A much-discussed development in Oakland will next head to the New Jersey Supreme Court in an effort to prevent construction of 204-units on High Mountain.

The court agreed on Thursday to hear the case against Bi-County Developers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection following an August state appellate court decision to allow the development to proceed. Should the project go through, 204 homes and townhouses would be constructed on an 85-acre tract in Oakland's southeastern corner, west of Breakneck Road, owned by Brooklyn-based Bi-County Development Corp.

The Sierra Club and New Jersey Highlands Coalition environmental groups fought against the development. Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said it's important for the Supreme Court to hear the case and that the appellate court "was in error" in August.

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"The Supreme Court is stepping in because this development could not only destroy an environmentally sensitive mountain in the Highlands, but also put the drinking water for 2 million people at risk," Tittel stated in a press release.

Conservationists thought the project was all but dead when the Legislature passed the 2004 Highlands Act, which bars most large, private development in a 390,000-acre region to protect drinking water sources for millions of state residents. The Oakland tract is included in the area covered by the act.

In 2008, when Jon Corzine was governor, the DEP blocked a permit application, saying the proposed complex would draw too much water from the Ramapo River, create too much runoff due to steep slopes and destroy a critical habitat for at least one threatened species, the barred owl.

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Bi-County Development challenged the DEP in court. The company argued that a 1991 decision by the DEP to connect to sewer lines in neighboring Wayne was grandfathered in despite the Highlands protections that came after it.

In a 2014 settlement, the Christie administration agreed with that position, which drew criticism from local officials, nearby residents and environmentalists. The DEP began issuing permits for the project in January 2015, which prompted the suit by the Highlands Coalition and the Sierra Club.

Email: jongsma@northjersey.com