13:8A-20. Legislative findings

The Legislature hereby finds that:

a. The provision of lands for public recreation and conservation of natural resources promotes the public health, prosperity and general welfare and is a proper responsibility of government;

b. Lands now provided for such purposes will not be adequate to meet the needs of an expanding population in years to come;

c. The expansion of population, while increasing the need for such lands, will continually diminish the supply and tend to increase the cost of public acquisition of lands available and appropriate for such purposes;

d. The State of New Jersey must act now to acquire and to assist local governments to acquire substantial quantities of such lands as are now available and appropriate so that they may be preserved and developed for such purposes;

e. Since the most critical need for open lands now exists in the urban sectors of the State, special attention should be focused on the provision of lands for such purposes;

f. Acquisition of lands actively devoted to agriculture shall be avoided whenever possible and in lieu thereof, whenever feasible, development rights, conservation easements and other interest less than a fee simple shall be acquired;

g. Of the approved $80 million "New Jersey Green Acres Bond Act of 1971," the sum of $20 million is needed now to make such acquisition possible in order to effectively implement a continuing Open Land Conservation Program and to augment the lands acquired and set aside for the people of New Jersey under the combined State and Local Assistance Program completed under the 1961 State Recreation and Conservation Land Acquisition Fund;

h. Such sum will be made available by the sale of bonds authorized by the New Jersey Green Acres Land Acquisition Bond Act of 1971 approved by the people of the State of New Jersey;

i. It is desirable to appropriate said sum for prompt use and to specify the manner in which the Legislature now proposes that such sum, and such other funds as may be appropriated, shall be used for such purposes.

L.1971, c. 419, s. 2, eff. Jan. 24, 1972.