500 Square Miles Lost to New Jersey Sprawl Over 20 Years

New development in New Jersey’s Warren County. Image: John Hasse via Planners Web.

The last decade has often been heralded as a “back to the cities”
moment, a time when Americans have been excited to return to the
walkable lifestyle many abandoned two generations before. A new report
from New Jersey’s Rutgers and Rowan Universities throws a little cold
water on that optimism, though, pointing out that even the most densely
populated state in the Union sprawls further out into the countryside
every year.

Member blog Garden State Smart Growth picks out some of the report’s lowlights:

Between 2002 and 2007, New Jersey’s rate of land development
significantly outstripped population growth:  population increased by
only 1.1 percent, but the amount of developed land increased by 5.3
percent, nearly five times faster…

Since 1986, when these land-use data were first produced, the state’s
development footprint has expanded by more than 25 percent, consuming
an additional 323,809 acres, or about 500 square miles — an area larger
than Cumberland, Monmouth or Morris counties

That’s the price you pay for transportation and land use policies
that make the car king: the loss of your open space, forests, and
farmland. Garden State Smart Growth also points the finger at New
Jersey’s fragmented, hyper-local planning process as a contributor to
the state’s sprawl:

The low-density quality of recent development is a direct product of
local zoning regulations that often serve to obstruct the market forces
that are otherwise pushing toward more compact development — developers
are often the most vocal proponents of higher density. Unfortunately,
the thousands of local decisions by planning and zoning boards across
the state do not necessarily add up to a statewide optimum; in fact, in
the aggregate they can have a detrimental effect, as this report
illustrates. A big-picture perspective is needed.

They recommend beefing up the State Plan, which is currently a
voluntary document that only sometimes receives attention from
government agencies.

The New Jersey report also helps refute two tried and tired attacks
on smart growth. It shows how important building livable communities is
for rural areas; in many parts of the country, if growth doesn’t shift
to already-developed areas, there won’t be any rural communities left.
The report also reminds libertarians that smart growth isn’t a new
government imposition into who can build where. That regulation already
occurs, to disastrous effect. 

Elsewhere around the network: The Wash Cycle reports that Prince George’s County is starting to catch up on bike infrastructure. Cycling Fun Montreal
says that you’re 25 times more likely to be involved in a crash if you
bike on the sidewalk (you’re just more likely to be the one doing the
damage). And Urban Review STL shows how curb cuts are necessary for transit accessibility.