13:20-6 Powers, duties, responsibilities of council.

6. The council shall have the following powers, duties, and responsibilities, in addition to those prescribed elsewhere in this act:

a. To adopt and from time to time amend and repeal suitable bylaws for the management of its affairs;

b. To adopt and use an official seal and alter it at the council's pleasure;

c. To maintain an office at such place or places in the Highlands Region as it may designate;

d. To sue and be sued in its own name;

e. To appoint, retain and employ, without regard to the provisions of Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes but within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available for those purposes, such officers, employees, attorneys, agents, and experts as it may require, and to determine the qualifications, terms of office, duties, services, and compensation therefor;

f. To apply for, receive, and accept, from any federal, State, or other public or private source, grants or loans for, or in aid of, the council's authorized purposes or in the carrying out of the council's powers, duties, and responsibilities;

g. To enter into any and all agreements or contracts, execute any and all instruments, and do and perform any and all acts or things necessary, convenient, or desirable for the purposes of the council or to carry out any power, duty, or responsibility expressly given in this act;

h. To call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of such employees of any State entity or local government unit as may be required and made available for such purposes;

i. To adopt a regional master plan for the Highlands Region as provided pursuant to section 8 of this act;

j. To appoint advisory boards, commissions, councils, or panels to assist in its activities, including but not limited to a municipal advisory council consisting of mayors, municipal council members, or other representatives of municipalities located in the Highlands Region;

k. To solicit and consider public input and comment on the council's activities, the regional master plan, and other issues and matters of importance in the Highlands Region by periodically holding public hearings or conferences and providing other opportunities for such input and comment by interested parties;

l. To conduct examinations and investigations, to hear testimony, taken under oath at public or private hearings, on any material matter, and to require attendance of witnesses and the production of books and papers;

m. To prepare and transmit to the Commissioner of Environmental Protection such recommendations for water quality and water supply standards for surface and ground waters in the Highlands Region, or in tributaries and watersheds thereof, and for other environmental protection standards pertaining to the lands and natural resources of the Highlands Region, as the council deems appropriate;

n. To identify and designate in the regional master plan special areas in the preservation area within which development shall not occur in order to protect water resources and environmentally sensitive lands while recognizing the need to provide just compensation to the owners of those lands when appropriate, whether through acquisition, transfer of development rights programs, or other means or strategies;

o. To identify any lands in which the public acquisition of a fee simple or lesser interest therein is necessary or desirable in order to ensure the preservation thereof, or to provide sites for public recreation, as well as any lands the beneficial use of which are so adversely affected by the restrictions imposed pursuant to this act as to require a guarantee of just compensation therefor, and to transmit a list of those lands to the Commissioner of Environmental Protection, affected local government units, and appropriate federal agencies;

p. To develop model land use ordinances and other development regulations, for consideration and possible adoption by municipalities in the planning area, that would help protect the environment, including, but not limited to, ordinances and other development regulations pertaining to steep slopes, forest cover, wellhead and water supply protection, water conservation, impervious surface, and clustering; and to provide guidance and technical assistance in connection therewith to those municipalities;

q. To identify and designate, and accept petitions from municipalities to designate, special critical environmental areas in high resource value lands in the planning area, and develop voluntary standards and guidelines for protection of such special areas for possible implementation by those municipalities;

r. To comment upon any application for development before a local government unit, on the adoption of any master plan, development regulation, or other regulation by a local government unit, or on the enforcement by a local government unit of any development regulation or other regulation, which power shall be in addition to any other review, oversight, or intervention powers of the council prescribed by this act;

s. To work with interested municipalities to enter into agreements to establish, where appropriate, capacity-based development densities, including, but not limited to, appropriate higher densities to support transit villages or in centers designated by the State Development and Redevelopment Plan and endorsed by the State Planning Commission;

t. To establish and implement a road signage program in cooperation with the Department of Transportation and local government units to identify significant natural and historic resources and landmarks in the Highlands Region;

u. To promote, in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Agriculture, conservation of water resources both in the Highlands Region and in areas outside of the Highlands Region for which the Highlands is a source of drinking water;

v. To promote brownfield remediation and redevelopment in the Highlands Region;

w. To work with the State Agriculture Development Committee and the Garden State Preservation Trust to establish incentives for any landowner in the Highlands Region seeking to preserve land under the farmland preservation program that would be provided in exchange for the landowner agreeing to permanently restrict the amount of impervious surface and agricultural impervious cover on the farm to a maximum of five percent of the total land area of the farm;

x. To establish and charge, in accordance with a fee schedule to be set forth by rule or regulation adopted pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), reasonable fees for services performed relating to the review of applications for development and other applications filed with or otherwise brought before the council, or for other services, as may be required by this act or the regional master plan; and

y. To prepare, adopt, amend, or repeal, pursuant to the provisions of the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), such rules and regulations as may be necessary in order to exercise its powers and perform its duties and responsibilities under the provisions of this act.

L.2004,c.120,s.6.