Legislators move to roll back rule, issue rare rebuke to executive branch that originally passed regulation
Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:
Ignoring a plea from state environmental officials, lawmakers yesterday moved to rescind a new rule that would open up forested parts of the Highlands to more development.
The unanimous vote by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee makes it more likely the Legislature will act to revoke the regulation by the end of the lame-duck legislative session in January in what would be rare rebuke to the executive branch.
The dispute is the latest in what has been an ongoing battle between environmentalists and the Christie administration over the Highlands, a more than 800,000-acre region in central and northern New Jersey of forested hills, lakes and ample farmland.
The regulation, adopted by the state Department of Environmental Protection this past summer, allows for development in ecologically sensitive parts of the Highlands by increasing the density of septic tanks in those areas.
Much of the state’s environmental community and Democratic lawmakers view the new rule as inconsistent with the 2004 law creating the Highlands Act, a measure designed to preserve an area of wide biological diversity and a source of drinking water to millions of residents.
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