Bill > A608

Introduced Session

This bill would allocate at least $100,000,000 from the Garden State Green Acres Preservation Trust Fund over the next decade to acquire flood-prone lands in the State for recreation and conservation purposes. In essence, this bill would expand upon the general idea and purposes of the coastal and inland Blue Acres programs created in a 1995 Green Acres bond act, although it does not require the Department of Environmental Protection to follow any of the requirements and provisions of those existing programs. Instead, the bill uses the general framework established by the "Garden State Preservation Trust Act," P.L.1999, c.152 (C.13:8C-1 et seq.) for expenditures from the "Garden State Green Acres Preservation Trust Fund" established by that act. The Blue Acres funding would be provided to the State, local government units, and qualifying tax exempt nonprofit organizations and would be divided as follows: at least $50 million to be spent in the coastal area and at least $50 million to be spent in the inland area of the State. Also, unlike the 1995 Green Acres bond act, "inland area" as used in this bill would include not just the Passaic river basin but everywhere in the State outside of the coastal area. The actual appropriation of these monies for the specific acquisition projects would be conducted according to the procedures already established by law for appropriations from the Garden State Green Acres Preservation Trust Fund. Recent severe flooding due to Tropical Storm Floyd has reemphasized the importance of preserving floodplains as open space. This bill would help provide the means to do so.

Committee Categories

Carol Murphy (D)*,  David Wolfe (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee (on 01/09/2018)