Testimony Millville Planning Bd. Objecting to Redevelopment of Millville Airport Industrial Pk.

Subject Hearing April 14, 2003, 7:30 p.m.
Redevelopment Recommendation for the Millville Airport Industrial Park

My name is Jane Morton Galetto, President of Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River and Its Tributaries, Inc. (hereafter referred to as Citizens United), founded in 1979 and incorporated in 1986 as a non profit all-volunteer watershed organization. (I am a resident of Millville, and by means of disclosure my family owns property in both of Millville’s industrial parks).

My presentation is on behalf of Citizens United and our approximately 450 memberships. As an environmental group, we are committed to our mission of preservation and protection of both the natural and cultural resources within the Maurice River watershed. CU was instrumental in securing the Wild and Scenic River designation by the National Park Service for four Southern New Jersey rivers: the Maurice, Menantico, Manumuskin and Muskee. Our conservation achievements are numerous and we have played a major role in the promotion of environmental issues that are in the public’s best interests. Citizens United has always supported the preservation of open space within the Maurice River Watershed.

We wish once again to dispel any misconceptions that the public may have about open space and its effect on the local tax base - a misconception that the report you evaluate this evening clearly perpetuates.

This past year the City of Millville passed a resolution that implied that open space has had a negative effect on our economy. This is not true. Blaming economic challenges on open space preservation is using our natural areas as a scapegoat. This is not only unacceptable but also avoids addressing the real economic realities. Accepting quick fix development proposals on precious large land tracts is misguided. The report you are considering accepts a premise that success is based on taxes derived from property. And it seeks large tracts of land to develop with public funds. In fact the Master Plan recognizes the importance of large preserved contiguous land parcels. Additionally it embraces the fact that “the attractive rural character is an important part of the community fabric of Millville,” and that “it is part of the overall character of the community.”

We commend the City of Millville for their efforts to revitalize the downtown and encourage them to stay the course. We are taking this opportunity to clarify and reaffirm our position on the value of open space specifically in regard to Millville Planning Board’s decision regarding a determination of an “Area in need of Redevelopment” which proposes to expand the Airport Industrial Park. The City presently characterizes the Airport industrial park as being 150 acres (website description in Economic Planning Section). The consultant has studied 4,200 acres and found that conditions indicate that this area is in need of redevelopment. Four thousand two hundred acres- that’s mind-boggling.

The specifics which make the downtown area appropriate for redevelopment are the same specifics which would make the area outside of the existing industrial envelop unsuitable for the designation. Redevelopment areas by definition are blighted areas in need of redevelopment or improvements.

It is apparent that the report you have been provided to review for making this determination totally disregards the Millville Master Plan for which you are the guardians. The consultant’s rationale is entirely tax driven. The report evaluates what dollars are or are not gotten by present property improvements. But it does nothing to evaluate what the Master Plan expects or defines as goals based on current zoning.

A good deal of the property is either farmland and or zoned as land conservation.

Let’s look at the Land Conservation Area as defined in the Master Plan - land which is most impacted by environmental concerns. These are areas that should be held to low densities, impervious coverage should be held to the minimum, and extensive public services should be avoided. Density increases associated with planned development should not be permitted in these areas. Quote: “Public acquisition, or uses which result in large contiguous open space areas are to be encouraged.” The City Commission’s green acres moratorium has in effect done away with this protection tool - a tool mandated by the citizens of NJ when they voted for the establishment of the Garden State Preservation Trust, and Green Acres program.

Many citizens will elect to sign a petition objecting to this moratorium. They will encourage the state to continue to pursue a smart growth anti sprawl initiative and continue to purchase critical habitat compatible with the public’s mandate.

Now let’s look at the Agricultural Conservation element from the Master Plan. Quote: “The attractive rural character is an important part of the community fabric of Millville. It has often been said that a “place” is defined by its surrounding “no place.” In this context, the greenbelt that envelops the City to the west is part of the overall character of the community. The proposed merging of urban sprawl, without character and defined open spaces, has been a traditional failure of zoning.

The Atlantic Group has placed a near zero tax benefit on vacant lands but neglects to mention that we as citizens place a high value on these properties. It neglects to mention that our Master Plan places these properties in high regard as defining our very character. It also neglects to mention that while these lands are vacant they require no public services, send no children to school, put no cars on the highway and do not contribute to congestion and overcrowding of our City’s facilities. Other towns have recognized what a false promise development offers in terms of ratables and economics and are trying to increase their open space, not pave it over.

If you are going to redefine our City’s character it shouldn’t be with a 20 page report prepared by a contractor at $160 an hour with 15 redevelopment objectives which have been defined by the development community and not the citizens. This review belongs in the master plan process. The environmental community and general public have not yet been invited to play a role in the development of the newest master plan. Millville has a long tradition of citizens reviewing and participating in the master plan creation, not being called in only for a final hour approval. We expect that you as guardians of that process will make sure that tradition is continued.

Creating a redevelopment plan with the objectives that are out of line with the vast majority of zoning for the lands adjacent to the airport is doing an end run around your own Master Plan and the master plan process.

At this juncture you have an opportunity to work with the State on a smart growth initiative. You have a chance to evaluate plans for the Airport Industrial Park in that same context. And you have a report that has wanton disregard for our master plan. Which of these opportunities offers the best outcome? Which of those opportunities represents the citizen’s values? At this point we all have the opportunity to work together toward a constructive conclusion. Or we can enter a lengthy and expensive process. It is really up to you and the City Commission.

We have long been the advocates of preserving waterways and open space in Millville, NJ. And part and parcel of this advocacy is the protection of habitat, greenways, wetland buffers and species. Any development plans at the Airport Industrial Park regardless of how they are derived will need to consider threatened and endangered species. Most of the area is level 3,4, & 5 habitat values: in other words critical habitat for rare species. The only possible way you will be able to develop any lands in an expeditious fashion is by working with the NJ Fish and Wildlife Endangered and Nongame Species program’s biologist to create Habitat Conservation Plans. Otherwise you will encounter a lengthy process before conflicts are resolved. There is also the State Plan that denotes most of the properties under consideration as Environmentally Sensitive Planning Area. All of the triangle is in the North American Wetlands Conservation Act’s -Maurice River Project Area. These are not habitat values and programs that can be disregarded or taken lightly. Our own master plan does not take these values lightly. And this land can not be characterized in terms of the lack of taxed improvements. For these lands define the rural character that most of our residents value, cherish.

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