History & Mission
“The Commission is established for the protection, development or use of natural resources, located within the territorial limits of the City of Linden.“ In 1968 the New Jersey State Legislature passed a law that authorized municipalities to set up conservation commissions patterned after those in several New England States. The law made the commissions advisory bodies on natural resource planning and protection, and open space issues. In 1972 the State Legislature amended the law to expand the commissions’ responsibilities to other areas of environmental concern, such as pollution prevention and control, solid waste management, noise control and environmental appearance and to allow the establishment of joint commissions by two or more municipalities. To reflect these increased responsibilities, the law changed the name to “Environmental Commission”.
Presently, Environmental Commissions …
- Advise their governing bodies and boards of health on a variety of environmental issues
- Inform municipal planning boards and zoning boards of adjustment about environmental impacts of proposals for development
- Advocate planned open space preservation at the municipal level
- Investigate environmental problems and offer solutions
- Inform residents on environmental matters and ways to help protect the environment
- Interact with neighboring commissions and other organizations to tackle regional and state problems
- Maintain a data base on the environmental resources of the municipality
- Help to explain to other local officials and residents, the programs and regulations of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and communicate local concerns to the NJDEP
Meetings
Environmental Commission Meetings are held in the Meeting Room of the Linden Free Public Library, 31 East Henry Street in Linden, normally on the first Wednesday of each month. All meetings are open to the public. A normal meeting agenda would include but not be limited to:
- Call to Order
- Flag Salute
- Open Public Meetings Act
- Roll Call
- Approval of Minutes of the last meeting
- Review of Site Plans and Incident Reports
- Committee Reports
- Review of Correspondence
- Old Business
- New Business
- Comments by the Public
- Comments by Commissioners
- Announcement of Next Meeting
- Adjournment