With Highlands Council Listening to Forward, County Tourism, Promotions and Funding Sources are Highlighted

FLEMINGTON, NJ – New Jersey on May 20 at 4 p.m. Highlands Council (Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council) will meet to decide on the application for the Highlands Council’s Performance Petition Package, including the Highlands Masterplan element Approved by the Board of County Commissioners in February.

For the past several years, Hunterdon County has worked with the Highlands Council and consulted planners in developing the joint compliance plan.

At the May 4 board meeting, Hunterdon County Commissioner J. Matthew Holt, the board liaison officer for both the Department of Planning & Land Use and the Hunterdon County Economic Development Office, explained how the momentum is increasing after many years of clashing. Concern and some chaos became a common vision for the northern and western parts of Hunterdon.

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“The Highlands Council has closed its compliance plan comment period and I will be there on May 20 to make some comments on behalf of Hunterdon County, either by phone or in person,” said Holt. “As many of you know, the county and the council haven’t necessarily been on the same page for several years, and that has certainly changed. The county took a direction on economic development and the council and county then began discussions on the connection between the Highlands goals and our economic development goals. Developing our compliance plan was certainly a collaborative process between you and us. “

Heyer, Gruel & AssociatesChief Planner John Barree is the consultant who worked with Hunterdon County to incorporate and promote the Highlands regional goals, along with staff from County Planning & Land Use.

Heyer, Gruel & Associates worked with staff and administration from the Hunterdon County Planning and Land Use Department to create a package that included a self-assessment report, a Highlands master plan element, and an implementation agenda. Since late 2019, HGA has been working with county staff to go through the Highlands Plan Conformance process, starting with reviewing existing county planning documents and putting together a package that aligns with the goals of the Highlands Council.

On May 6, Carrie Fellows, director of the county’s Department of Planning and Land Use, submitted details of the Highlands Council’s approval process to the Hunterdon County Planning Authority.

“On February 4th, the planning authority approved the Highlands Council’s Performance Petition Package, and the hearing for our petition will be through Zoom on May 20th,” she said. “You asked Commissioner Holt, Economic Development Director Marc Saluk, and me to provide some comments on the county plan and consultative planner (from HGA) John Barree will be on the conference call.”

In addition, Holt found that the Highlands Council was such a busy partner that it provided funds to Hunterdon County to help develop the draft Highlands Conformance Plan.

Holt said a key difference is that the proposed planning considerations in the Hunterdon County Highlands Conformance Plan will have no impact on land use authority or regulations in the county’s 26 parishes.

According to Holt in the Highlands Council Annual Report 2020Lisa J. Plevin, General Manager, and Carl J. Richko, Chair, stated, “Despite significant challenges from the 2020 pandemic, the Highlands Council can make significant progress in delivering its mission on the final calendar year.”

“From a Hunterdon County’s perspective, the council has continued to work cooperatively with us and our planning and land-use team throughout the pandemic,” added Holt. “All efforts are appreciated.”

Holt found that the county’s benchmark for tourism shows economic activity at approximately $ 300 million. He said this was a “drop in the bucket for what can be done in Hunterdon County in terms of tourism”.

“As part of the draft Highlands Conformance Plan, which is due for review and due to be heard on May 20, the county is seeking grants from the Highlands Council of $ 250,000 over the next three years,” he said. “These funds would be used for economic development initiatives, history preservation, and some of the other grants that would bring about various land use / planning projects.”

Saluk also updated the planning board for the Hunterdon County Tourism Partnership, which was announced as a public-private nonprofit organization prior to the pandemic. The IRS has given 501 (c) 6 approval and has become official. The funds earmarked for this come from the New Jersey Highlands Council (government organization).

“With this breakdown, Hunterdon County tourism can be run by a dedicated entity rather than part-time between many other entities, including the Bureau of Economic Development, apparently,” Saluk said. “Hunterdon deserves and deserves a full-time tourism effort. We would like to build the tourism partnership within the next 18 months to two years so that part of the tourism assets (including the agricultural industry) contribute to funds and cities and municipalities. We would have a real public-private that might be occupied over time, although it will take a while, everyone is interested in that developing. In the meantime, the tourism partnership can be our “marketing machine” and the marketing umbrella tourism efforts for our existing ones Hunterdon579Trail.com Promote agrotourism and agribusiness from wineries to agricultural markets and ours HunterdonMainStreets.com Promotion of restaurants and shopping opportunities in the historic city centers of the district. These initiatives are closely linked to the umbrella of the district’s tourism partnership. “

Hunterdon County has launched the first related call for proposals for the Hunterdon County Tourism Partnership, hiring a firm to complete strategic branding and a logo for the new public-private not-for-profit organization. According to Saluk, the next step is an RFP for creating a new partnership website using this brand and logo.

“We are pressing ahead with this initiative and expect the tourism partnership to be active and make a lot of noise in 2022,” said Saluk.