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NJ Adds Funding to GREEN ACRES and BLUE ACRES Programs

The NJ Senate Republicans website reports “Acting Governor Tahesha Way signed legislation sponsored by Senator Parker Space (R-24) and Assemblyman Michael Inganamort (R-24) appropriating $44.4 million… to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for the State acquisition of Green Acres open space lands and Blue Acres lands.” (A6275/S4921).

The NJDEP reports, “This funding ensures that lands vital for recreation and conservation are preserved for future generations, while also strengthening programs like Blue Acres that help monitor, manage, and reduce flooding risks in our most vulnerable areas.”

“The Green Acres Program was created in 1961 to meet New Jersey’s growing recreation and conservation needs. The Green Acres Program has directly protected more than 725,000 acres of open space and parkland and has funded 1,256 local and nonprofit park development and stewardship projects in communities around the state.”  Over the years, NJ has committed $3.3 Billion in Green Acres funding.

“The New Jersey Trails Program was established with the passage of the New Jersey Trails System Act in 1974, laying the groundwork for a network of trails that provide for outdoor recreation and active transportation, and which connect people with their community, with their favorite places, and with each other.” The act charged the Department of Environmental Protection with the task of establishing a trails plan. “The first Trails Plan was created in 1982, updated in 1996 and again in 2009.” The New Jersey Trails Program develops, maintains and restores trails and trail-related facilities, funded under the  federal Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grants established under the National Recreational Trails Fund Act in 1993. 

If you require assistance related to NJ’s Green Acres and Blue Acres programs or The New Jersey Trails Program, please contact Alan P. Fox, Esquire.

  • Articles

Significant Expansion of New Jersey’s Program That Uses Seafood Shells Recycled From Restaurants for Creation of Oyster Reefs

NJDEP Fish & Wildlife launched a shell recycling program in 2019 that was centered in Atlantic City, where discarded clam and oyster shells from restaurants were collected and reused to enhance local oyster reefs. The program began with a single restaurant partner and was initially focused solely on the Atlantic City region. The program grew quickly to involve nearly every major casino and seafood restaurant in Atlantic City within just a few years.

NJDEP reports the program now includes 32 restaurant partners across Atlantic, Cape May, and Ocean counties, significantly increasing shell collection efforts and resulting in more available shells for oyster reef enhancement.

This week, NJDEP announced a groundbreaking partnership with the Sysco Corporation for a significant expansion of the state’s successful program that uses seafood shells recycled from restaurants for creation of oyster reefs.  NJDEP claims “the reefs can improve the ecological health of coastal waters, reduce waste to landfills, enhance climate resilience and benefit local restaurants.”

NJDEP reports “through this partnership, Sysco, the world’s largest food distributor, will collect discarded oyster and clam shells from restaurants it serves across the region and provide them to NJDEP Fish & Wildlife’s Shell Recycling Program for oyster reef enhancement projects to expand multiple sites along the state’s coastline.”

NJDEP claims “the additional shells will directly result in more planted reefs, which means more available habitat for oyster larvae to settle and grow — leading to greater recruitment, population recovery, and ecosystem benefits.”

NJDEP Fish & Wildlife Assistant Commissioner Dave Golden states: “These reefs offer critical habitat for a wide range of recreational and commercially important marine species. By recycling shells, we reduce waste and support the recovery of ecosystems that benefit both marine life and coastal communities.”

The success of the program has drawn interest locally as well as nationally. NJDEP proudly announced “the Fish & Wildlife Shell Recycling Program has received multiple accolades for its work.”  “At its Fall 2024 meeting, the Environmental Council of the States awarded an Honorable Mention to the program for a video showcasing the shell recycling process.”  “In 2024, the program gained funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Zone Management Program, enabling expansion beyond Atlantic City and development of a robust environmental education program.”  “Earlier this year, NJDEP Fish & Wildlife’s Shell Recycling Program team members were honored at the 2025 State Employee Recognition Day award ceremony as part of Public Service Recognition Week.”

For additional information, you may contact me at afox@capehart.com or follow the Shell Recycling Program.

  • Articles

New Jersey Governor Murphy Signs New Law Making Significant Reform to the State’s Requirements for the Publication or Advertisement of Legal Notices

On June 30, 2025, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill No. 4654, which was introduced on June 16, 2025, into law, enacting significant reforms to the state’s requirements for the publication or advertisement of legal notices. Traditionally, legal notices are required to be published in printed newspapers to afford the public notice of municipal and county meetings. Since many print newspapers in New Jersey ended daily print publication, the new law revises the manner in which legal notices are to be communicated to the public.

