The Highlands Act, which was adopted in 2004 and creates the “Highlands Preservation Area,” (which includes 80+ square miles of the Township of West Milford) provides an unfunded mandate in that it requires the Township to be the steward of land throughout the entire municipality for the sole benefit of protecting water downstream to nearly 3 million residents of the State of New Jersey including significant industrial users. The fact that the Township does not receive any financial remuneration for the restrictions imposed by the Highlands Act, supports the Township’s argument that this is an unfunded mandate.

Therefore, by signing this petition as a resident and taxpayer of the Township of West Milford, we hereby request that the Council on Mandates consider the impact of the Highlands Act as it applies solely to the Township of West Milford as an unfunded mandate, as it has depleted the financial resources of the Township and placed the cost and subsidy of water protection on the residents of the Township of West Milford without any financial support.