'Boroughitis' at Heart of New Jersey's Weird Geography

Written By Colleen O’Dea/NJ Spotlight

Getting from here to there can be complicated when 'there' may be several separate sections of the same township

The large number of municipalities in New Jersey has sparked a great deal of discussion about the perils of home rule and the benefits of consolidation as a way to save money. Yet there's a deeper level of illogicality to many municipalities—geography.

Much has been said about New Jersey's donuts and holes—townships that completely surround boroughs or other municipalities. Forgetting those, there are still a lot of weird geographically delineated municipalities. A number of them have an exclave—a piece of land not connected to a main section—and three or four, depending on the definition of "connected" have two exclaves. Like most other things having to do with politics in New Jersey, the individual circumstances can be a little fuzzy.

But there is one constant in describing all of the municipalities on the list: All are to some extent the result of laws passed by the state Legislature in the late 1800s. One law made it easier for a group of residents to break away from a large township—then the predominant form of government. Another made them want to do so. Essentially, it took away local control of individual schools while at the same time forcing people to pay for schools their children did not attend. Some have termed this period—from 1894 to the Great Depression—boroughitis or borough fever.

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