News

New Jersey Future is pleased to be part of the project team that will manage a $5 million HUD Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant award, announced today by Secretary Shaun Donovan.

Sept. 24, 2012: New Jersey Future announced it has assembled a comprehensive database of development-related statistics for the state’s 243 transit stations and their surrounding neighborhoods.

November 22, 2011 — Brendan T. Byrne — whose governorship was marked by landmark measures that protected the Pinelands, enhanced mass transit and promoted urban revitalization — was honored by New Jersey Future at a reception at the Morven Museum & Gardens on Nov. 20.

Nov. 30, 2011 — The New Jersey Assembly will be considering passage of a bill (A4306) that, in its current form, will undermine the goals of the State’s Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit (UTHTC) program and weaken the state’s long-term economic competitiveness. The bill should be amended to avoid the erosion of the UTHTC program’s capacity to level the playing field between urban and suburban markets and ensure that the development the program boosts is truly transit-oriented.

Jan. 13, 2013 — Two of the most successful and popular economic incentive programs – the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit and the Economic Redevelopment and Growth program – are proposed to change. One of the strongest themes that run through these two programs is that they have powerful smart-growth location-based criteria that provide incentives for businesses to grow in places with the appropriate infrastructure and not in places with important environmental features or that will be more costly for the state.

Nov. 20, 2012: The State Strategic Plan is a framework, a guiding document of only 41 pages that promotes sound planning but doesn’t attempt to do the actual planning work. Any changes in it to address the need for resiliency should remain high-level and provide the parameters within which to make changes, but not prescribe the actual changes.

May 31, 2012 — Over the past decade, solar power has become increasingly popular in New Jersey, for a host of good reasons. Solar energy is clean and renewable. It reduces our carbon footprint and our dependence on foreign sources of petroleum. Solar has the potential to meet an ever-larger percentage of New Jersey’s energy needs far into the future.

New Jersey Future’s comments recommend some needed revisions to the draft State Strategic Plan to ensure that it will improve the state’s economy, its environment, and its communities.