On August 7, 2013, Governor Christie signed into law a bill
implementing numerous changes to the Municipal Land Use Law with
the stated purpose of:
Enabling municipalities the flexibility to offer
alternatives to traditional development through the use of
equitable and effective planning tools, including clustering,
transferring development rights and lot size averaging in order to
concentrate development in areas where growth can best be
accommodated and maximized while preserving agricultural lands,
open space and historic sites.
N.J.S.A. 40:55D-2(p).
The bill was promoted by New Jersey Future and supported by a
diverse coalition.
Planned Development in New Jersey
The cluster development bill is the latest in a long history of
planned development innovations. In 1967, the Municipal Planned
Unit Development Act (P.L. 1967, c.61) was enacted in large part to
respond to the call by University of Pennsylvania Professor
Krasnowiecki for land use tools to
