Cities and Towns
Smart growth means taking advantage of infrastructure that already exists, capitalizing on the streets and sidewalks, the water pipes and sewer systems, the central business districts, the residential neighborhoods, the parks and recreational facilities that give established cities and towns their distinct identities and attractions.
Directing future investment to these centers, both large and small, will ensure that we use our land most efficiently and effectively, preserve the surrounding open space and halt the spread of suburban sprawl. Revitalizing our urban areas through redevelopment, and enhancing our towns by preserving community character, design and historic features, and creating walkable spaces, a vibrant mix of uses and a range of housing options, will make New Jersey a truly sustainable state..

Where we build our housing, the type of housing we build, and for whom we build it affects our environment, our quality of life, and how segregated a state we will live in.

Read New Jersey Future’s perspective on some of the possible effects—both positive and negative—on the geographic patterns of residence, employment, shopping, and travel behavior if the stay-at-home advisories of the pandemic era translate into a permanent increase in the number of people working from home.

New Jersey Future, along with our partners, has spent many years working with downtown leaders to understand how to create vibrant, walkable, equitable downtowns and have provided resources, guidance, and direct services to many of these places. With this experience, we have made several recommendations to improve the impact of the small business program.

As part of its Creating Great Places to Age program, New Jersey Future has been researching strategies that dozens of municipalities in New Jersey have implemented to provide a more diverse housing stock. These examples of successful local strategies demonstrate possible paths other towns can take to meet the needs of their residents and develop great communities.

According to the traffic data analysis consultant INRIX, New Jersey is #1 in staying at home, notching a 63 percent drop in statewide personal vehicle travel as of last week, when compared to the baseline week of February 22nd.

In this report, New Jersey Future analyzed housing affordability in each New Jersey municipality, to see where households headed by someone 65 or older have high housing costs. The places where housing cost burden is greatest fall into two groups: towns that are expensive for everyone, and towns that are dominated by larger, single-family housing stock. December 2015.

In this report, New Jersey Future and Smart Growth America analyzed per-capita road usage. The results show that places with the highest activity density have the lowest per-capita usage, suggesting per-capita road-maintenance costs can be reduced by even marginal increases in density. November 2015.
An interim report, three years after Hurricane Sandy, on New Jersey Future’s groundbreaking local recovery planning manager program, including lessons learned and recommendations. October 2015.

An analysis of household income distributions in the neighborhoods around New Jersey’s transit stations shows that not all station areas offer the benefits of transit access across all income levels. June 2015.

The Economic Opportunity Act of 2013 included additional incentives for projects destined for “smart-growth” areas. This report analyzes how effective the updated incentives have been at directing growth to those areas. December 2014.
See all New Jersey Future Blog posts and articles in this category »
Reports, Presentations and Testimony
- NJM May 2019 stormwater utlities Van Abs
- 03/07/2019: Testimony on S1742, S1768 and S1774
- New Jersey Future Resilient Coastal Communities Phase 2 Report 5-22-18
- 02/14/2019: Testimony on A2697-S1783
- Creating Great Places to Age: Land Use Analysis of Aging Friendliness (Westwood Borough, July 2018)
- Rename to: Creating Great Places to Age: Land Use Analysis of Aging Friendliness (Teaneck, Feb. 2019)
- Creating Great Places to Age: Land Use Analysis of Aging Friendliness (Somerdale, Jan. 2019)
- Trenton Transit Center Strategic Action Blueprint July 2018
- APA Conference Places To Age Best Practices
- New Jersey Future Demographic Trends by Age September 2017
- Jersey Water Works Water Infrastructre Funding Report 06-2017 (Intern Report)
- Oxford Byway to Destination NJM June 2017
- New-Jersey-Future-Assessment-of-the-NJLIHTC-program
- New Jersey Future 2017 Gubernatorial Platform
- Strategic Recovery Planning Report Maurice River 05-2015
- Strategic Recovery Planning Report Commercial 12-2015
- 2013 Facing Our Future Report - Infrastructure Investments Necessary for Economic Success - Links to Water Infrastructure Resources
- League of Municipalities Article on Aging in Community April 2016
- New Jersey Future report to NJDEP re Liberty State Park 02-04-15
- Final Jersey City to Proacitvely Test Water Supply Press Release %282%29
- New Jersey Future Housing Affordability and Aging-Friendly Communities
- Housing Affordability and Aging-Friendly Communities Housing Cost-Burden Municipal Data by Municipality
- Housing Affordability and Aging-Friendly Communities Housing Cost-Burden Municipal Data by Cost Burden Rank
- fiscal-implications-roads-in-new-jersey
- NJFuture-In-Deep-10-15-WEB
- 2013 Facing Our Future Report - Infrastructure Investments Necessary for Economic Success
- Can We Depend on Our Water Infrastructure?
- 2014-11-18_Trenton Green Infrastructure Feasibility Study.compressed
- Economic-Opportunity-Act-and-Smart-Growth-Progress-Report
- Trenton_Meeting_Summary_FINAL
- New Jersey Future Stormwater Utilities Report 9-14 (Intern Report)
- Agenda for Change
- Case Study: Paterson
- Case Study: Jersey City
- Case Study: Hoboken
- Case Study: Camden
- Ripple Effects
- Van Abs: Water Infrastructure in New Jersey's CSO Cities
- Creating Great Places To Age in New Jersey
- Creating Places To Age in New Jersey Municipal Best Practices
- Creating Places To Age in New Jersey municipal data
- Creating Places To Age Bergen-Passaic Supplement
- NJFuture Cluster Presentation I Open for Municipalities
- 03/19/2013: New Jersey Future CDBG-DR comments
- How Clustering Works
- Clustering-Factsheet_11_5_2013
- Cluster-Development-Act-summary-of-key-provisions-10-13
- Statutory and Regulatory Barriers to Green Infrastructure in New Jersey 1-13 (Intern Report)
- Somerset County Investment Framework 1-13 (Intern Report)
- Targeting Transit -- New Jersey Future
- Innovation Districts as Economic Growth Strategy 9-12 (Intern Report)
- Wastewater Planning County Fact Sheets
- Case Studies of Non-Contiguous Clustering in New Jersey 04-12
- Leinberger in the League Magazin
- Financial Benefits of Density in Two New Jersey Downtowns 7-11 (Intern report)
- Route 1 Planning Through Partnerships
- Transit-Oriented Development Workshop for HCDNNJ memb mtg 06-15-2011
- Transfer of Development Rights Task Force Report 08-11-10
- Municipal Resource Conservation Assessment 06-01
- Case Study Hopewell Township 08-00
- Presentation: Land Preservation Using Off-site Clustering 03-19-11
- A Citizen's Guide to Transit-Oriented Development
- Chasing Their Tails: Municipal Ratables Chase Doesn't Necessarily Pay 07-10
- Race to the Middle: The Homogenization of New Jersey's Population Density
- Moving Out: New Jersey's Population Growth and Migration Patterns
- Realistic Opportunity? The Distribution of Affordable Housing and Jobs in New Jersey
- Getting to Work 11-08
- Built Out Permit Activity 12-10
- Built Out 12-10