Drowning in Paperwork

Drowning It doesn’t make any difference if you agree with their decisions, there are always two things you can say about the members of the Atlantic Highlands Planning Board: they are probably the most polite group of people who have ever held a political office and they certainly do all their research.

Chairman John McGoldrick is a chairman who ensures that every opinion is heard and even apologizes for special meetings and the inconvenient of having to meet state regulations and mandates that certainly seem unreasonable if not downright stupid.

All this was evidenced at the last meeting of the board this week, a special meeting to discuss the Housing Plan approval they had to submit to the Mayor and Council by June 30. Given the activity on the planning board agenda these days, it was for courtesy sake that the special meeting was held, and the reason for the chairman’s profuse thanks to all who attended or participated.

In the end, in less than an hour, the planning board did what the state told them they had to do…and the Mayor and Council will do what the state is telling them to do at next week’s meeting…namely, submit a form under the Fair Housing Act that says the borough does not have to build the more than 40 fair housing units the state says they should be obligated to, but rather none.

A quick talking but very efficient planner went through all the steps,, explained all the percentages, differences in numbers, need to include the flood zone and steep slopes that make a difference in the amount of land available for building, and a lot more so the planners even knew what they were voting on.

Just as polite and resourceful, if not more so, than the planners, is local resident Mark Fisher who does his own homework and research before standing up at any meeting and asking questions to be sure he knows everything before voicing an opinion.

With all the Alphabet Soup that goes in in every state regulation, Fisher even wanted RDP to be explained! That is the borough’s Redistricting Development Potential, state words for the capacity of the borough to build the 48 units the state said could be used for affordable housing.

Then he asked logical questions like..with less land that the borough had in the past, what with so much construction over the past ten years, where is the room for those 48 the state says can be built? The planner, seemingly referring to the state, did talk about voodoo and numbers and why the plan has to be adopted.

Certainly seems like the state doesn’t mind this borough, and every community, spending extra funds for attorneys and specialists, and extra time spent for volunteers who give a lot of their time anyway, to get things on paper that will never be used.

The state is drowning in paperwork, legalese and an awful lot of nonsense.

And in the end, making these changes in the Master Plan doesn’t carry a bit of weight….these same planning board members can grant permission when builders come to them seeking a variance to legally break the law…. but there again, it costs the resident a heck of a lot of money to go that route.

Drowning Drowning Drowning

Drowning Drowning