| Environmental
Resource Inventory |
Open
Space Plan |
New
Jersey
Pennsylvania
|
New
Jersey
Pennsylvania
|
| An Environmental Resource Inventory (ERI) is a compilation
of text and mapped information about the natural resource characteristics
and environmental features of a municipality. An ERI identifies critical
natural resources and provides a policy basis for the development
of resource protection ordinances. |
An Open Space Plan is a comprehensive document that
serves as a guide for open space protection and preservation in a
municipality. An open space plan examines a community's needs and
goals, analyzes preserved and unpreserved open spaces, and lays out
a set of priorities and strategies for preservation. |
| Stream
Corridor Protection Ordinance |
Wetlands
Management Ordinance |
New
Jersey
Pennsylvania
|
Pennsylvania
only
|
| Stream Corridor Protection Ordinances ensure that vegetated
riparian buffers are maintained by requiring development to be set
back from stream banks, floodplains and wetland areas and by limiting
the use and intensity of activities within the corridor. Buffer widths
typically range from 25 to 300 feet, depending on the community's
goals. |
A Wetlands Management Ordinance is designed to protect
environmentally sensitive wetland areas. Wetlands ordinances typically
prohibit any disturbance of delineated wetlands for residential, commercial
or industrial development. |
| Wetlands
Mapping |
Steep
Slope Ordinance |
New
Jersey only
|
New
Jersey
Pennsylvania
|
| This map shows those municipalities in New Jersey that
require wetlands mapping as part of site plan applications. |
A Steep Slope Ordinance regulates development on areas
of steep slope. The definition of steep varies from municipality to
municipality, with 8% typically the minimum gradient classified as
steep. |
| Cluster
Development Ordinance |
Transfer
of Development Rights (TDR) Ordinance |
New
Jersey
Pennsylvania
|
New
Jersey
Pennsylvania
|
| A Cluster Development Ordinance enables developers to
increase densities on one portion of a tract in return for preserving
open space on another portion of the same tract. This map shows municipalities
whose cluster development ordinances require the preservation of at
least 50% of a given tract as open space. |
A Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Ordinance allows
municipalities to preserve rural and natural features while protecting
property rights and allowing for some growth. A TDR program takes
development that would normally occur in rural areas (sending areas)
and transfers it to other parts of a municipality where growth is
more acceptable (receiving areas). In addition to TDRs, this map shows
those municipalities where the Pinelands Development Credit program
can be applied. |
| Net-Out
of Resources |
Agricultural
Zoning |
Pennsylvania
only
|
New
Jersey
Pennsylvania
|
| Net-Out of Resources refers to the technique of deducting
environmentally constrained lands from development density calculations.
Netting-out is intended to protect and preserve environmentally constrained
areas by reducing or eliminating the credit given for these lands
toward the amount of development permitted on a given site. |
Agricultural Zoning is a technique that allows municipalities
to protect their rural and agricultural areas by establishing large
minimum lot sizes. This map shows municipalities that have agricultural
zoning districts with 10-20 acre minimum lot sizes and municipalities
that have districts with 20 acre or larger minimum lot sizes. It also
shows those municipalities in New Jersey where Pinelands large lot
zoning is applied. |
| Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) |
Locally
Funded Open Space Programs |
New
Jersey
Pennsylvania
|
Pennsylvania
and New Jersey
|
| An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is intended
to highlight the impacts of a development proposal on air, water,
and soil and on aquatic and terrestrial life. Each municipality has
its own standards for determining the types of development proposals
that will require an EIS.
|
Locally Funded Open Space Programs can include special
bonds or property taxes, income taxes, or other taxes of which the
amount collected is dedicated to planning for and acquiring open space.
See Local
Funding Programs |
Planning