The Highlands Plan's A'Coming

The debate over the future of the Highlands looks like it will have a major milestone (or millstone) this summer. The Highlands Council has announced that they'll finally vote on the Preservation Plan in July. That will give both sides plenty of time to knock away at the plan and mobilize forces, maybe even hold rallies. During the public comment period, Bill Wolfe described it as a Potemkin Plan. I expect this to be an exciting (albeit uncomfortable) time for the Highlands. The Star-Ledger reports that people are even divided on why it has taken so long to hold a vote on this:

Jeff Tittel, executive director of the Sierra Club, said the delays were largely the council's fault. He says the group erred in not hiring an outside consultant at the start. He noted the council was on its third executive director, and had experienced considerable turnover in personnel.

"It's been a soap opera," he said. "That's what the delay's all about."

Naturally the Councill sees it otherwise.

But Swan noted that the average municipality takes two years to write a master plan, and the Highlands Council is dealing with 88 municipalities. Collecting all the necessary data took a great deal of time, and added the council opted to go through two rounds of public comment because they were committed to a "very public process."

"A lot of people have always said it's most important to get it right," she said.