Property Owners Be Warned: Your Property May Be Downzoned To Preserve Open Space

In Griepenburg v. Township of Ocean, 220 N.J. 239 (2015), the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a down-zoning to one home per 20 acres in the Township of Ocean, Ocean County. The New Jersey Supreme Court continues its relaxation of the proof requirements necessary for a municipality to justify large lot environmental preservation zoning. Once again landowners are shouldering the loss of virtually their entire land equity, without any compensation, as New Jersey municipalities and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) seek to preserve environmentally sensitive land. The Griepenburg decision continues the erosion of Pheasant Bridge v. Warren Township, 169 N.J. 282 (2001), which established the proof requirements necessary for a municipality to sustain large lot zoning as applied to a particular parcel.

The Griepenburg's property is adjacent to Exit 69 on the Garden State Parkway at Route 532. To the rear of the Griepenburg's property is a large senior development. Farther to the east are single-family residential homes and the gateway into Waretown. The Griepenburg property had initially been included in the proposed Waretown Town Center. The Watertown Town Center was a CAFRA center designation that would permit development at intensities indicative of center-based development. Initially, the Township envisioned a scale of town center that would enable Waretown to expand to the Parkway. The Griepenburg property was included in this draft center designation. Toward the end of the center designation process with the Office of State Planning, the NJDEP objected to the size and extent of development within the proposed center.

Large areas between Waretown and the Garden State Parkway constituted a contiguous forested area that was suitable habitat for threatened and endangered species. The NJDEP required Ocean Township to reduce the size and scale of the proposed town center in order to enable preservation of these contiguous forested areas. As a result of the NJDEP's objection, the Township agreed to reduce the Waretown Town Center by eliminating any expansion of the center into this forested area. Once the Township agreed to limit this expansion potential, NJDEP approved the CAFRA center designation for the "scaled back" Waretown Town Center.

The Griepenburgs were caught in this policy dispute, as their property was largely undeveloped forested area. Once taken out of the Waretown Town Center, the Griepenburg property...