7. a. In preparing, maintaining and revising the State Development and Redevelopment Plan, the commission shall solicit and give due consideration to the plans, comments and advice of each county and municipality, State agencies designated by the commission, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council established pursuant to section 4 of P.L.2004, c.120 (C. 13:20-4), and other local and regional entities. Prior to the adoption of each plan, the commission shall prepare and distribute a preliminary plan to each county planning board, municipal planning board and other requesting parties, including State agencies, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, and metropolitan planning organizations. Not less than 45 nor more than 90 days thereafter, the commission shall conduct a joint public informational meeting with each county planning board in each county and with the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council for the purpose of providing information on the plan, responding to inquiries concerning the plan, and receiving informal comments and recommendations from county and municipal planning boards, local public officials, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, and other interested parties.

b. The commission shall negotiate plan cross-acceptance with each county planning board, which shall solicit and receive any findings, recommendations and objections concerning the plan from local planning bodies. Each county planning board shall negotiate plan cross-acceptance among the local planning bodies within the county, unless it shall notify the commission in writing within 45 days of the receipt of the preliminary plan that it waives this responsibility, in which case the commission shall designate an appropriate entity, or itself, to assume this responsibility. Each board or designated entity shall, within ten months of receipt of the preliminary plan, file with the commission a formal report of findings, recommendations and objections concerning the plan, including a description of the degree of consistency and any remaining inconsistency between the preliminary plan and county and municipal plans. In any event, should any municipality’s plan remain inconsistent with the State Development and Redevelopment Plan after the completion of the cross-acceptance process, the municipality may file its own report with the State Planning Commission, notwithstanding the fact that the county planning board has filed its report with the State Planning Commission. The term cross-acceptance means a process of comparison of planning policies among governmental levels with the purpose of attaining compatibility between local, county, regional, and State plans. The process is designed to result in a written statement specifying areas of agreement or disagreement and areas requiring modification by parties to the cross-acceptance.

c. Upon consideration of the formal reports of the county planning boards, the commission shall prepare and distribute a final plan to county and municipal planning boards, the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, and other interested parties. The commission shall conduct not less than six public hearings in different locations throughout the State for the purpose of receiving comments on the final plan. The commission shall give at least 30 days’ public notice of each hearing in advertisements in at least two newspapers which circulate in the area served by the hearing and at least 30 days’ notice to the governing body and planning board of each county and municipality in the area served by the hearing and to the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council for any area in the Highlands Region served by the hearing.

d. Taking full account of the testimony presented at the public hearings, the commission shall make revisions in the plan as it deems necessary and appropriate and adopt the final plan by a majority vote of its authorized membership no later than 60 days after the final public hearing.

L.1985,c.398,s.7; amended 1998, c.109, s.1; 2004, c.120, s.67.