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Just so you know, regional plans are unconstitutional and they are trying to create one to control the watershed.

When you allow the government to control the watershed, you are eliminating rights to private property, because they will use the watershed as a means to deprive you of your right to use property, and your ability to own it.

Because its not your property in danger of legislated confiscation, you have a tendency to think that protecting the "environment" is more important than private property, since someone else is going to take the hit for protecting the environment for you.

The government is supposed to protect individual liberty and private property rights above everything else. If you allow them to confiscate this property in the name of the "collective" the people of New Jersey who are naive enough to believe that the government controlling land use is a good thing, then you support collective government, not our constitutional republic.

Collective governments throughout history have had a miserable record of "protecting the enviroment" the environmental degradation of Poland and other eastern european countries under a collective, communist government was astounding.

You should fight regionalisation with every breath because it is only a means to collectivize and remove your constitutional rights from you and everyone else in your state.

Look you can argue all you want about "Constitutional Rights" and while I normally would agree with you, this situation is quite a bit different.

What we are talking about here is a plan that would stop large developments in the Highlands Region. Small developments in properly zoned areas would still be allowed.

You want to talk about rights ?? How about my rights to keep my property in the way I bought it ? For 30 years I lived on property that never flooded. Now that huge developments have gone in on the watershed all around me, my land floods everytime we have a decent rain.

What about my rights ?? What about my rights to live in a Township where the rate of government services stays stable or shrinks... Now that we have 10,000 new residents in the last 10 years, we need more roads, more police, bigger schools....who pays for this ?? The Taxpayer, mostly people who have lived here most of their lives, who now have to foot the bill for big development projects we never wanted and never needed. Two years ago the County took a 15 foot right of way off my land to widen the road because now there are too many cars heading to and from those big developments and shopping centers.

How about my rights. How about my right to live in a community that isn't sued every year by another big developer who bought zoned land and now decides that are going to bankrupt the town if we don't allow them to build what they want, zoning or no zoning.

How about my neighbors rights to farm his land ? His farm has been in his family for 4 generations but now is at risk because of high local property (school) taxes and the complaints from people who live in the big new development next to him "that his machinery is loud and the fertilizer smells".

Everybody has rights but those rights come with responsibilities. I own land, it's my land but I also realize I can't put a chemical dump on it just because I want to. In a world where everyone was isolated and no cause had an effect, then absolute private property rights would make sense. We don't live in that world. If you or I are doing something on our property that screws over other people, then it becomes their business. The constitutional rights of huge land speculators/developers like Hovnanian and Toll Brothers don't outweigh tose of the rest of us. If they had built in a responsible manner, people would have welcomed them with open arms but they did not. They have no constitutional right to speculate on land and expect taxpayers to foot the bills for their huge development projects.

Big developments in the Highlands have the potential to screw over hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans. I am not a fan of regional planning but in the state we live in today, with the development pressures we face, it seems to be the only system that makes sense. Local planning and zoning boards have become almost helpless to stop development they do not want and cannot afford. The only way to fight it is for communities to be grouped together in a regional structure. I don't know if the Highlands legislation is the answer, I have only read parts of the plan but something has to be done to control the development here that has gone beyond reasonable into the realm of "build as much as you can on every square foot of land and f*ck everyone else".