Statewide standardization of site improvement standards

In 1975, the state of New Jersey established a legal status for the regulation of land development. This law established that local and county planning boards were allowed to create their own technical standards for the design and construction of residential, commercial, and industrial development. In order to standardize this law, the state passed a new law creating a statewide development code for residential projects. These rules have been in place since June 1997. The impetus for this law arose from the economic impact that the myriad of local and state standards had on projects. The average time required for a residential project one acre or larger to obtain all preconstruction approvals lengthened from 3-6 months in the 1970s to two years. This fact, coupled with subjective interpretations by review officials of numerous standards, created a suitable climate for the establishment of a more defined structure for the design of road, sewer, water, and stormwater management systems. This paper discusses these standards and offers an engineering perspective on such changes.