Cool New Jersey

A Guide to Climate-Friendly Policies in Your Community

(This entire guide can also be downloaded in a printable form as the Cool New Jersey Handbook)

Introduction

This guide presents options. It is not meant to be a definitive set of requirements or expectations that may be imposed on any given municipality to make it climate friendly. No single technique or universal checklist could possibly meet the needs of every community in New Jersey. Each township, village, and city is different. Your municipality may be a large urban area or it may consist of a small country road and a post office. Your local officials may or may not have already adopted some of the practices in this guide; or perhaps they have adopted other practices that achieve the same or similar aims. So, the policy items presented in this booklet are food for thought, ideas that may help catalyze ways to help your community become more climate friendly.

For clarity, policies are organized by issue item; but, of course, all of these issues are entwined. So, when you’re thinking about your own town, and the practices and policies you would like to promote, try to think in a holistic way. Imagine the total community you would like to foster and what sort of integrated program might help you get there.

As shorthand, this handbook uses the term ‘municipality’. But, that’s not the only level of government that you can affect. Smaller towns may want to combine efforts and resources; and some of these policies may be more appropriate for a county government. So, don’t just think about your local municipal government, think about all levels of local governance -- town, county, city, school district, and any other -- when planning your strategy.

For each issue, bronze, silver and gold levels of policy development are identified. The first level defines some fairly basic policies that can be relatively easily archived, low hanging fruit if you like. These policies are usually fairly straightforward, generally provoke less political resistance, and cost the municipal government little or nothing. Many are actually revenue enhancing with a short payback period. Your community may have already adopted some of these practices. Promoting these initial policy changes not only helps make your town or city more climate friendly, it lays the groundwork for further changes and can begin to catalyze green thinking among citizens and policy makers alike.

The silver level defines more exemplary practices that can help define a municipality as a climate-friendly community. These policies may require greater municipal oversight or the allocation of some municipal funds or resources. They may also catalyze some opposition from entrenched interests, such as traditional developers or certain landowners. Usually, such opposition can be navigated successfully with determination, creative policymaking and plenty of communication.

The gold level defines practices and policies that can truly define the cutting edge of climate-friendly municipal planning and management. Some of these practices require significant changes in municipal policies, some may require infrastructural change and investment. However, each of these practices has been successfully adopted by other communities in the US. These are not pie-in-the-sky proposals; they are real, achievable policies that are already helping to make towns and cities around the country climate friendly.

Points to keep in mind

♦ New Jersey is a ‘Home Rule’ state, which allows local governments more autonomy than exist in other states. In fact, the state constitution stipulates that "The provisions of this Constitution and of any law concerning municipal corporations formed for local government, or concerning counties, shall be liberally construed in their favor.” However, there are limits to home rule, many of which affect a community’s ability to undertake some of the policies in this handbook. For example, the Uniform Construction Code replaced all local building and plumbing codes with a standard state code. The Fair Housing Act sets affordable housing quotas for every New Jersey municipality. In addition, certain regional arrangements, like the Pinelands Commission Law may place obligations and restrictions on local communities as well.

♦ Lack of funding is often the chief constraint to many of these policies. Even policies that eventually pay for themselves through savings or rebates may entail upfront costs that a community can perceive as unaffordable. However, there are a great many federal and state incentives, as well as private grants, to help communities meet the costs of many of these proposals.

♦ The long term potential savings in overall operating costs is often a good entry point for energy, transportation, and smart growth proposals. Payback periods can often be just a few years. In fact, smart growth management can often mean lower upfront costs and lower long term costs. Policymakers are often under intense pressure to reduce budgets; providing climate friendly reforms as budgetary solutions can often get you a better hearing.

♦ Highlighting the job creation and economic development potential of climate friendly proposals allows you to build strong allies in organizations that may not be immediately concerned with climate change. Building viable city and town centers means more jobs and more opportunities in these communities.

♦ Municipal authorities need to work closely with other local and state policy makers. Municipalities are often well placed to forge agreements with county or state officials or initiate trial measures of interest to state agencies. Local governments can often leverage their own resources and purchasing power to make regional or state-wide efforts more feasible.

♦ Public-private partnerships can also help develop options without requiring major initial outlays by cash strapped local governments. Often, creative financing can make a project attractive to both policy makers and local investors.

♦ Look for allies in the development of these proposals. Your community may already have an environmental commission or a sympathetic planning board. Reach out to these organizations and others when defining your aims and building strategy.

♦ Local air quality is often a major concern with popular resonance and an established place on the political agenda. Climate change issues don’t share this status; but many measures that reduce climate-changing emissions also reduce smog creating emissions. Identifying the link between climate friendly reforms and their immediate public health benefits can help build public support.

♦ Climate friendly initiatives are also quality of life initiatives. Presenting climate friendly policies as part of an overall effort to build a more livable, safer, and more viable town or city, will clarify the immediate benefits of the project to community members and policymakers. Municipalities will be more likely to want to address climate change if they recognize that policies can be tailored to meet local needs and used to enhance the quality of life in their community.

♦ In the end, it will take multiple, interrelated efforts to make your community climate friendly. Some of these policy proposals may be well suited for your town or city, other may not be. Identify the most viable proposals, with the greatest support among policy makers and citizens, and use these low hanging fruit to achieve early successes. Then build on these successes toward further gains.