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Atlantic County Government DEPARTMENT OF REGIONAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT |
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Joseph M. Maher, Department Head There are four major units within the Department of Regional Planning and Development. They are:
Each of these units serves a unique purpose with the overall goal of ensuring that Atlantic County continues to grow in an orderly and planned way while maintaining the County's unique quality of life. The Office of Policy, Planning and Development (OPPD) serves to coordinate the various functions of the Department and in large part develops the overall agenda in terms of short- and long-range planning for infrastructure, open space and land development within the County. Infrastructure planning ensures that the County's physical infrastructure
such as our roads, intersections, and bridges are maintained and enhanced
as the population of Atlantic County continues to grow. While the OPPD
works closely with the Division
of Engineering in the design, construction, and inspection
of these capital improvements, it also works in conjunction with the South
Jersey Transportation Planning Organization (SJTPO) - the Metropolitan
Planning Organization (MPO) for the South Jersey region. This agency is
responsible for The Office of Land Acquisition implements the recommendations of the Atlantic County Open Space and Recreation Plan, October 2000. The Office ensures that sufficient Open Space is set aside for Atlantic County residents to enjoy. Through the establishment of the County/Municipal Open Space Partnership Program, County Government has enabled the County's 23 municipalities to choose the Open Space projects of their choice and to fund those projects utilizing a portion of the Open Space Trust funds. The County also pursues lands for acquisition through the traditional means of identifying and purchasing lands utilizing funds from the County's Open Space Trust. CLICK HERE to Print an application for the Open Space Preservation Trust Fund! (This document is in Adobe Acrobat PDF format and requires the Acrobat Reader. For a FREE copy of the Acrobat Reader CLICK HERE). The OPPD also manages projects such as the Strategic Growth Initiative, the Great Egg Harbor Watershed planning effort, and responsibilities include the update of the Atlantic County Master Plan and Atlantic County Open Space and Recreation Plan, October 2000, and the Atlantic County Land Development Standards adopted in June, 2002. These initiatives are implemented with the goal of predicting and identifying future growth issues in order to plan and implement actions commensurate with those issues. Many of these initiatives are referred to as Growth Management. The OPPD administers the review and approval of subdivisions and site plans proposed within Atlantic County. The Atlantic County Land Development Standards adopted in June 2002 provide procedures and standards for review of land development by Atlantic County. The Office of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) focusses on the creation of data layers and applications which are used by all of the staff within the Department to further their respective functions. The Office of GIS has played a key role in the data base development of the Strategic Growth Initiative, Watershed Management planning effort, and in the acquisition of open space for recreation and conservation. Recently, the Atlantic County Office of GIS working with the State Office of GIS was selected as one of four counties to participate in a pilot program establishing a countywide ArcIms web site. ArcIms is an interactive web mapping service that allows users to access County land use information without the need for specialized software. Members of the public and private sector can access this data for free by visiting http://njgin.aclink.org. |
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