DEPARTMENT OF REGIONAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Steering Committee for the Atlantic County Strategic Growth Planning Study

The third meeting of the Steering Committee for the Atlantic County Strategic Growth Planning Study was held on January 8th, 2002, at 9:30 am at the Tony Canale Training Center in Egg Harbor Township. John Peterson, Deputy Director of the Division of Planning, Atlantic County Department of Regional Planning & Economic Development chaired this meeting. Attendees are listed on the attached sign-in sheet.

Mr. Peterson and the attendees introduced themselves. Mr. Peterson gave the attendees various handouts, which included project status, employment and population projections for each municipality through 2010, and potential dwelling unit densities for each zone in each municipality.

Mr. Peterson discussed the status of the data tables and maps for the project. Once complete, the information will be forwarded to individual municipalities for verification. The capacity analysis is complete for the three Growth Townships (Egg Harbor, Galloway and Hamilton townships) and some of the other municipalities. The analysis will be completed for all municipalities to determine buildout densities for zoning districts. Past trends, two casinos and various casino expansions were factored into the employment and population projections. Capacity analysis and projections will be merged to forecast the areas anticipated to receive residential development and the time frame in which that development may occur. Population projections will be divided into age categories. The tools being used to generate the data tables and maps will be refined so that municipalities can use the information to determine the availability and/or constraints for master planning purposes.

To date, the Pinelands Commission has played a minimal role in this analysis, but has been working closely with the Growth Townships in density reduction. The County will attempt to get the Pinelands Commission more involved in this study.

The number of housing units in the Growth Townships mandated by the Pinelands Commission are buildout projections and are not time-based. This study will generate five- and ten-year (and possibly twenty-year) scenarios for the Growth Townships. A similar time-based scenario may also be done for the other municipalities as staff and resources allow. A fiscal impact analysis will be performed for the Growth Townships only. The County hopes to pursue more state funding to perform a fiscal impact analysis for the other municipalities to allow them to pursue municipal plan endorsement if they desire.

The enrollment figures from the County school board have not matched exactly with those from the individual district boards due to the source of the data (some are from the schools' October reports which are used for state funding, and others are not).

The County is requesting a seven-month extension to compete this project, taking it to the end of August.

This study and a watershed management study currently being conducted by the County are sharing data/efforts.

A traffic analysis will be performed using the South Jersey model and applying it to Atlantic County. Outputs from the South Jersey model will be used to identify necessary traffic improvements. One committee member commented that Egg Harbor Township, the County and the State have spent lots of money on road repair, but little on widening and stormwater improvements. The County receives $4,000,000 - $5,000,000 of state and federal funding each year, and it costs $350,000 - $400,000 per mile for repaving. Another comment was made that repaving will last for twenty years, but roads will fail for other reasons. The County is considering widening Delilah Road and English Creek Avenue. The federal government has indicated that no more funding will be available for additional lane-miles.

The next step for this study is public outreach. The capacity and fiscal analyses will be completed and summarized for presentation at a public meeting to be held in February or March. The public will be shown what has been done to date and what to expect with regard to population and employment growth. Input will be solicited from the public regarding this future development, where to locate the future population and employment, and how to best balance growth and preservation.

The final product of this study will include recommendations regarding funding for municipal open space and parks and will facilitate the requests of the municipalities.

It was recommended that the public meetings could be effectively managed by having separate meetings for different geographical areas of the County and at different times during the day.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:25 a.m.