9:00 a.m. Session One—Concurrent Workshops

Reviving Dead Malls (Garden State A)
A “dead” mall or shopping center is one with a high vacancy rate and/or low customer traffic level. The changing nature of retail in the United States can make dead malls difficult to reinvigorate, once their tenants or the configuration of their selling space have become outdated. Shopping centers can also be adversely affected by socioeconomic decline in their surrounding neighborhoods or by the opening of a newer, larger center nearby. This session will present several real-world examples of how to bring dead malls back to life, by re-purposing them as multi-use centers.

Panelists

• Marvin Reed, Former Mayor, Princeton Borough (Moderator)
• Joseph F. Coradino, President, PREIT (Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust) Services, LLC
• Tara B. Paxton, AICP, PP, Assistant Municipal Planner, Township of Brick
• Mark Remsa, Director of the Department of Economic Development and Regional Planning, Burlington County

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Picking Winners: Ways to Target Subsidies and Permit Assistance (Garden State B)
Complex redevelopment projects often need public assistance to make it through the permit approval process and/or to obtain financial subsidies. This session will look at two approaches to project evaluation. The City of Newark’s Brick City Development Corporation has created a new scorecard that will determine the amount of public subsidy a development project can receive, based on its overall value to the city. The second approach, DEP’s new Readiness Checklist, is designed to assist developers in getting quick feedback on a project’s feasibility and in garnering necessary permits. The town of Dover—a recipient of a 2007 New Jersey Future Smart Growth Award—is using the checklist to shepherd a riverfront redevelopment project through the DEP permitting process.

Panelists

• Richard F. X. Johnson, Senior Vice President for Development & Partner, Matrix Development Group (Moderator)
• Michael A. Hantson, PE, PP, CME, Engineer, Planner and Zoning Officer, Town of Dover
• Joseph Ritchie, Chief Executive Officer, Brick City Development Corporation, City of Newark
• Nancy Wittenberg, Assistant Commissioner for Environmental Regulation, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

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The Role of Parking in Redevelopment (Garden State C)
Although often perceived as a necessary evil, parking is a critical issue for urban and suburban redevelopment. The amount of parking, how it is designed, constructed and financed, and the way it is managed all have an impact on traffic flow, the pedestrian experience and the ultimate success of a redevelopment program. This session will present parking as urban infrastructure, illustrate the financial challenge associated with incorporating parking structures within redevelopment projects and offer practical solutions to parking needs.

Panelists

• Gerard P. Giosa, Principal, Level G Associates
• Robert S. Goldsmith, Esq., Partner, Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Davis LLP
• Lopa Kolluri, Assistant Treasurer for Economic Development, New Jersey Department of the Treasury

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Soil Clean-up Standards: Impact on Brownfields Redevelopment (Conference A)
Although brownfields require costly clean-ups, their locations, often in older communities with existing infrastructure and near employment, make them ideal places for redevelopment. Recently proposed changes to DEP’s soil remediation standards will significantly affect the clean-up process. Attendees will hear about the proposed new standards and their impact on redevelopment from both those enforcing the new rules and those subject to them.

Panelists

• Jorge Berkowitz, PhD, Senior Associate, Langan Engineering and Environmental Services (Moderator)
• Valorie Caffee, Director of Organizing & Environmental Justice Coordinator, New Jersey Work Environment Council
• Dr. Barry Frasco, Assistant Director, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• George H. Jacobs, Principal, Jacobs Enterprises (JEI)
• Steven T. Senior, Counsel, Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti LLP

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Unleashing Light Rail’s Redevelopment Potential (Conference B)
Once a state with many streetcar lines, New Jersey has recently seen the comeback of light rail, the modern-day equivalent. This panel will feature the Hudson Bergen Line in North Jersey and the River Line in South Jersey. Panelists will consider some of the barriers to transit-oriented development and discuss the economic and social impact of transit systems on their host communities. Attendees will hear from local officials and a major institution about how proximity to transit is playing a role in their neighborhood revitalization efforts.

Panelists

• Vivian E. Baker, Assistant Director of Transit Friendly Land Use & Development, NJ TRANSIT (Moderator)
• Bob Cotter, Director, Division of City Planning, Jersey City
• Martin E. Robins, Senior Fellow, Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center, Rutgers University
• Darlene A. Scocca, Economic Development Representative, Burlington County
• John P. Sheridan, Jr., President & Chief Executive Officer, Cooper Health System

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Building and Sustaining Mixed-Income Neighborhoods (Conference C)
Cities thrive when they have strong, stable neighborhoods with residents from a range of income levels. But local officials often struggle with how to attract middle-income residents to poor areas on the one hand, and how to prevent wide-scale gentrification on the other. Speakers will provide practical information on successful neighborhood building efforts based on national research and first-hand experience.

