New Jersey Lawyer & Attorney : Stark & Stark Law Firm : New Jersey Law Blog

Renewable energy opportunities continue to exist and will likely increase drastically in the future. One of the concerns here in New Jersey is the need to extend, accelerate or expand the Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) opportunities.
 

SRECs are those credits purchased by power companies for the production of solar energy. Given that solar energy facility production has exceeded expectations, creating a glut of SRECs available for purchase, the value of the SRECs have dropped to less than half of the pre-glut value.
 

The newly adopted New Jersey Energy Master Plan proposes to accelerate the purchasing obligation of utilities, or take other actions to stabilize the SREC market, and therefore may improve the value of SRECs and increase the ability to finance solar energy facilities. That, along with ongoing federal tax credits, create the opportunity for New Jersey to continue to be one of the national leaders in solar energy production, currently second only to California.
 

However, one significant component of solar energy facilities is the cost of the solar panels themselves. A recent report conducted by Science Daily concludes that the cost of solar panels has dropped by 70% since 2009, significantly enhancing opportunities to make solar energy production a more attractive investment for those producing and selling energy as well as those building net-metered energy facilities, providing energy for on-site use.
 

For the foregoing reasons, opportunities and profitability of solar energy continues to increase and should be considered by most property owners, including those that might have declined to pursue solar energy as recently as a few months ago. Below is the link to the Science Daily article discussing the huge drop is the cost of solar panels.

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To the extent there was any doubt, a recent article in the New Jersey Law Journal reports that a third county prosecutor has determined that deliberations via email of municipal action by a quorum of municipal officials about government business violates the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act (commonly known as the Sunshine Law). As in the cases of the Cape May County and Burlington County Prosecutors, the Gloucester County Prosecutor declined to pursue an action, notably because the incidents in question were deemed to be incidental and unintentional and the penalty for a first offense is merely $100, with penalties up to $500 for subsequent violations of the Sunshine Law.

Where this becomes more relevant is in the possible challenge to municipal action where the deliberations take place outside public scrutiny via email. Given that emails discussing government business are subject to scrutiny under the Open Public Records Acts, we can and should anticipate greater inquiry and possible challenge to municipal actions based upon violations of Sunshine Law.

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 Gary Forshner, Shareholder in Stark & Stark's Real Estate, Zoning and Land Use Group, meets with Chris Savastano, Director of Commercial Development for NJR Clean Energy Ventures understand what NJR Clean Energy Ventures is and what type of projects they are familiar with.

What is NJR Clean Energy Ventures? from Stark & Stark on Vimeo.

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The real estate industry has seen a lot of changes over the past several years, and now, for those in the state of New Jersey, there is one more. In the matter of Fair Share Housing Center Inc. v. N.J. State League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Supreme Court took what at first blush might have been thought an unusual decision yesterday, declaring that the New Jersey League of Municipalities is a “public agency” possessing “government records” and therefore is subject to disclosure under the Open Public Records Act. The League is a nonprofit, unincorporated association representing all of New Jersey’s 566 municipalities, which includes over 13,000 municipal officials and over 560 mayors. 

 

The League is the lobbying arm of New Jersey’s municipalities and is supported in large part from public funding in the form of membership dues. Additionally, its employees participate in the Public Employees’ Retirement System, after The League was declared a public agency for that purpose by a 1955 Attorney General Opinion. Given that the lobbying done by The League on behalf of municipalities throughout the state of New Jersey, which until now the documentation for was private, one would expect a treasure-trove of information to become available to those seeking to challenge the lobbying and other efforts of The League in the future. 

 

In this instance, Fair Share Housing was seeking information regarding the League’s position opposing affordable housing regulations proposed by the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH). Therefore, all COAH regulations adopted in the past 10 years have been declared unconstitutional. The latest regulations are on appeal before the New Jersey Supreme Court challenging the latest determination of unconstitutionality. The League has largely been supportive of these unconstitutional regulations and has opposed reasonable attempts at legislation and regulations enforcing a municipality’s obligations to zone for reasonable opportunity for housing for all of the residents of New Jersey.

 

Here in my firm's Lawrenceville, New Jersey office, I expect this decision to be a source of conversation among our attorneys. If you have questions about how this decision could impact you and your business, feel free to contact me to discuss this matter in more detail.

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Minutes ago we here in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and Newtown, Pennsylvania felt the earth shake…literally. An earthquake measured at 5.9 on the Richter scale, centered in Mineral, Virginia (just outside of Richmond), was felt along significant parts of the East Coast. 

 

Developers, property owners, architects, engineers and frankly all of us are to be thankful for building code requirements that consider earthquakes as an element of structural design, not only here in New Jersey, but throughout the entire nation. 

 

While structural design and building codes in California for instance must pay far more attention to the possibility and severity of earthquakes, all building codes are required to consider the impact of natural events (including wind and earthquakes) no matter how uncommon such natural events might be. Without such building code requirements, there could have been far more damage than the building shaking and buzz around the office we felt here in New Jersey.

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 Gary Forshner, Shareholder in Stark & Stark's Real Estate, Zoning and Land Use Group, meets with Chris Savastano, Director of Commercial Development for NJR Clean Energy Ventures to discuss the recent trends in the solar industry.

Recent Trends in the Solar Industry from Stark & Stark on Vimeo.

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Gary Forshner, Shareholder in Stark & Stark's Real Estate, Zoning and Land Use Group, meets with Chris Savastano, Director of Commercial Development for NJR Clean Energy Ventures to discuss the components needed in order to make a solar project work. 

What is needed in order to make a solar project work? from Stark & Stark on Vimeo.

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In the first published decision of its kind, the Appellate division in the matter of Price v. Martinetti asks the question whether a property owner having land use approval to develop land loses the right develop under the first approval in the event a second approval for a different development scheme is subsequently granted.

In this instance the court concludes that a landowner generally retains the right to develop the property under either development approval. Under certain instances that did not apply in the Price decision, the court alluded to the possibility that it might reach a different conclusion, but generally, a property owner holding an approval will be able to develop under the original development plan should the landowner choose, notwithstanding an approval for a different development scheme granted subsequently.
 

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Gary Forshner, Shareholder in Stark & Stark's Real Estate, Zoning and Land Use Group, meets with Chris Savastano, Director of Commercial Development for NJR Clean Energy Ventures to discuss the different types of solar projects and how each one works. 

What are the different types of solar projects? from Stark & Stark on Vimeo.

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Renewable energy projects, including wind, solar, biomass, etc., continue to rely upon critical tax and other incentives to be cost effective. In the future such incentives may prove unnecessary but now, during the relative infancy of the renewable energy industry, projects would not proceed absent such incentives.

Federal legislation has been introduced to extend the 30 % tax credits for offshore wind projects past the current expiration at the end of 2011. As the industry matures, costs and efficiency of renewable energy projects improve, but for now if we are to reduce carbon footprint (greenhouse gases), emissions and the geo-political impacts of fossil fuels, these tax incentives continue to be a necessary component of this industry that is creating important job opportunities and reducing energy costs.

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