Community Design
Community design focuses on the building blocks of the built environment — the buildings, roads, sidewalks, parking lots and public spaces – and relates them to each other and the natural environment: the streams, wetlands, lakes and hills.
There are many different ways of arranging these building blocks, and the quality of the design affects both how communities look and how they function. Community design also determines the scale and character of communities and, perhaps most important, how the scale and character are experienced by the public. At a time of heightened public sensitivity over issues affecting land development, such as density, good community design plays an increasingly important role in shaping the way great places grow.
NJDOT’s new model complete and green streets policy and guide provides practical guidance for municipalities, counties, and agencies to improve roads and the overall landscape.
A look at the places with the characteristics that typically attract Millennials, but that aren’t attracting New Jersey Millennial out-migrants, suggests that housing costs could be a key factor in where these out-migrants decide to live.
New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach has been named a co-chair of the Waterfront Alliance’s new Coastal Resiliency Task Force. The task force will work to build consensus around needed resiliency measures, and issue a recommendations report.
Builders at the Atlantic Builders Convention took a good deal of interest in best practices and benefits of green stormwater management techniques. Proposed new rules will require its use.
The latest Monmouth Poll Garden State Quality of Life Index shows continuing and growing dissatisfaction among young adults. Census data offer some insights into why.
Strong Towns’ Chuck Marohn will visit Hackensack April 13, 2016, to deliver a presentation on ways to invest for community resiliency and prosperity.
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 afternoon symposium Oct. 30, 2014, in conjunction with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, focuses on how to advance, and pay for, increased resilience in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Approved for 2 AICP CM credits.
See all Future Facts and Articles in this category »
Reports, Presentations and Testimony
- 03/07/2019: Testimony on S1742, S1768 and S1774
- New Jersey Future Aging-Friendly Communities Initiative report Ridgewood 8-3-18
- New Jersey Future Aging-Friendly Communities Initiative report Westwood 7-16-18
- New Jersey Future Aging-Friendly Communities Initiative report Teaneck 2-5-19
- New Jersey Future Aging-Friendly Communities Initiative report Somerdale 1-31-19
- 01/08/2019: Testimony on Stormwater Rule Proposal
- Trenton Transit Center Strategic Action Blueprint July 2018
- New Jersey Future Non-Contiguous Cluster Report August 2017
- APA Conference Places To Age Best Practices
- New Jersey Future Resilient Coastal Communities Project Report Appendix 6
- New Jersey Future Resilient Coastal Communities Project Report Appendix 4
- New Jersey Future Resilient Coastal Communities Project Report Appendix 3 Figures
- New Jersey Future Resilient Coastal Communities Project Report 2017
- New Jersey Future Demographic Trends by Age September 2017
- New-Jersey-Future-Assessment-of-the-NJLIHTC-program
- Strategic Recovery Planning Report Maurice River 05-2015
- Strategic Recovery Planning Report Commercial 12-2015
- League of Municipalities Article on Aging in Community April 2016
- 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
- 2014-11-18_Trenton Green Infrastructure Feasibility Study.compressed
- Trenton_Meeting_Summary_FINAL
- Creating Great Places To Age in New Jersey
- Creating Places To Age in New Jersey Municipal Best Practices
- 02/03/2014: Statement on CDBG-DR Funds
- Creating Places To Age in New Jersey municipal data
- Creating Places To Age Bergen-Passaic Supplement
- How Clustering Works
- Clustering-Factsheet_11_5_2013
- Cluster-Development-Act-summary-of-key-provisions-10-13
- 05-2009 Smart Housing Incentives Act - Summary
- Land Use Trends NJPHA 2011
- Financial Benefits of Density in Two New Jersey Downtowns 7-11 (Intern report)
- DFatton Land Use Trends APA-NJ 11-4-2011
- complete-streets-report-FINAL-web
- Smart Growth: The Basics 10-03
- Climate Change and Land Use 10-08
