João-Pierre arrived in 1997 at the door of NJBIZ, then known as Business News New Jersey, as an intern and was hired that same year as a staff writer. For more than 12 years he has covered the retail, technology, and media industries in the state. He also handles principal online news writing at NJBIZ.com. João-Pierre is a lifelong resident of the state and graduated from Rutgers University. 
A report developed by Rowan and Rutgers Universities released Wednesday shows New Jersey increased the pace of suburban sprawl from 2002 through 2007, but finds moves taken by the current administration may encourage more efficient land use.
Some recent efforts to make better use of land show change in the right direction, according to Richard Lathrop, co-author of the report and director for the Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis, at Rutgers University.
“There are some indications of a greater amount of redevelopment,” he said. Transit villages built near public transportation, for instance, can curb this trend, Lathrop said. “There are definitely some encouraging signs.”
Chris Sturm, senior director of state policy for New Jersey Future, said a shift in demographics toward more empty-nesters and fewer families with children in the state is shifting the trend away from sprawl.
“We’re seeing a higher demand for walkable communities in developed areas,” she said. “I don’t think sprawl reflects the market. It’s gotten a little out of date.”
Sturm said Gov. Chris Christie has shown interest in using state planning to direct growth and jobs to revitalize cities. “As government resources for infrastructure shrink, we need to be focusing them more carefully,” Sturm said. A recommendation in the Red Tape Review Commission’s report also called for strengthening state planning, she said.
Prior efforts in the state to arrest sprawl were outpaced by the rate of development, Lathrop said, and “some of the areas that were identified as environmentally sensitive received a lot of development.”
According to the report developed by Rowan and Rutgers, New Jersey has more developed land than forests for the first time since the data was recorded. Developed land covered 30 percent of the state as of 2007, the report said, surpassing forests as the dominant land.
The report said 16,061 of New Jersey’s acres were developed annually from 2002 through 2007, up from the 15,123 acres developed each year between 1995 through 2002.
Lathrop said the study did not compare New Jersey’s sprawl to other states, though the National Conservation Service recorded New Jersey has kept pace with other densely populated states, in terms of forest and farmland losses.
E-mail João-Pierre Ruth at jpruth@njbiz.com
Follow me on Twitter @jpruth
