Report Tracks New Jersey’s Urban Growth and Open Space Loss

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. –  A new report released by the research teams of John Hasse at Rowan University and Richard Lathrop at Rutgers University has found that New Jersey's urban growth equates to the conversion of more than 30 football fields of open space into development every day.

Among the report's key findings:

 Urban development increased statewide by nearly 106,000 acres during 1995-2002. This rate is on par with the rate of development from 1986–1995 (14,886 acres per year). 

• Urban growth is not as strongly linked to population growth as might be expected. From 1986-002, urban land increased 20% while population increased only 11%. 
• Large-lot housing (greater than 1/2 acre) consumed 67% of the open space that was converted to residential development. The average size of development tracts decreased while the annual number of developed tracts increased.
• The increase in urban development came at the expense of a corresponding loss of open space. The majority of open space loss was experienced by farmland (55,530 net acres lost). The amount of forest land lost to urbanization was 8,356 acres per year. This is the equivalent of losing 10 Central Parks worth of forest each year. New Jersey is also losing wetlands to urbanization at the rate of 3.3 football fields of wetlands every day. 
• During 1995-2002, impervious surface was created at the rate of 5,116 acres per year or the equivalent of 1,742 parking spaces being paved every day. 
• The geographic distribution of urban growth has remained consistent throughout the state with most counties experiencing 1995–2002 development rates on par with their 1986-1995 rates. Significant up ticks in development rates were seen in Atlantic, Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex and Somerset counties.

The executive summary and full report are available at http://crssa.rutgers.edu/projects/lc/urbangrowth.

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