Panelists

• Michael L. Powell, Director of Planning and Policy, New Jersey Community Development Corporation (Moderator)
• Toni L. Griffin, Director of Community Development, City of Newark
• Alan Mallach, FAICP, Senior Fellow, National Housing Institute

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Redevelopment 101: How to Get Started (Conference I)
The redevelopment process is complicated, and the terrain is changing. This session will utilize the statutory process as a framework to discuss the key issues that arise, including the importance of public participation, treatment of property owners, designating an area “in need” and the possible use of condemnation. Attendees will learn about the process from the perspectives of an attorney, a planner and a local official.

Panelists

• Eileen F. Banyra, AICP, PP, President, EFB Associates, LLC
• Charles B. Liebling, Esq., Partner, Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP
• Stephen B. Nolan, Esq., Partner, Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP; chairman, Highland Park Redevelopment Agency

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Legal Update: The Redevelopment Law and Eminent Domain (Salon A/B)
Since the Kelo decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, eminent domain has been a hot topic in redevelopment. New Jersey’s redevelopment law, which authorizes towns to use eminent domain, has also seen its share of controversy. Recent cases in the state, including Gallenthin vs. Paulsboro, have served to fuel the debate over the scope of eminent domain. This panel will discuss how recent cases have affected eminent domain law and, more importantly, what this means for redevelopment in New Jersey.

Panelists

• Wayne Smith, Mayor, Township of Irvington (Moderator)
• Anne S. Babineau, Esq., Partner, Wilentz Goldman & Spitzer
• Thomas J. Hastie, Jr., Attorney, McManimon & Scotland, LLC
• Christopher J. Paladino, President, New Brunswick Development Corporation

 
10:45 a.m. Session Two—Concurrent Workshops

Using Historic Preservation for Redevelopment (Garden State A)
In scores of cities and towns throughout New Jersey and across the country, civic leaders have realized the best way to revitalize a community is to build on its strengths and preserve and enhance the character that makes each neighborhood special. Beyond their artistic and historic value, historic sites and neighborhoods can also offer economic, environmental and social opportunity. Attendees will learn how local and community leaders, as well as a developer, have used historic preservation as a catalyst for economic development and community growth in Trenton’s Lamberton neighborhood and in Madison Borough in Morris County.

Panelists

• Ron Emrich, Executive Director, Preservation New Jersey (Moderator)
• James Holmes Coston, Councilman and Pastor, First Baptist Church of the City of Trenton
• David Henderson, Managing Member, HHG Development Associates, LLC
  Mary-Anna Holden, Mayor, Madison Borough

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Making Good Design Work for Redevelopment (Garden State B)
Good design works for redevelopment. If communicated well, it can help build community support for needed change in a community. If executed well, it can enhance the value of an area by improving the quality of place and by attracting more people and investment. New Jersey’s Local Housing and Redevelopment Law offers communities an enhanced level of design control and allows for flexibility that can avoid a negative impact on a developer’s bottom line. This session will provide an overview of good urban design principles and how towns such as Collingswood, a 2007 New Jersey Future Smart Growth Award-winner, are using their redevelopment plans to improve the quality of life in their communities.

Panelists

• Carlos Rodrigues, AICP, PP, Vice President and New Jersey Director, Regional Plan Association (Moderator)
• Angelo Alberto, AIA, PP, Principal, Alberto & Associates
• John Clarke, FAIA, PP, Partner, Clarke Caton Hintz
• James Maley, Esq., Mayor, Borough of Collingswood; Partner, Maley & Associates, PC

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Redevelopment Finance: Making the Deal Work (Garden State C)
Redevelopment, which brings new buildings and tax revenues, also has the potential to deliver community amenities, such as improvements to parks, streets, infrastructure and community facilities. However, cities cannot attract developers unless a project is financially viable. This panel will provide an overview of financial analysis from the developers’ perspective. Panelists will discuss how communities can make plans that allow enough flexibility to make a deal work and explore some of the financial tools available to help close the gap.

Panelists

• Timothy Lizura, Senior Vice President for Business Development, New Jersey Economic Development Authority
• Bruce Murray, Senior Manager, Real Estate Solutions Group, LLC
• Michael Sullivan, ASLA, AICP, Partner, Clarke Caton Hintz

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Deciphering Indicators of Neighborhood Change (Conference A)
Many communities in New Jersey face daunting economic and social challenges but often lack the ability and tools to address them. This session will present innovative techniques to successfully analyze neighborhood and market conditions and to devise strategies to form partnerships of investors, developers and entrepreneurs to deliver capital where it will have the greatest impact. Panelists will share how the Reinvestment Fund’s analytical tools and investment strategies have informed and driven the neighborhood revitalization efforts carried out by HANDS, Inc., a local community development corporation in Orange and East Orange.

