On December 5, 2024, the Pemberton Township Planning Board voted 6-3 to reject an application for an 89-unit residential development, based on environmental concerns brought to the Board by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, represented by Lieberman Blecher & Sinkevich.

The potential developer proposed to place the large residential development at a site off Lakehurst Road where Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA) provided evidence and testimony that the site is a documented critical habitat for the Northern Pine Snake as well as a wetland. Although an EcolSciences report for the developer found that the site was not critical habitat for the snake, the PPA’s Public Lands Advocate Jason Howell advised the Board that Pemberton’s Herpetological Associates has been doing research with Rutgers University on the Northern Pine Snake and found it is a “documented critical habitat.” In addition, PPA presented testimony from Joseph Arsenault, who found that the property bears the characteristics of a Pinelands wetland that should not be developed.

“This area is encumbered by wetlands, and it can’t be disturbed legally,” Stuart Lieberman argued to the Board. “And that is really a very important point, because that means that this project, as it is envisioned, can’t go forward.”

An article by the Pine Barrens Tribune on the Pinelands Preservation Alliance’s win can be found here.