OSG examined environmental information to identify areas within Planning Areas 1, 2 and 3 that contain features of concern. Planning Areas 4b and 5 were reviewed, but since they are already considered environmentally sensitive by definition, OSG did not delineate environmentally sensitive areas within them. In addition, new environmental features were not identified in Planning Area 4, pending policy discussions during Cross-acceptance on regarding how to balance agricultural needs with environmental concerns within this Planning Area.

OSG mapped wetlands and Natural Heritage Priority (NHP) Sites on the State Plan Map as follows: (1) areas larger than 2 acres and adjacent to a Planning Area 5 were appended to the PA5; (2) areas larger than one square mile are new PA5; and (3) areas smaller than one square mile are mapped as a potential Critical Environmental Site. Areas where Wetlands and NHP sites combined to create an area greater than one square mile were mapped as Planning Area 5.

The areas previously mapped as Critical Environmental Sites (CES) in Planning Areas 4B and 5, outside of designated centers, are no longer mapped as such because the planning areas in which they are located are considered environmentally sensitive already, and CES designation within them is redundant.

All C1 streams are shown on the Preliminary State Plan Map for reference.

In a small number of cases, changes were not made as described above. This is for two reasons: either (1) the change would result in fragmentation of a Planning Area; or (2) the changes would conflict with on-the-ground knowledge.

OSG created a quadrangle-scale series of maps which highlight places where infrastructure and Planning Area designations may be inconsistent. These maps highlight areas in PA 1 and 2 that are not within a Sewer Service Area, as well as PA 3, 4, 4b, and 5 that are within a Sewer Service Area. In addition, the maps highlight roads that appeared on the new GDT roads file, but were not in the 1995 DOT roads files, in order to show areas of new development.

In a small number of cases, this infrastructure data, in combination with environmental data, resulted in minor Planning Area boundary adjustments between adjacent Planning Areas.

A series of open space files supplied by DEP's Green Acres Program, including Federal Parks, State Parks, Local Parks, permanently protected government or non-profit easements and some utility land, were assembled with existing cross-accepted parks. Conflicts between the files were resolved in this priority order (highest to lowest): State, Conservation Easements, Local Preserved, State Plan and Federal. The file was inserted into the State Plan Map as the new parks file, superseding some previously incorrect park boundaries as necessary.

In many cases, incorporating the open space file created small fragments of Planning Areas. These fragments were addressed in the following ways:

• Fragments two acres or smaller along the New Jersey coastline were merged with the park lands. The exception to this is fragments within the back bay islands, because of their sheer number and complexity.
• Fragments smaller than one square mile were merged into the adjacent Planning Area where sensible and possible
• Fragments or PA5 greater than 2 acres were maintained, to show PA5 and open space as part of an environmental feature or system.

In some site-specific cases, preserved utility watershed files were used to make minor Planning Area boundary adjustments, where they were close to Planning Area 4b or 5.