Effective March 1, 2026, all governmental and public entities will be required to publish or advertise legal notices electronically on their own official website. Such websites will be required to clearly link to legal notices on its home page and be accessible and available to the public without charge. All governmental and public entities will be required to maintain public notices on the website for a minimum of a week, or the time required by law, before transferring the notice to archives and stored for at least one year. A local government unit is not required to maintain an archive until July 1, 2026.

The State is required to create a webpage under the Secretary of State’s website which links to the legal notice page for each public entity.

Effective January 1, 2026, governmental entities may, in addition to the publication on its official Internet website, advertise a legal notice in an “eligible online news publication.”

Any corporation, individual, or other entity that is not a public entity and is required by law or a court order or court rule to publish or advertise a legal notice will be required to publish in an “online news publication” (which satisfies the requirements mentioned below).  Corporations, individuals, or other entities shall select an “online news publication” based on the geographic target as established or implied under the law, court order or court rules requiring publication.

The majority of the bill’s requirements are mandatory beginning March 1, 2026, and are optional until that date. Each public entity’s Internet website shall be accessible and available to the public free of charge, with a direct hyperlink to the legal notices published on the public entity’s official  Internet website. Such public notices must be conspicuously placed on the public entity’s Internet homepage.

This new law defines “public entity” to include the State, any State agency and any local government unit, district, public authority, public agency and other political subdivision or political body of the State, as well as local government units, including county, municipality or any agency, board, commission, utilities authority or other authority (including any sheriff or sheriff’s office).

This law provides that public bodies may continue using qualifying newspapers for required notice notices and legal advertisement until March 1, 2026.

The term “online news publication” means “a news publication in electronic format that contains news on matters of public concern and has published news predominantly in the English language at least once per week for at least one year continuously.” To be an “eligible online news publication,” the following criteria must be satisfied:

(1) use a domain name for the Internet website that will be easily recognizable and understandable to users of the website as belonging to that online news publication;

(2) maintain the online news publication on the Internet in a manner that is fully accessible and searchable by members of the public at all times, other than during routine maintenance or circumstances outside of the operator’s control;

(3) ensure that legal notices published or advertised on the online news publication comply with the requirements that would apply to the legal notices if they were published in a physical newspaper, as applicable;

(4) maintain an archive for at least one year of notices that are no longer displayed on the online news publication;

(5) display a legal notice for at least one week, or other time period as required by law, before placing it in archive;

(6) enable legal notices, both those currently displayed and those archived, to be accessed by key word, by party name, by case number, by county, or other useful identifiers;

(7) maintain an adequate security system and develop a contingency plan for coping with and recovering from power outages, systemic failures, and other unforeseen circumstances;

(8) not charging a fee or require registration or a subscription to view legal notices;

(9) maintain media liability insurance of up to $1 million;

(10) have been in continuous operation for at least three years, which can be satisfied by the online news publication itself or by a company that has a controlling or majority interest in the online news publication; and

(11) provide the number of monthly unique website visit and monthly unique website visits by users in this State and in each county, as evidenced by IP address or other appropriate identifier, which shall be prominently displayed on the Internet homepage of the online news publication along with the criteria provided in this subsection, or a hyperlink to a webpage displaying such criteria, and whether the online news publication meets each criteria.

i. To qualify as an online news publication eligible to publish legal notices for municipal-wide circulation, the online news publication shall receive 4,000 unique monthly visits on average as calculated annually, no less than 50 percent of which shall be from IP addresses within the applicable municipality or within a 10-mile radius of the municipality.

ii. To qualify as an online news publication eligible to publish legal notices for county-wide circulation, the online news publication shall receive 50,000 unique monthly visits on average as calculated annually, no less than 50 percent of which shall be from IP addresses within the applicable county or within a 10-mile radius of the county.

iii. To qualify as an online news publication eligible to publish legal notices for State-wide circulation, the online news publication shall receive 350,000 unique monthly visits on average as calculated annually, no less than 50 percent of which shall be from IP addresses within the State.

This new law will change the manner in which legal notices are disseminated by applicants seeking land use approvals and appearing before local and county zoning boards and planning boards, as well as regional planning agencies (e.g., Pinelands Commission) and state agencies.  Legal notices related to the publication of government resolutions, proposed bids for public work, or court orders requiring legal notices in real estate related litigations (e.g., mortgage foreclosures, sheriff’s sale, quiet title litigation, etc.) will likely be impacted as well.

If you have any questions, please contact Alan P. Fox, Esquire (Chairperson for the firm’s Land Use Section and Co-Chair for the Real Estate Section) at Afox@capehart.com or his direct phone number at 856-914-2056.

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