The environmental groups accused the administration of stacking government committees looking into housing and land use with people from the building and real estate trades.

"You basically have builders and people who work for builders . . . writing the environmental rules for the state of New Jersey," said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the state Sierra Club. "This proposal has really been the wish list for the builders over the past 20 years in New Jersey, many of the things that could not get passed or have been stopped because of public opinion and outrage."

Tittel and representatives of two other environmental groups said the Department of Community Affairs Housing Task Force wants to roll back hard-fought environmental protections and override towns' zoning and planning authority.

"The governor needs to shut down this effort and fire those in his administration helping special interests secure personal windfalls at the expense of the public interest," said Dave Pringle, campaign director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation. "We expect the polluters to have this agenda, not the governor."

The Corzine administration noted the reports are not final and said it is premature to speculate on what the final versions would say.

Jim Gardner, a spokesman for Gov. Corzine, noted the governor's environmental record and said Corzine is committed to building environmentally responsible, affordable housing wherever possible.

The environmentalists said the task force's draft recommendations go far beyond revising housing policy and could have dire effects on water quality, flooding and quality of life.

They said neither the public nor the environmental community was represented on the committees and the meetings were not held in public.