N.J. Admin. Code § 7:7-13.15

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 23, December 2, 2024

Section 7:7-13.15 - Coastal Planning Areas in the CAFRA area

(a) For purposes of this subchapter and consistent with all other rules in this chapter, descriptions and policy objectives for the Coastal Planning Areas in the CAFRA area are set forth in (b) through (f) below.

(b) The Coastal Metropolitan Planning Area includes a variety of communities on the New Jersey coast. This Coastal Planning Area generally has a high population density and existing public water and sewer systems. The policy objectives for the Coastal Metropolitan Planning Area are as follows:

1. Guide development and redevelopment to ensure efficient use of scarce land while capitalizing on the inherent public facility and service efficiencies of concentrated development patterns;

2. Accommodate a variety of housing choices through development and redevelopment;

3. Promote economic development by encouraging redevelopment efforts such as infill, consolidation of property, and infrastructure improvements, and by supporting tourism and related activities;

4. Promote high-density development patterns in coastal urbanized areas to encourage the design and use of public transit and alternative modes of transportation to improve air quality, to improve travel among population and employment centers and transportation terminals, and to promote transportation systems that address the special seasonal demands of travel and tourism along the coast;

5. Encourage the reclamation of environmentally damaged sites and mitigate future negative impacts, particularly to waterfronts, beaches, scenic vistas, and habitats;

6. Promote public recreation opportunities in development and redevelopment projects, and ensure meaningful public access to coastal waterfront areas; and

7. Encourage the repair or replacement of existing infrastructure systems where necessary to ensure that existing and future development will cause minimal negative environmental impacts.

(c) The Coastal Suburban Planning Area is generally located adjacent to the more densely developed Coastal Metropolitan Planning Area, but can be distinguished by a lack of high intensity centers and by a more dispersed and fragmented pattern of development. The existing inventory of undeveloped and underdeveloped land in this Coastal Planning Area should be sufficient to accommodate much of the market demand for future growth and development in the CAFRA area. Internally oriented, mixed-use centers should be encouraged in the Coastal Suburban Planning Area. While development patterns are well established here, development intensities should be highest within CAFRA centers to concentrate development and take advantage of infrastructure efficiencies. Development in the Coastal Suburban Planning Area outside of centers should be less intense than in centers, and less intense than in the Coastal Metropolitan Planning Area. Development in areas not in centers and not in or adjacent to an existing sewer service area should be less intense than in other parts of the Coastal Suburban Planning Area. The policy objectives for the Coastal Suburban Planning Area are as follows:

1. Encourage mixed-use development and redevelopment in compact centers;

2. Guide opportunities for economic development and employment in centers, and promote seasonal and year-round travel and tourism activities in the coastal resort areas;

3. Encourage links from coastal suburban areas to employment centers with public transit, and promote transportation systems that address the special seasonal demands of travel and tourism along the coast; and

4. Ensure adequate wastewater treatment capacity, and minimize off-site stormwater runoff by encouraging the use of best management practices which protect the character of natural drainage systems.

(d) The Coastal Fringe Planning Area is generally located adjacent to the Coastal Metropolitan Planning Area or the Coastal Suburban Planning Area. It is a predominantly rural area that is neither prime agricultural nor environmentally sensitive land, but which supports agriculture and other resource-based activities. The Coastal Fringe Planning Area is served primarily by a rural, two-lane road network and on-site well water and wastewater systems. It generally lacks public wastewater systems except in existing centers. This Coastal Planning Area is characterized by scattered small settlements and free-standing residential and commercial developments. The policy objectives for the Coastal Fringe Planning Area are as follows:

1. Encourage development in more compact, deliberately designed community patterns to minimize land conflicts and to accommodate growth that would otherwise occur elsewhere, encourage development that does not exceed the carrying capacity of natural or built systems and that maintains or enhances the character of existing communities, and maintain existing low-density and low-intensity development patterns that do not exceed the carrying capacity of natural systems and are consistent with the existing landscape;

2. Encourage rural economic activities, such as agriculture and recreation, and guide higher intensity activities to the centers;

3. Encourage transportation systems that link centers in the Coastal Fringe Planning Area to each other and to the Coastal Metropolitan and Coastal Suburban Planning Areas; and