Panelists

• C. Sean Closkey, President, TRF Development Partners
• Ira Goldstein, Ph.D., Director of Policy and Information Services, The Reinvestment Fund
• Pat Morrissy, Founder and Executive Director, HANDS, Inc.

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Rethinking Auto-Dependent Corridors (Conference B)
Reducing auto-dependency will be a key challenge for New Jersey in the years to come. Cars account for a large portion of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, and over-reliance on driving can lead to congestion and sprawl. Many of the state’s key commercial corridors, such as Route 1 and Route 73, are currently almost exclusively designed for the automobile. This panel will look at what needs to be done in the long term—and at creative steps that can be taken today—to help bring these auto-dependent corridors into the 21st century.

Panelists

• James Requa, Projects Manager, New Jersey Office of Smart Growth (Moderator)
• Charles Latini, AICP, PP, Principal, Heyer, Gruel & Associates
• Gary Toth, Senior Director, Transportation Initiatives, Project for Public Spaces
• Michael Viscardi, AICP, PP, Senior Facilities Planner, NJ TRANSIT

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Achieving Sustainable Redevelopment: More than Just Green (Conference C)
Sustainability is a new buzz word, and construction of green buildings is increasing. But what can towns and cities do to be green on a larger scale? This panel will consider sustainability from a redevelopment and land-use perspective and will investigate how given land-use decisions can affect the social, environmental and economic systems at the local level. Speakers will provide valuable lessons learned and share some useful tools for sustainable redevelopment in New Jersey.

Panelists

• Athena Sarafides, Office of Planning and Sustainable Communities, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (Moderator)
• Francis J. Banisch, III, AICP, PP, Principal, Banisch Associates Inc.
• Todd J. Poole, Director of Economic Planning/Senior Associate, EDAW
• Jennifer Senick, MA, ABD, Commissioner, Highland Park Redevelopment Agency

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Overcoming Communities’ Anxieties About Redevelopment (Conference I)
In light of concerns over density, the fiscal strain of adding school children and other factors, redevelopment plans are often greeted skeptically by local officials and fearfully by residents. Encouraging honest and open discussion through extensive public participation and introducing creative, attractive design concepts to a plan can create an atmosphere of trust and turn potential opposition into support. This panel will present proven techniques and approaches to overcoming communities’ anxieties about redevelopment proposals.

Panelists

• Rick Sinding, Senior Communications Consultant, New Jersey Future (Moderator)
• Jim Constantine, PP, Principal, Looney Ricks Kiss Architects
• Marvin Reed, Former Mayor, Princeton Borough
• John Taikina, AICP, PP, Director of Planning & Development, Garden Homes Development

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State Housing Policy & Redevelopment (Salon A/B)
With a new statewide housing plan in the works at the Department of Community Affairs, newly revised rules being released by the Council on Affordable Housing, and Assembly Speaker Roberts introducing a comprehensive package of bills in the Legislature aimed at making housing more affordable, the housing policy landscape is changing rapidly in New Jersey. Municipal leaders, developers and housing providers may face a host of new rules, regulations, and incentives aimed at producing more housing options. Subsidized, lower-income and market-rate housing, as well as expanded rental and ownership choices, may all be part of the mix. Representatives from state government and housing advocates intimately familiar with the new proposals will help municipal officials understand what to expect and what to think about.

Panelists

• Joseph V. Doria, Jr., Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (Moderator)
• Conor Fennessy, Vice President of Government Affairs, New Jersey Apartment Association
• Timothy Touhey, Executive Vice President, New Jersey Builders Association.
• Kevin D. Walsh, Esq., Associate Director, Fair Share Housing Center

2:15 p.m. Session Three—Concurrent Workshops

LEED®-ND: A new Framework for Sustainable Neighborhood Development (Garden State B)
Redevelopment offers municipalities an opportunity to create sustainable neighborhoods that integrate the principles of smart growth, new urbanism and green building design. The new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Neighborhood Development rating system, or LEED®-ND, is the first national system for neighborhood design and is designed to ensure that a development’s location and design meet accepted high levels of environmentally responsible, sustainable development. This panel will discuss the advantages of green certification from the developer’s perspective, exploring explore LEED®-ND’s benefits to communities through the lens of Wesmont Station in Wood-Ridge, one of the state’s five pilot projects and a 2006 New Jersey Future Smart Growth Award-winner.

Panelists

• Daniel Hernandez, Principal, Topology, LLC (Moderator)
• Frances E. Hoffman, PhD, MSP, Director of Redevelopment, Somerset Development, LLC
• Pat Morrissy, Founder and Executive Director, HANDS, Inc.

