From The Press of Atlantic City — Townships in the Pinelands are scrambling to submit comments on the clustering of new developments within their municipalities as Saturday’s deadline to do so approaches.

The Pinelands Commission announced last week at a meeting that in addition to changing the Land Capability Map, it was proposing changes that would make clustering new developments mandatory.

Clustering involves building new properties in rural or forest areas on one-acre lots close to one another, rather than scattering new homes dozens of acres apart.

“This clustering thing snuck up on us,” said Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello. “I don’t think anybody realized the changes until now.”

According to a letter the township submitted to the commission, Buena Vista opposes clustering because it doesn’t “blend well with our existing pattern of development” and should be optional and not mandatory.

“The potential for use on those lots goes down drastically,” Chiarello said.

Chiarello said that people who own several acres in these areas won’t be able to develop their property as they wish.

This may not affect properties that were purchased before the Land Capability Map was first released in 1979. Those properties might be allowed to follow land-use rules that were in affect before the map zoned the Pinelands.

Mullica Township also has sent a resolution to the commission, citing how the clustering mandate “is out of place and out of character for a rural, Pinelands community.”

Other townships affected by development designation changes and clustering are a bit more cautious. The maps showing the changes are preliminary overviews for counties and don’t distinguish where one development area ends and another begins.

“We really haven’t seen that much development in our forest areas,” Hamilton Township Mayor Charles Pritchard said. “But (clustering) might be the impetus that gets them moving.”