Five Green Towns Published: Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 12:27 AM
Updated: Sunday, October 24, 2010, 1:58 PM
By Jennifer Weiss/The Star-Ledger Historically, towns have measured their worth in schools, property taxes and parking spaces.
They still do. But now, they're also measuring it in carbon emissions, renewable energy and bike racks. In New Jersey, the interest in green is growing. Meryl Frank, the mayor of Highland Park, runs seminars at the annual New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference about the steps towns can take to go green. Her first year, she had one, and you could hear crickets. This past year, she had four, and you could hardly get in. Towns and cities around the state are making changes, and greening New Jersey in the process. Here's what five of the greenest are doing. The transit-minded township Wherever you live in Maplewood, there's a jitney that can take you to the train.
There are five of the buses, and their presence means 300 fewer cars are on the roads, according to Fred Profeta, Maplewood's deputy mayor for the environment and the co-chair, with Frank, of the League's Mayors' Committee for a Green Future. The result is reduced traffic congestion and pollution. But the township didn't start the service to save emissions. "When we got these 10 years ago, we weren't thinking about the environment," Profeta says. "We were thinking about parking." Maplewood's leadership is thinking about the environment now. The state has committed to reduce global warming pollution 20 percent by 2020; Maplewood has pledged to make the same cut five years sooner. Residents in the 3-square-mile township have changed thousands of incandescent lightbulbs to compact fluorescents and bought cars that get better gas mileage. (People whose cars get better than 40 miles per gallon receive a discount on commuter parking fees. Profeta, who used to feel like the only Prius owner in town, now sees hybrids everywhere.) More than 4,000 attended the township's second Green Day last year, a fair with kids' activities, speakers and workshops on topics such as slow food cooking, composting and organic gardening. About 400 residents have committed so far to Maplewood's Green Challenge, pledging to recycle as much as possible, buy local foods, keep their car tires properly inflated and set their thermostat two degrees higher in the summer and two lower in the winter. More initiatives -- including encouraging vegetarianism, or just eating "lower on the food chain," says Profeta -- could be added soon. In December, the first biodiesel station in the state opened on Burnett Avenue. At Woolley Fuel Co., diesel vehicles can be filled with fuel made from 5 percent soybean oil. Maplewood's jitneys and Department of Public Works vehicles are regulars. Recently, the township traded its drafty, 70-plus-year old police station for a new, $17 million green building designed to maximize natural light, circulate fresh air and save energy. The new building, the police station and municipal court, received a LEED silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. In an indoor firing range, the thousands of bullet casings spent in police training each year are collected for recycling. On nice days, the bottom-floor gym can be lit entirely by sunlight streaming in from the level above. A monitor on a wall near the building's front entrance shows the energy output of its rooftop solar panel array, and the amount of carbon dioxide being saved. The better-buildings borough In front of the glass sign that welcomes visitors to Highland Park is a sunken patch of grass and plants over a hidden layer of gravel. It's a garden, but not in the usual sense. It was designed to collect and absorb the rainwater that flows in from nearby streets, including Raritan Avenue, and filter it before sending it on to the
Raritan River. The rain garden in Centennial Park is just one of the numerous environmentally friendly features of this 2-square mile borough of 14,000 residents (among them, some prominent New Jersey environmentalists). If Mayor Frank has her way, there soon will be more. More rain gardens, solar panels, trees and green space, and more residents thinking about their own environmental impact and trying to lessen it. The borough has decreased its water use, despite having added more people, and added solar panels and efficient heating and cooling systems to its municipal buildings (at an estimated savings of $14,000 a year). Green standards have been set for major construction projects and residents have helped plant hundreds of trees and switched to more efficient lights in their homes. Highland Park has good bones -- it's densely packed and near a train line -- yet a 2000 study showed that few people walked and biked to work; more than 70 percent drove alone. Since then, the borough has installed solar powered, pedestrian-activated crosswalk signals, begun a commuter shuttle bus service, pledged to create bike lanes, calmed traffic in key areas and expanded pedestrian and bicycle safety education. The Green Challenge, another of the borough's initiatives, asks residents to try leaving their cars home for two local trips a week, biking or walking instead. The glass-walled Eugene Young Environmental Center, dedicated on Earth Day 2007, offers environmental education and programs. On its roof is a garden of native plants that serve to absorb water and cool the building. The borough aims to cut emissions that contribute to global warming 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, a goal laid out six years ago in the plan "Highland Park 2020: A Sustainable Community." But even a global warming doubter can appreciate what's going on in town, says Frank. "Saving resources is a good thing." The low-speed Shore town Belmar's police department does parking enforcement and boardwalk security in low-speed vehicles (LSV) that look like a cartoon version of a golf cart. They are zero-emission GEM electric cars, and they replaced four gas-powered scooters. Ken Pringle, the mayor, drives one of his own, dubbed the "Mayor mobile" by local kids. He says it's changed his driving habits -- he finds himself doing more business close to home, and running several errands in a single trip. Starting next month, visitors should be able to pick up their own LSVs for use around town. Belmar has an infrastructure for them, having used funds from a state transportation grant to build a half-dozen charging