4. Encourage infrastructure that supports development in centers.

(e) The Coastal Rural Planning Area generally contains most of the CAFRA area's remaining prime agricultural land, as well as large contiguous tracts of forested areas and other open lands. It is interspersed with centers and with scattered commercial, industrial, and low density residential development. It is served by rural road networks and on-site wastewater and water supply systems. The Coastal Rural Planning Area also supports rural economic activities such as recreation related business. The policy objectives for the Coastal Rural Planning Area are as follows:

1. Protect and enhance the rural character and agricultural viability of the Coastal Rural Planning Area by guiding growth into centers, maintain existing low-density and low-intensity development patterns that are supporting rather than conflicting with the rural landscape, encourage creative land use techniques to minimize the impact of new development on rural features, and ensure that development does not exceed the capacity of natural and built systems;

2. Encourage a transportation network that accommodates agriculture and access to markets;

3. Encourage economic activities in centers that complement and support rural and agricultural communities and that provide diversity in the rural economy, accommodate economic activities outside of centers in ways that maintain or enhance the rural environment, have minimal impact on agricultural resources, and minimize the need for infrastructure improvements; and

4. Protect and preserve large contiguous areas of farmland and open space, and protect the critical resources and environmentally sensitive features of the coastal ecosystem, including water resources and wildlife habitat, by maintaining development outside of centers at low densities, and minimize conflicts between development, agricultural practices, resource based activities, and sensitive coastal resources.

(f) The Coastal Environmentally Sensitive Planning Area generally has large contiguous land and water areas with critical coastal ecosystems, wildlife habitats, geological features, and other valuable coastal resources. Some of these lands have remained rural and relatively undeveloped, while others have been dominated by development for many years, such as the coastal barrier islands and spits. The barrier islands represent a major public investment in infrastructure systems that should be maintained while protecting the economic and ecological value of adjacent coastal resources. Centers on the barrier islands are almost all served by public wastewater facilities whereas centers in other environmentally sensitive areas are not often. Centers are usually linked by rural roads and separated by open spaces, or linked to the mainland by State highways crossing coastal wetlands and waterways. Areas outside of centers in the Coastal Environmentally Sensitive Planning Area are by definition more vulnerable to disturbance from new development. Damage may include fragmentation of landscapes, degradation of aquifers and potable water supplies, habitat destruction, extinction of plant and animal species, and destruction of other irreplaceable resources that are vital to the preservation of the ecological integrity of the coastal area. The Coastal Environmentally Sensitive Planning Area also supports recreation and tourism industries, and resource based industries such as mining and forestry. The policy objectives for the Coastal Environmentally Sensitive Planning Area are as follows:

1. Protect environmentally sensitive features by guiding development into centers and maintaining low intensity development patterns elsewhere, carefully link the location, character and magnitude of development to the capacity of natural and built environments to support new growth, accommodate development at higher intensities in the Coastal Environmentally Sensitive Planning Area barrier island centers, compatible with development patterns in existing centers, and discourage the development of public infrastructure facilities outside of centers;

2. Encourage transportation systems that link centers and support the travel and tourism industry, recreational and natural resource-based activities, and address the special seasonal demands of travel and tourism to barrier islands;

3. Locate economic development opportunities in centers that serve the surrounding region and the travel and tourism industry and accommodate in other areas appropriate seasonal, recreational, and natural resource based-activities that have a minimal impact on environmental resources; and

4. Protect sensitive natural resources critical to the maintenance of coastal ecosystems by maintaining large contiguous areas of undisturbed habitat, open space and undeveloped land, maintain the balance of ecological systems and growth, and protect the areas outside of centers from the effects of development by maintaining it as open space.

(g) Rationale: The designation of planning areas allows the Department to preserve the most ecologically sensitive parts of the CAFRA area by encouraging development in compact growth areas and limiting it in outlying and environmentally sensitive areas. These broad planning area criteria are applied to the CAFRA permit decision-making process. Development is encouraged or concentrated in areas where development already exists and where infrastructure is already in place to reduce sprawl and preserve remaining open space.

N.J. Admin. Code § 7:7-13.15

Renumbered from 7:7E-5B.2 by 47 N.J.R. 1392(a), effective 7/6/2015

Amended by 50 N.J.R. 361(a), effective 1/16/2018