The New Jersey Highlands Council will be hosting an informational meeting on February 20, 2025, at 4:00 p.m. at their offices located at 100 North Road (Route 513), Chester, New Jersey. The meeting will provide valuable insights into the municipalities within the Highlands region, as well as those located outside of the county, for which the Highlands Council serves as a liaison and regional negotiating body with state officials in the development of the State Plan.

For additional information or inquiries about the meeting, please contact the Highlands Council at (908) 879-6737 or via email at highlands@highlands.nj.gov.

Negotiating Entities (NE) serve as a go between OPA and municipalities. Their role is to assist municipalities with the requirements for the State Plan and provide this information to OPA for their review.

• Draft State Plan Released: December 6, 2024 
• After the State Plan is released, OPA will have 21 hearings on the plan, one in each county – Winter 2024/2025 is the tentative schedule for hearings.

Notice of Warren County Cross-Acceptance Negotiation Sessions

Negotiating Entities: have until Winter 2024/2025 to accept their role as Negotiating Entity for their respective counties/regions.  If counties are unable to fulfill this role the OPA (Office of Planning Advocacy) will seek to assign another regional entity, or OPA could assume the responsibility themselves. Warren County will serve as a Negotiating Entity for Knowlton, Hardwick, Blairstown, Belvidere and Mansfield. 

The Highlands Council will serve as Negotiating Entity for Allamuchy, Alpha, Franklin, Frelinghuysen, Greenwich, Hackettstown, Harmony, Hope, Independence, Liberty, Lopatcong, Oxford, Phillipsburg, Pohatcong, Washington Borough, Washington Township, and White Township. 

In addition, OPA/Rowan has set up Mapping Tools: one called the State Plan Update Viewer (https://njmap2.com/sdrp/stateplan) to help municipalities review the existing State Plan zones and planning information to assist in developing their CARTs. They also developed a NJ Smart Growth Explorer – Beta tool. This is another interactive map where users may explore areas in NJ from statewide to block/lot to help understand existing data and information that may inform better decision making at the local level. This tool is not part of the State Plan policy map.

Once a municipality completes its CART, it submits it to the NE as per the timeline defined by the NE and OPA.  Timeframe TBD

Next Steps:

• There will be an information session about the Cross-Acceptance process during the Warren County Planning Board meeting on Monday, February 24th at 6:00 p.m. This will take place at 165 County Road 519, Belvidere, NJ 07823 in the upper-level commissioner's meeting room. 

• NE sets up a hearing on all of its CARTs and submits a summary to OPA once transmitted by the appropriate governing body (i.e. Board of County Commissioners, Highlands Council)

• OPA reviews CART summary documents

• Negotiating Phase begins between OPA and NEs

• OPA’s goal is to have the new State Plan adopted by the end of 2025

• Implementation to occur in 2026