Interview: Jeff Tittel on Why Smarth Growth Is Smart

Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter, is the state's most visible environmental activist. Tittel, 45, is now in the spotlight as many real estate developers and planners believe he played a crucial role in the McGreevey administration's design for the future of development in the state, commonly referred to as the Big Map [NJBIZ, February 3]. The map, released last month by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), uses color coding to indicate whether or not an area is open to development. Tittel spoke with associate editor Shankar P. about the controversial map and the anti-sprawl agenda.

NJBIZ: What do you think of the Big Map as a guide to controlling sprawl?

Tittel: The most important part of the Big Map is that it's based on protection of water supply, natural resources, endangered species habitats and areas like that. One of the major problems with the [previous plan] was that they didn't have a lot of that data originally or they didn't want to use a lot of that data.