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New Brunswick’s Redevelopment Experience (Garden State C)
New Brunswick is clearly on the rise. Unlike many urban centers, its population is growing, employment is increasing and the downtown is bustling with new restaurants, businesses and residents. Is all of this a happy accident or the result of hard work and a plan? This panel will explore how the city, along with its development partners, has gained momentum using creative public and private resources to achieve multiple development goals. Panelists will explore how this strategy has evolved over the past 20 years and offer advice based on the lessons learned.

Panelists

• Charles B. Liebling, Esq., Partner, Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP (Moderator)
• Timothy I. Henkel, Vice President, Pennrose Properties LLC
• Christopher J. Paladino, President, New Brunswick Development Corporation
• Glenn Patterson, AICP, PP, Director of Planning, Community and Economic Development, City of New Brunswick

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Arts & Culture as Vehicles for Redevelopment (Conference B)
“As developers pour tens of millions of dollars to help revitalize the waterfront and downtown area here, there is growing awareness about the value of supporting a vibrant art scene,” begins a recent New York Times article on Yonkers. This panel will focus on the role the arts play in revitalizing communities and on the interaction among cultural organizations, citizens, government agencies and developers in creating redevelopment strategies. Panelists from various artistic disciplines in New Jersey and Philadelphia will give visual presentations on the role of their organizations in the development of their communities, and will discuss what has worked (and what hasn’t).

Panelists

• Barry V. Qualls, PhD, Professor and Interim Vice President for Undergraduate Education, Rutgers University (Moderator)
• Steve Fredericks, Executive Director, Growing Stage Children’s Theatre of New Jersey, Netcong
• Jane Golden, Director, Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia
• Lynwood J. Oglesby, Executive Director, Newark Arts Council
• Nancy Shannon, Director of Development, Jersey City Museum
  Wendel A. White, Photographer and Professor of Art, Richard Stockton College

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Drivers of Redevelopment: A Market Analysis (Conference C)
It is often said that “the future of development in New Jersey is redevelopment.” A number of macroeconomic forces are converging to make redevelopment more prevalent and to make state officials more aware of its benefits. The growth of certain demographic groups that seek urban amenities—aging baby boomers and empty nesters, immigrants, young people delaying marriage and having fewer children—has renewed demand for infill housing. Ramped-up land preservation efforts have taken huge swaths of developable suburban open space off the market, leaving already-built areas as an increasingly attractive alternative. Warnings about climate change have increased public awareness of the need to change land-use patterns so people don’t have to drive everywhere. This panel will discuss how these trends are likely to play out.

Panelists

• Joseph J. Maraziti, Jr., Esq., Partner, Maraziti, Falcon & Healey, LLP (Moderator)
• Alan Mallach, FAICP, Senior Fellow, National Housing Institute
• Peter S. Reinhart, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc.
• Laurie Volk, Principal in Charge, Zimmerman/Volk Associates, Inc. 

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Moving from Vision to Implementation: The Somerville Landfill Plan (Conference I)
Building real consensus around a vision plan is no small trick, but it is only the beginning of the road to implementation. Still ahead are redevelopment plans, rezoning, negotiations with land owners and, as we are seeing now, swings in the real estate market. Panelists will check in on the progress of the Somerville Landfill and Station Area Plan, a 2007 New Jersey Future Smart Growth Award recipient. In just over one year, it has progressed from a vision plan to a redevelopment plan to a now-pending request for proposals from developers. Key players will share what’s working and what challenges lie ahead.

Panelists

• Robert Lane, RA, Director of Regional Design Programs, Regional Plan Association (Moderator)
• Colin Driver, Director of Economic Development, Borough of Somerville
• Richard M. Preiss, AICP, PP, Principal, Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc. 
• Jim Zullo, Vice President, Timothy Haahs & Associates, Inc.; formerly senior director of Real Estate, NJ TRANSIT

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Harnessing Redevelopment to Fight Climate Change (Salon A/B)
The need to address global warming has led policy-makers to evaluate the environmental footprint of development. They have found that traditional cities and towns consume less land, support transit use and walking and feature energy-efficient buildings. This session will explore government efforts to encourage redevelopment in the context of addressing climate change. In New Jersey, Governor Corzine’s initiatives include plans to reduce energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions while revitalizing cities and growing the economy. New York City’s PlaNYC is a sweeping effort to enhance the city’s urban environment through a 30 percent reduction in emissions. These programs underscore the leading role cities and towns will play in a “bright green future.”

Panelists

• Jane Kenny, Senior Vice President and Managing Partner, The Whitman Strategy Group (Moderator)
• Jeanne M. Herb, Director of the Office of Policy, Planning and Science, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
• Thomas Hoff Prol, Senior Associate, Scarinci & Hollenbeck, LLC
• Angela Sung, Deputy Chief of Staff, Office of the Deputy Mayor, City of New York
• Adam Zellner, Director of Policy, Office of the Governor, State of New Jersey