New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Commissioner, Susan Bass Levin, announced the award of an $80,000 Smart Growth Planning Grant to the Sourland Planning Council.  The event was June 25, 2002 at Baldpate Mountain on Fiddler's Creek Road in Hopewell Township. 

The grant will support the Sourland Mountains Management Plan.  The growth management plan includes the preservation of historical lands, the protection of breeding areas and residential and commercial smart growth within the region. 

The Sourland Planning Council consists of Hillsborough, Hopewell, Montgomery, East and West Amwell Townships and Hunterdon, Mercer and Somerset counties.

Invited guests included Senator Walter J. Kavanaugh, Assemblyman Christopher Bateman, Assemblyman Peter J. Bondi, Senator Shirley K. Turner, Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, Assemblywoman Connie Myers and Assemblyman Michael J. Doherty, Senator Leonard Lance, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora.  Officials in attendance to receive the grant check were Mayor Nancy Palladino, West Amwell Twp., Mayor Andrea Conette, East Amwell Twp., and Mayor Jon R. Edwards, Hopewell Twp. as well as members of the Sourland Planning Council.