SJ`s Reactions To Land Use Issues

CAMDEN -- Residents of southern New Jersey share many common responses to land use issues confronting their diverse communities, according to a survey recently conducted by the Senator Walter Rand Institute of Public Affairs at Rutgers University-Camden.

On several key issues South Jerseyans expressed significantly different views than their counterparts in the northern part of the state.

Highway improvement, affordable housing, and preservation of open space and farmland emerge as areas where residents from across Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties find general agreement on the need for progress. Pro-growth vs. restricted commercial development splits consensus among geographic regions in southern New Jersey, as does the concept that increased development will lower local property taxes.

The South Jersey Survey polled 900 adult residents of the state’s seven southern counties during the summer. Lead investigators Dr. Ted Goertzel, a Rand Institute faculty fellow and a Rutgers-Camden professor of sociology, and Dr. Richard Harris, faculty director of the Rand Institute, polled 300 residents from each of three distinct regions: the Atlantic counties (Atlantic and Cape May); the Down Jersey counties (Cumberland and Salem); and the Suburban Philadelphia counties (Burlington, Camden and Gloucester).

Across every county, residents responded strongly that lowering crime rates and auto insurance rates were the top priorities that they wished to see addressed. Reducing property taxes received strong support, most notably in Cumberland and Salem counties; these counties displayed the weakest enthusiasm for preserving open space as a strategic priority for state and local governments.

“The survey shows remarkable consistency across three sub-regions on the importance of land use issues, which suggests a real demand for political leaders to address suburban sprawl and its related problems,” notes Harris. The study, funded by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, is part of the Rand Institute’s continuing research into prospects for smart growth policies in South Jersey.

The survey shows that “a strong majority” of the Atlantic and Suburban Philadelphia regional residents favor restrictions on commercial growth, while a significant majority of Cumberland and Salem citizens would allow it. That same division exists on the subject of whether increased residential and commercial development will ease property taxes, with the more-developed Atlantic and Suburban Philadelphia regions expressing greater skepticism than their counterparts in the Down Jersey area.

The survey also yields some surprising results. All three sub-regions strongly favor delegating zoning and planning authority to the county level, away from the existing municipal levels, which offers an apparent rethinking of the state’s tradition of home rule. Significant majorities in all counties also favor building affordable housing in their own communities, which runs counter to municipal challenges to affordable housing obligations.

Across southern New Jersey, citizens are split almost evenly on the type of community in which they wish to live. Slightly more than half of the respondents favor living in a town with the population concentrated in a center and surrounded by open space, as opposed to suburban developments with minimal lot sizes of one-third acres. Most of the citizens surveyed suggested that they do not favor building compact apartments and townhomes close to schools and shopping areas.

“Such findings suggest that compact smart growth could happen in southern New Jersey, but it won’t replace suburban development,” says Goertzel. “It would require careful planning and marketing to appeal to that population that is interested.”

According to Goertzel and Harris, the data also shows that South Jerseyans feel the state’s plan to preserve open space has been successful, with majorities noting that the plan has been either “very” or “somewhat” effective.

The Rand Institute compared the results of the 2001 study against those from a similar survey conducted by Goertzel for the Rutgers-Camden Forum for Policy Research in 1981. During the intervening two decades, southern New Jersey residents would now opt to spend less to redevelop depressed urban areas; much less on public transportation; and more on highway improvement.

Finally, the 2001 survey finds southern New Jersey residents united in their proud self-identity as South Jerseyans. Powerful majorities in each region report that they would be very likely to answer “South Jersey” when asked for their home origin by someone from another part of the nation. By a smaller majority, residents believe that South Jersey has its own identity; citizens of Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties expressed the weakest confidence in that statement.

According to Harris, the survey developed from the proceedings of a Conference on Land Use and Sprawl conference held in May 2000. Organized by Rutgers-Camden and the Courier-Post with the support of State Senators John Adler (D-6th District) and John Matheussen (R-4th District), the event solicited public comment on development issues confronting the region. Harris notes that the survey is but one phase of the Rand Institute’s ongoing public research in this area.

The Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers-Camden conducts in-depth research on policy issues of significance to residents of southern New Jersey, and provides technical assistance local and state legislative, business and community leaders.

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Author: Rutgers University