§ 40:55D-2 — Purpose of the act.

2. Purpose of the act. It is the intent and purpose of this act: a. To encourage municipal action to guide the appropriate use or development of all lands in this State, in a manner which will promote the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare; b. To secure safety from fire, flood, panic and other natural and man-made disasters; c. To provide adequate light, air and open space; d. To ensure that the development of individual municipalities does not conflict with the development and general welfare of neighboring municipalities, the county and the State as a whole; e. To promote the establishment of appropriate population densities and concentrations that will contribute to the well-being of persons, neighborhoods, communities and regions and preservation of the environment; f. To encourage the appropriate and efficient expenditure of public funds by the coordination of public development with land use policies; g. To provide sufficient space in appropriate locations for a variety of agricultural, residential, recreational, commercial and industrial uses and open space, both public and private, according to their respective environmental requirements in order to meet the needs of all New Jersey citizens; h. To encourage the location and design of transportation routes which will promote the free flow of traffic while discouraging location of such facilities and routes which result in congestion or blight; i. To promote a desirable visual environment through creative development techniques and good civic design and arrangement; j. To promote the conservation of historic sites and districts, open space, energy resources and valuable natural resources in the State and to prevent urban sprawl and degradation of the environment through improper use of land; k. To encourage planned unit developments which incorporate the best features of design and relate the type, design and layout of residential, commercial, industrial and recreational development to the particular site; l. To encourage senior citizen community housing construction; m. To encourage coordination of the various public and private procedures and activities shaping land development with a view of lessening the cost of such development and to the more efficient use of land; n. To promote utilization of renewable energy resources; o. To promote the maximum practicable recovery and recycling of recyclable materials from municipal solid waste through the use of planning practices designed to incorporate the State Recycling Plan goals and to complement municipal recycling programs; p. To enable 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; and q. To ensure that the development of individual municipalities does not unnecessarily encroach upon military facilities or negatively impact the operation of military facilities, and to those ends, to encourage municipalities to collaborate with military facility commanders in planning and implementing appropriate land use controls, thereby improving the vitality of military facilities and protecting against their loss through the Base Realignment and Closure process or mission loss. L.1975, c.291, s.2; amended 1979, c.216, s.1; 1980, c.146, s.1; 1985, c.516, s.1; 1987, c.102, s.25; 2013, c.106, s.1; 2016, c.21, s.1.