Court rules in favor of Sparta and other Sussex County town centers

Sparta - In a decision hailed by environmentalists and municipal officials, the N.J. Appellate Court has ruled that laws ensuring that the environment is protected must remain undiluted in town center areas slated for development. “Although we lost on specifics, we won on the essential policy issues,” said Jeff Tittel, N. J. Sierra Club director, of the decision announced March 3. “We count the ruling as a victory.” Sparta Mayor Ailish C. Hambel said she welcomed the court’s ruling because the idea of a town center is to concentrate businesses in a particular area to keep out sprawl. “I’m happy with the court’s decision, and I wouldn’t want to see a town center happen at the sacrifice of the environment and the environmental protections,” said Hambel. In 1998, four Sussex County municipalities asked the state to amend the N.J. State Plan Policy Map to formally designate areas within the four municipalities as “centers.” At issue were the Layton Village Center and Hainesville Village Center in Sandyston, the Montague Town Center, the Sparta Town Center and the Vernon Town Center. In the state plan, the centers are defined as “ecologically designed compact forms of development and redevelopment that are necessary to assure efficient infrastructure and protection of natural resources.” The case centered on whether state development and redevelopment standards apply to village or town centers as flexible guidelines to be used at the discretion of the state planning commission, or whether they are legal mandates. Immediately after the state granted Sparta’s town center designation in 2003, the N.J. Sierra Club filed suit against the four Sussex County town center designations, as well as the designation of town center in the other three municipalities. The club charged that the planning commission was misapplying the state plan standards to town centers, and that conflicts of interest were present that invalidated the commission’s actions. In addition, the Sierra Club claimed that the commission violated the Open Public Meetings Act As originally proposed, the Sparta town center included all of the Lake Mohawk community. However, the township later decreased the amount of land and people to be included in the center designation to comprise 1.007 square miles of land off Main Street and Route 517, including the town green, encompassing 37 acres, of which 17 would be permanently preserved as open space. According to township officials, the Sparta town center was meant to “provide opportunities for planned growth and redevelopment in the existing historic commercial area and adjacent lands to meet the service, fiscal and housing needs of Sparta Township while preserving, enhancing and protecting the historic rural character and natural resources of the area.”