It isn't difficult at all to find prospects for land use conflict resolution in New Jersey. Consider the former East Hanover Airport, the last open tract left in that township, where according to The Star Ledger (July 7, 1997,) "developers have been circling for years but have yet to bring a project in for landing."

The East Hanover Airport tract was designated for affordable housing in a 1989 court settlement. The Township has rejected several housing proposals, the most recent for 80 units. Now the township committee proposes, by ordinance, to rezone the roughly 60 acres from multi-family to single family use. The proposed rezoning would effectively abort the proposed project. The township and the developer expect to see each other in court. They are not likely to be alone.

A number of other parties have views on the airport's development. Whether they would have standing in court proceedings remains to be seen. "The Last Ditch Stand," a group that has been fighting for years to preserve the site, welcomes the change to lower-density housing, primarily because it makes the airport site less attractive to developers. (Some would say it renders any prospective development so uneconomical as to foreclose any from taking place.) Some environmentalists want to buy the land in order to keep it as an undeveloped preserve and so they, too, see rezoning as a step in the right direction. The Passaic River Coalition is also ready to step in. Given Green Acres funds and other resources, the Coalition proposes to purchase the site from the bank that took over the property after the last failed attempt by a developer.

Given the clash of competing, yet legitimate interests, the uncertainty of an outcome from an adversarial process, and the limited prospects for closure absent agreement among all parties, a new paradigm for decision-making should have enormous appeal. Without a "conflict resolution" effort, the final chapter for the airport land will be a long time coming and probably not satisfying for the interests involved.