NJ Sup. Ct. Supports Condemnation For Slowing Growth

In Mount Laurel Township v. MiPro Homes, L.L.C., 188 N.J. 531, 10 A.2d 617 (2006), the Supreme Court of New Jersey upheld a governing municipal body's desire to slow residential development by ruling that such is a permissible motive for condemning a developer's land. (Mount Laurel made headlines three decades ago for two landmark affordable housing decisions involving land-use planning, Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Township of Mount Laurel, 67 N.J. 151, 336 A.2d 713 (1975), and its companion case at 92 N.J. 158, 456 A.2d 390 (1983).)

In Virginia right now, we can't even condemn on the solid, scientific basis of lack of supporting natural resources, let alone on something as nebulous as a "master plan" or "public will." But wouldn't it be nice?

In light of the buzz re: growth issues which effect Albemarle and many other state jurisdictions [{cough} Loudoun {cough}]), I'm hoping this take-notice will motivate local anti-growth activists to take a look at New Jersey's growing body of case law, find from that the particular NJ Code §§ which allow for such scope of municipal power, extrapolate the changes needed to mirror those rights and powers, and petition the Virginia state legislature to make the suitable changes.

Obviously, this would be a campaign that would take more than ASAP, but could possibly be accomplished were ASAP to team up with other regional and statewide groups with similar ends.

HB3113: Reprised or Reprieved?

According to my LIS tracker, HB3113--the House of Delegates version of the environmental board consolidation bill--made it through the Senate subcommittee and pass with no "nays" on the floor vote yesterday.

The House bill is the one which had the review ("re-enactment") clause which gave a year's time before the citizen review board merger and resultant changes in DEQ procedure would take effect. The Senate version of the bill, SB1403, didn't roll out of the House subcommittee, so I am hoping that these facts indicate that it is the House version which will be going to Tim Kaine for official signage.

Caveat: I haven't read the full text of what the Senate passed yesterday, so I can't say for certain the "re-enactment" clause wasn't stripped out. I'm just really, really hopeful that I'm right.

Hamstringing the Locals

Once again, the State Legislature, in its infinite wisdom, is setting about hamstringing local government. Goddess forbid that the people be allowed to decide anything for themselves, except who to elect as their masters.

Sponsored by John Cosgrove (R-78 (Chesapeake)), the bill

[r]equires each locality to lower its real estate tax rate for the forthcoming tax year, to produce no more than 101 percent of the previous year's real property tax levies when any annual assessment, biennial assessment or general reassessment of real property by the locality would result in an increase of 1 percent or more in the total real property tax levied.

Great. First, the State won't fund any of the mandates it hands down. Then, it refuses to let the Municipalities figure out how to fund those mandates in lieu. Wait.... I think I've made that very same bitch before on this blog. Seems to be a recurring theme.

Is it too much to ask that the friggin' taxophobic eejits in the House keep their psychosis in Richmond and out of municipal government? I'm not saying I favor taxes. I'm saying let us decide whether they are needed and what kind would serve us best. That's all I'm saying. This may be another one for the Randy Pat School of Politics.

Three Meetings and a Funeral

Sunday, Earth Week had its third meeting of the year, and as excited as I am about our line-up of activities, I surely wish ya'll would plan some activities for mid-week. We don't so much have an Earth Week as we have 2 overbooked Earth Weekends with time off for napping in between.

Monday, sometime after everyone said his piece on traffic issues, City Council approved the special use permit so that Compass, the homeless day center, can move into its new home. Congratulations, Compass!

Tuesday, the Rivanna Conservation Society had its board meeting, during which I drank a pot of coffee while we discussed improvements to Schier Natural Area, finding sponsors for the 2007 Rivanna River Days Calendar Brochure (click if you would like to list a river event or become a partner), the best procedure for sharing information from our own proprietorial research with the new Chville Commission on Environmental Sustainability (being both Advocacy chair for RCS and a Commission member, I shook hands with my inner schizophrenic for 20 minutes of discourse), and our Third Thursdays Brown Bag Lunch series on watershed issues (and about 2 dozen other topics).

Then I came home and looked up the results of today's roll call vote in both chambers on HB3113 and SB1403. Both passed. I'm appalled at the short-sightedness of the decision to merge all 3 citizen review boards into 1 entity. It is impossible to find 11 people to sit on the new "Environmental Quality Board" who are expert in all three media: Waste Management, Water Control, and Air Pollution. The new board will not be able to provide the same level of specialized knowledge, attention to detail, and competency that the individual boards had. Furthermore, by taking the permitting authority out of the board and handing it to DEQ, the General Assembly has completely cut the public out of the process. Is anyone else out there feeling that closed government love yet? Doesn't seem like anyone outside the enviro community cares, even though this bill--soon to be law--will effect municipal-level voices in land use, industry, and economic development as well as natural resources.

So, I'm hoping that enough people out there read this and call their state representatives to demand that the House bill's "re-enactment clause" stay in the final, reconciled version of the bill. If the Senate's version ends up on Gov. Kaine's desk, I'll be planning a funeral (or at least a memorium) for the last bastion of public voice in the regulatory process. Let me know if you'd like to come. Rum and tequila will be required; black armbands will be optional.