prepared to acquire the
property with NPO support, but the developer is currently not interested.
We have provided repeated testimony at the public hearings and strategic
support to FHH.
We initiated the idea with Jeff T, and did a lot of the work, of the recent
NJSC letter to DEP Commissioner Campbell regarding the widespread and
apparently illegal practice of DEP issuing Stream Encroachment permits for
residential stormwater detention basins discharging to C1 waters, in direct
violation of two NJ water quality standards. We cited in particular the
DEP verbal approval of the stream encroachment permit for the Holland Township
proposed development described above. Meeting to be held on this issue
with DEP in Sept. The actual permit application has not yet been submitted
by DEP in Sept. The actual permit application has not yet been submitted
by the developer.
The news of this SC letter to DEP got SC the front page headline in the
Delaware Valley News, August 8 issue "Sierra Club Warns Holland" - not
accurate, but the two articles covering the issues were very good. We also
continue to keep up Letters to the Editor (Hunterdon Democrat) pressure,
presence at township meetings, and talking it up with residents, regarding
the pro-sprawl decision of the Raritan Township Planning Board to recommend
re-zoning of the historic Flemington Fairgrounds site on Rte. 31 for
commercial development, accompanied by our county tax dollars being used at
exhorbitant cost to replace the site at a now quiet location in Ringoes.
We continue to provide support to Citizens for Parkland in their lawsuit
challenging the Raritan Township master plan adoption which supported this
re-zoning. We recently supplied all of the original documentation CFP
needed for discovery, and continue to work with their attorneys.
| | |
