The Costs and Benefits of Alternative Growth Patterns:The Impact Assesment of the New Jersey State Plan

Details:
The Impact Assessment of the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan is the underlying document that sets the framework for State Plan finalization and adoption. According to the State Planning Act, the impact assessment must cover five basic areas of investigation, each of which has several subareas. The impact assessment must also provide projections for future time periods and for different geographic regions of the state. The impact assessment must inform the state’s policymakers and citizens about the differences between historic conditions (TREND) and State Plan goals and policies (PLAN) in determining the future of New Jersey. Who is responsible for assessing these differences? The Center for Urban Policy Research (CUPR), a unit of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, was selected to undertake the overall evaluation. CUPR’s models have projected the differences between historic conditions and State Plan goals and policies. A team of expert reviewers knowledgeable about both the state and the State Plan process has commented on the observed direction and magnitude of these differences. The State Planning Commission will now open the discussion to the public. The commission will base decisions about the State Plan on the results of the impact assessment and on comments received from the public. The impact assessment measures two alternative futures for New Jersey: one in which growth is managed according to strategies in the State Plan, and one in which growth occurs without a plan. This report presents the assessment of both alternatives and suggests which of the two scenarios would be most beneficial to New Jersey.