Middlesex County preparing countywide response to New Jersey state plan; draft due May 30

Kristen Russell, a consultant with Colliers Engineering and Design, told the Middlesex County Planning Board on May 13 that the county is compiling municipal feedback on the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan and will submit a draft county-level cross-acceptance response and map corrections to the state on May 30.

Cross acceptance is the formal process that compares the state plan’s policies with local and regional plans and asks municipalities to identify areas of agreement and disagreement. Russell said municipalities provide two types of responses: a state-provided form (the Cross Acceptance Response Template, or CARR) and GIS map edits that show proposed changes to the state plan map.

The county has run internal analyses in parallel with municipal outreach, Russell said, identifying how county plans align with the state plan’s goals and preparing map corrections. She said county staff found roughly 600 map edits — many reflecting new development and sewer‑service‑area changes that postdate the state’s map layers. County staff held training in April with 24 attendees from 11 municipalities; municipal responses were due at the end of the week following the board meeting.

Russell highlighted several ways county plans map to state plan goals. Examples presented included farmland preservation efforts under the county’s preservation plans (equity), draft guidance in the Invest Smart plan to avoid development in flood zones (climate resilience), master plan policies cited for natural resource protection, transportation plans that encourage reduced vehicle miles and mode shift, and Destination 2040 and other county strategic documents that address redevelopment, economic development and housing supply.

Astha Neddy, a Middlesex County Office of Planning staff member, said the high number of map edits arises because the state’s plan layers have not been updated in decades and therefore miss many developments identified through the county’s development‑review and sewer‑service processes. Neddy said the county will submit its compiled map edits in tabular and GIS form so the state can revise its layers.

Next steps Neddy and Russell described: the county will assemble municipal CARR forms and maps into a single draft response, submit that draft to the State Planning Commission by May 30, and return to the county planning board next month seeking approval of the county’s final cross‑acceptance statement before formal submission to the state. Russell said the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners has already designated the planning board as the approving body for that final report.

The presenters and board members noted that municipal participation in cross acceptance is voluntary under the state process; a municipality that declines to respond is by default treated as aligned with the state plan. The presenters urged municipalities to submit the forms and maps so county and state staff can reconcile any disagreements.

The planning board did not take a formal vote on the cross‑acceptance draft during the meeting. The county’s scheduled next steps are the May 30 draft submission and a formal planning board consideration of the final county response the following month.