In the Matter of the Board’s Main Extension Rules N.J.A.C. 14:3-8.1, A-1626-10T2; Appellate Division; opinion by Baxter, J.A.D.; decided and approved for publication June 22, 2012. Before Judges Carchman, Fisher and Baxter. On appeal from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. DDS No. 37-2-6737 [36 pp.]
In this appeal, the issue is whether, and to what extent, the Appellate Division’s 2009 opinion in In re Centex Homes should have retroactive effect. In Centex, the Appellate Division invalidated as ultra vires the 2005 Board of Public Utilities (BPU) regulations known as the Main Extension Rules, N.J.A.C. 14:3-8.1 to -8.13. The Main Extension Rules required utility companies to pay for the extension of utility lines to new homes in designated “smart growth” areas of the state, but forced the developer or the homeowner to absorb that cost in portions of the state that were not so designated. The Appellate Division deemed the Main Extension Rules an “extreme departure” from the procedures that had been extant for nearly a century, and held BPU lacked the authority to institute such a “drastic alteration” of the prevailing statutory scheme in the absence of legislative approval.
