Morris County has the most varied topography of any county in the New York Urban Region—hills and cliffs, rivers and swamps, fields and streams. It is lovely country. But it is already marred by some of the coarsest high wayside commerce and some of the most slipshod apartment projects anywhere in the New York Urban Region. Wetlands have been carelessly filled, hilltops carved off, many trees felled unnecessarily, some streams polluted. Though half of the land is vacant, traffic is heavy not just in rush hours but throughout the business day. An increasing percentage of trips are made by automobile, and for most trips, there is no alternative.
The purpose of this book and the Conference on the Future of Morris County is to provide the basis for conscious decisions on issues that in the past have been made simply by default.