Forum members will have an opportunity to introduce themselves

Approval of the highlights of December 5, 2002 meeting

ACTION ITEM

As a follow-up on Governor McGreevey’s challenge at the last Forum meeting for a regional planning framework, the committee has developed a draft protocol which will be presented to the Forum as well as their continued efforts on Transfer of Development Rights.

Mike Brimmer, Regional Vice President, CSX will present to the Forum perspectives of rail freight in Central Jersey and how changes to rail freight north and south of the region will affect truck traffic on local roads.

Growing Smarter

With the Governor’s Smart Growth Initiative and Executive Order 38 the state has been thrown in a Smart Growth mode, two initiatives will be presented which have the potential to provide guidance in achieving these goals:

a) NJ Smart Growth Council/Office of Smart Growth has developed Smart Growth Project Consistency Checklist which will be used by state agencies to evaluate future projects for consistency with smart growth principles.

b) NJ Future has developed The Smart Growth Scorecard which can be used as a tool to evaluate municipal smart growth and the benefits and drawbacks of development proposals.

The Forum will be briefed on the activities of the Bus Rapid Transit Committee.

Highway Projects

An approach to advancing highway projects will be discussed.

An update on the status of the EIS process will be presented to the Forum.

Dialogue

In an effort to encourage and continue information exchange, Forum attendees are encouraged to highlight any major activity which has occurred since the last meeting.