About the Smart Growth Awards Competition

New Jersey has long been at the cutting edge of smart and sustainable planning and redevelopment. Since 2002, we have honored the very best examples of this work through the annual Smart Growth Awards as part of our mission to promote sensible and equitable growth, redevelopment, and infrastructure investments to foster healthy, strong, and resilient communities. 

 

Do you know of an innovative project, plan, or initiative that deserves to be honored for its commitment to smart growth principles? Consider nominating it for a 2023 Smart Growth Award!

Smart Growth Award winners will be celebrated at an in-person event in early October and will be featured in a professionally produced video. Each winning project video will be posted online and made available to the project teams for their own use.

Check out our previous award winners to view the profiles and videos of our wide-ranging winning projects.

This year, New Jersey Future added a new category to our annual Smart Growth Awards, the Redevelopment Trailblazer. Trailblazers redevelop sites while advancing the principles and practices of smart growth. The Redevelopment Trailblazer award will go to an organization or individual that has demonstrated leadership and innovation in the field of redevelopment by executing projects that showcase how redevelopment can improve communities, respect the environment, advance societal goals, and be economically viable. If you know who would be the perfect fit, help them get the recognition they deserve!

Nominations and all supporting documents are accepted only via an online submission portal during the Call for Nominations period. We are now accepting nominations for the 2023 Smart Growth Awards. Submission deadline is April 12, 2023.

 

Guidelines and Nomination Instructions

Submit a Project or Plan for a Smart Growth Award

Submit an Individual or Organization for the Redevelopment Trailblazer Award

 

Nominations are judged by an independent panel of experts—from various facets of the planning and redevelopment fields—against the following considerations about whether the project:

• Positively impacts the broader community.
• Is near existing development and infrastructure, ideally “redevelopment.”
• Creates or enhances connections to existing developments or plans.
• Creates or enhances a vibrant mix of uses (residential, retail, office).
• Demonstrates a commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Increases the range of housing options available (affordability, size, type). If residential, it should contain designated affordable housing units.
• Engages and involves the community throughout the planning, decision-making, and implementation processes.
• Protects, enhances, or connects to open space and natural features.
• Employs historic features of the community.
• Creates or enhances transportation choices that reduce the need to drive.
• Fosters walkability and activities at the street level that encourage personal interaction.
• Improves resilience to climate change and natural hazards.
• Utilizes green infrastructure or regenerative planning concepts.

To keep informed about the Smart Growth Awards and other New Jersey Future programs and activities, sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Questions? For more information, please contact Kim Irby,  (kirbynjfutureorg)   (609) 393-0008, ext. 1008 and/or Michael Atkins,  (matkinsnjfutureorg)   (609) 393-0008, ext. 1006.