John Cranmer Plays Key Role in Successful Drive for Water-Saving Regulations

John D. Cranmer, a Partner with the law firm of Archer P.C. and member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Apartment Association (NJAA), played a key role in the NJAA’s successful campaign for historic new utility rules designed to achieve significant conservation of potable water in New Jersey.

Mr. Cranmer served as the NJAA’s attorney in drafting the official petition to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) that led to a recent BPU order permitting water “sub-metering” in newly constructed apartment buildings. “Sub-metering” enables apartment renters to pay only for their own water usage, rather than all households in a building paying the same regardless of consumption. Independent studies, including by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Dartmouth University, show that sub-metering cuts water usage by at least 15 percent and up to 32 percent.

With the BPU’s order, New Jersey becomes the last of the 50 states to allow utility sub-metering. Mr. Cranmer and the NJAA worked with BPU Commissioners and staff for nearly 10 years to get the measure approved.

“Sub-metering encourages people to conserve when they are responsible for paying the bill and held accountable for personal usage,” said Mr. Cranmer, a member of Archer’s Real Estate Department in Haddonfield, N.J. “We at NJAA are hopeful that water sub-metering in new buildings will lead to greater understanding of the benefits and broader use of sub-metering as a conservation tool.”

The sub-metering approval is one of the first energy policy recommendations to be enacted based on Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno’s bi-partisan Red Tape Review Commission Report. The need to revisit New Jersey’s restrictive policy on sub-metering in rental housing was listed as a specific policy recommendation in the Lieutenant Governor’s bi-partisan Red Tape Report of April 2010.

Founded in 1986, the NJAA is a statewide organization of apartment owners, managers, builders, developers and others involved in related industries, which works to advance and protect the apartment industry in New Jersey. NJAA represents managers and owners of more than 170,000 rental units throughout the state.

Mr. Cranmer, of Moorestown, N.J., concentrates his practice in real estate law, including real estate development, real estate transactions, commercial real estate, commercial lending, real estate brokerage, fair housing, affordable housing, land use and environmental permitting and utility law.

Archer PC is a full-service regional law firm with more than 200 lawyers and eight offices in Haddonfield, Hackensack, Princeton and Flemington, N.J.; Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.; and Wilmington and Georgetown, Del. The Firm has been serving Fortune 100 clients, small to medium-sized businesses and individuals for more than 80 years. Each office provides full-service litigation and transactional capabilities in nearly every area of law including corporate, estate & trust, family & matrimonial, labor & employment, litigation, medical & personal injury and real estate services. For more information, visit www.archerlaw.com.

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