State Plan

https://www.publicinput.com/njstateplan

https://www.nj.gov/state/planning/

Cross  Acceptance Guidance Document

As part of the State Plan’s Cross-acceptance process regional entities (counties, Highlands, or the State) serve in the role as the Negotiating Entity (NE) between the municipalities and State of New Jersey.

Negotiating Entities (NE) serve as a go between, 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.

This is a process of comparing statewide planning policies at government levels with the purpose of a high level of consistency among municipal, county, regional, and State plans as well as the State Plan.

Through this process, the various stakeholders are able to partner to create a more meaningful and viable State Plan. To accomplish this, municipal, county, and regional master plans must be coordinated regionally with each “local vision” of growth and the community taken into consideration during the process. - OPA

• The Informational Meeting for Morris County was held February 28th from 10am to Noon at the Morris County Administration and Records Building, County Commissioners Meeting Room, Room 555, 5th floor.
  • Citizens Guide to the Draft State Plan: https://nj.gov/state/citizen-guide/index.shtml
  • PowerPoint Presentation(PDF, 3MB) given at the February 28th Informational Meeting
  • Recording of the February 28th State Plan Public Informational Meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUyyxwppSSM
• Legal Ad for all February Informational Meetings being held on the State Plan.
• Legal Ad(PDF, 438KB) for all the March and April Informational Meetings being held on the State Plan
• You can comment on the plan by attending any of the meetings in person or: via email at stateplan@co.morris.nj.us, fill out the OPA Survey or via email to OPA at stateplan.comments@sos.nj.gov.

Negotiating Entities: had 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.  Since Morris County is in the Highlands Region, the Highlands Council(PDF, 196KB)  will serve as the NE for the 32 municipalities in the Highlands unless the municipalities request a waiver from OPA to have another entity serve in this role. Four municipalities have been approved and are now covered by the County.

The seven (7) municipalities not in the Highlands Region would fall to the County of Morris to be their NE.  These seven municipalities are: Lincoln Park, Madison, East Hanover, Chatham Boro, Chatham Twp, Long Hill and Florham Park. In addition, Pequannock, Morris Plains, Morris Township and Randolph are also be covered by Morris County. These 11 municipalities will have the County as their NE. The other 28 Morris County municipalities will be covered by the Highlands Council.

Municipalities that choose to participate in this process review their master plans and complete the Cross Acceptance Response Template (CART): https://nj.gov/state/bac/planning/documents/cross-acceptance-response-template.pdf

If needed, municipalities can work with their NE to complete the CART and make any updates to the State Plan Zones in their municipality via a Survey123 Form (no ESRI account will be needed to complete the form). Morris County specific links were sent to municipal NEs for both the CART and Survey123.

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 area 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. The 11 Morris County Municipalities that have the County as their NE need to submit to the County by March 31, 2025.

Morris County has submitted its CART to OPA on May 16, 2025. OPA and Morris County had their negotiating committee meeting on July 1st at 9am. The second meeting scheduled for July 29th at 9am will not be needed. The notice from OPA with the meeting links is here: Meeting Notice(PDF, 227KB). Information regarding negotiating meetings for all counties will be posted by OPA here as well: https://www.nj.gov/state/bac/planning/state-plan/coordination/

If you would like to submit a public comment on the draft State Plan you may submit commits via the OPA website, email stateplan.comments@sos.nj.gov, or submit to the Morris County Office of Planning and Preservation via email:stateplan@co.morris.nj.us. Please include your name/affiliation (if appropriate) and full address to submit a comment.