stations at its marina. Beach Creek Cruisers, coming off a pilot program in Stone Harbor, plans to have a rental business in full swing by the summer rush. (Further incentive to leave the car at home: NJ Transit's discounted off-peak round-trip fare plus beach admission.) The face of downtown is changing; Belmar's Seaport Redevelopment follows smart-growth principles and requires new buildings to include environmentally-friendly elements such as solar panels and rainwater retention. Belmar also is working to reduce its water use as part of a pilot water-conservation program of Rutgers and the state Department of Environmental Protection. The borough has an active environmental commission that sponsors nature walks and beach cleanups, as well as a twice-yearly newsletter called the EcoWatch. In the newsletter, there are recycling schedules, green-living tips and events from gardening classes to garage sales. More than 200 people participate in the commission's Adopt-a-Spot program, which matches residents with sites to clean and beautify Meredith Brennan, borough council president, says Belmar's environmental leadership has a lot to do with the savvy and commitment of its residents. Location plays a large role, too. Belmar is surrounded by water on three sides, and Pringle says it's especially important for coastal towns to make green changes -- global warming, left unchecked, could threaten their very existence. "I think all the towns along the Shore feel a very strong obligation to be out in front of this issue," he says. "If communities that are in harm's way like ours aren't able to make the commitment to help better the environment, who will?" The bike-friendly beach town Drivers on Haven Avenue in Ocean City have no choice now but to be polite. Last spring, a 25-block section of the street was the latest addition to the city's series of bikeways. The road now features signs, four-way stops at every intersection and a speed limit of 15 mph that deters all but local traffic. The bikeway serves as an alternative to the boardwalk, where cyclists aren't allowed to ride past noon during the summer. The city hopes to expand it further, and add others. And the Route 52 Causeway that will eventually connect the city to the mainland will include a dedicated bike lane. "You'll be able to take a bike from Ocean City to downtown Mays Landing taking public bike paths all the way," says the mayor, Sal Perillo. "That will really become an attraction in and of itself." The city, known as America's Greatest Family Resort, employs another slogan now: America's Greenest Family
Resort. A massive municipal solar project funded by a developer and a rebate from the state Board of Public Utilities should save the city nearly $50,000 a year on electric costs, according to city business manager Jim Rutala. The city is looking for more ways to use solar power and supports a proposed wind farm off its coast. Its diesel vehicles run on biodiesel. And its twice-a-week recycling collection, offered in the summer -- when Ocean City's population explodes -- will be enforced with tickets and fines soon. So watch out. "Our goal is to get them to understand that one, it's the right thing to do, and two, it saves the city a lot of money," Rutala says. City officials came under intense criticism two years ago when they chose to use Brazilian ipe wood to repair a section of the 80-year-old boardwalk; the wood had been certified responsibly harvested by the Forest Stewardship Council, but environmentalists still balked at the idea of the rain forest wood. The city has long since backed off, using pine for some repairs, and continues to look at alternatives -- such as recycled plastic and other kinds of timber -- for the rest. The industrious big city The 30-foot-by-50-foot lot on Front Street in Elizabeth was too small for a house. But it was just the right size for a park. Now, it is Appletree Park, a public green space nestled between two homes. This summer, Elizabeth -- old, urban, industrialized Elizabeth -- was the sole New Jersey city to be named one of the top 50 Greenest Cities by Popular Science magazine. It was chosen for its recycling program, access to mass transit and partnerships with environmentally focused nonprofit groups. One of the nonprofits, Groundwork Elizabeth, has worked with the city on a number of beautification projects and tree plantings since its founding in 2003. It also has coordinated efforts and secured funding for a bike trail that would eventually stretch more than 2 miles along the Elizabeth River, from downtown to the Arthur Kill. "If you can turn things around -- take something that's abandoned and turn it into something productive, something that's environmentally good, everyone wins," says Jonathan Phillips, the executive director. The city hosts the Tour de Elizabeth, an annual 15-mile bike tour. It is home to Fuel Bio, a biodiesel production facility, and points to the Jersey Gardens outlet mall as a cash cow built on a brownfield. In his 2009 State of the City speech, Mayor Christian Bollwage announced a commitment to reevaluating city construction ordinances, promoting sustainability and incorporating green building principles. He also said the city would look into using contaminated land for renewable energy production, and harnessing the power of the
Arthur Kill. "I've walked the waterfront in the city, and it has an enormous potential, with the constant movement of the water, the wind and the sun," says Bollwage. "In this quest for renewable energy sources, I believe we have an ideal geographic location to generate energy for our city and our region." © 2011 NJ.com. All rights reserved.