News Release

New Jersey Department of
Banking and Insurance
Acting Commissioner Donald Bryan

For Immediate Release: June 16, 2005

For Further Information: Jaimee Gilmartin - (609) 292-5064

Pinelands Development Credit Bank Launches Web Site


TRENTON – The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance and Pinelands Development Credit (PDC) Bank are proud to announce the launch of a new web site that aims to improve communication in the Pinelands region to help preserve the highly valued wilderness area in southern New Jersey . The bank's site, www.njdobi.org/pinelandsbank.htm, offers detailed information about the Pinelands Development Credit (PDC) program, a Transferable Development Rights (TDR) plan that encourages a shift from development in the region's agricultural and environmentally-sensitive areas to more appropriate places within the Pinelands. The PDC Bank provides a way for area landowners interested in selling their development rights to meet prospective buyers.

“The Pinelands is a state environmental treasure not only unique to New Jersey and the nation, but to the world,” said Acting Governor Richard J. Codey. “The PDC Bank's program has proved to be a valuable land preservation tool in the Pinelands and is an international model for conservationists.”

PDC Bank, an independent state agency (separate from the Pinelands Commission), began its credit program in 1985. The bank's primary mission is to provide a public market where Pinelands developers and landowners can meet. PDC Bank has helped preserve more than 40,000 acres of environmentally-sensitive forest and farmland in the Pinelands. The information disseminated by the bank's new web site enables landowners, developers and the 53 municipalities in the region to learn all about the PDC program.

Services provided by the bank's new web site include:

“We're continuing to educate the public on the benefits of transferable rights as an effective preservation tool,” said Thomas J. Byrne, executive director of PDC Bank. “I think the web site will help us in our ongoing education efforts. The web site is going to be a great advantage to the public and I think the public will respond well to it.”

The PDC Bank is administratively attached to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance. The Director of Banking serves as the agency's board chair.

“The PDC Bank web site is bound to help its small staff reach out to more people throughout the Pinelands,” said H. Robert Tillman, PDC Bank Chair and Director of Banking. “The bank's staff works hard to help landowners and developers benefit from an efficient program and now will be able to provide helpful information 24/7. The web site will be another tool to help keep the Pinelands beautiful while promoting desirable economic development.”

The Pinelands Commission and PDC Bank work hand-in-hand to protect the Pinelands. The Pinelands Commission is charged under federal and state law to prepare, administer, update and implement its Comprehensive Management Plan, adopted in 1981. The PDC Bank is part of the Pinelands plan.

The Pinelands is a one million-square-mile area containing irreplaceable resources that can easily be destroyed. Because the Pinelands' sandy soils do not filter pollutants, water supplies are easily contaminated by septic systems, fertilizers, pesticides and run-off from heavily traveled roads. These are but a few of the impacts that go along with suburbanization. To prevent this from happening, the Pinelands plan sets aside sensitive areas where the amount of development is limited and other areas where growth is encouraged.