Interview with Bill Baroni

[James]

On Hank Kalet's blog he has posted a very good article about his interview with Sen. Bill Baroni (http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/) . I believe Sen. Baroni is one individual who is seen by both parties as a force and one who offers a sound mind and judgement.

Some excerpts include:

The warehousing formula, as he says, is "not even close to being based on science -- there is no data to support it." Plus, he adds, the retroactive nature of the rules -- which require towns to factor in development that occurred as far back at 2004 -- contradicts the planning basis on which the Mount Laurel decisions were made.

"One of the goals of the Mount Laurel decisions was to have towns plan better, to make sure that they plan for affordable housing in their towns," he said. "Retroactivity runs counter to that smart-growth approach and I have a problem with that."

He said the final product needs to respect the "core moral responsibility of providing affordable housing," but also respect the needs of local towns.


- and-

"How do we provide affordable housing, keeping the commitment we've made, but also recognize that there are economic, health and space issues that towns have already run into?" he asked. "At what point, do you say we can do no more

"At one point, you will have a clash between affordable housing and open space. If trends that are apparent now don’t change, you will have towns faced with requirements to build but the only space available would be the open space."