Future Facts
New Jersey Future’s David Kutner To Receive Statewide Planning Award
January 14th, 2019 by New Jersey Future staff
APA NJ to present its Budd Chavooshian Award at annual conference Jan. 24
David Kutner
New Jersey Future Planning Manager David Kutner, who directed the organization’s local recovery planning manager program in six coastal towns after Hurricane Sandy and who has led New Jersey Future’s advocacy work on planning for resiliency, is the 2019 recipient of the American Planning Association-New Jersey chapter’s Budd Chavooshian Award. The award is given to a professional planner for sustained contributions to the profession through distinguished practice, teaching or writing. Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey Future Welcomes Three New Trustees
January 10th, 2019 by New Jersey Future staff
New Jersey Resources’ Amy Cradic, Newark Alliance’s Aisha Glover, RWJBarnabas Health’s Jen Velez join organization’s board
At its recent annual meeting, New Jersey Future’s Board of Trustees welcomed three new members:
Amy Cradic, vice president of government affairs and policy at New Jersey Resources, joins the board after having served the New Jersey Office of the Governor in several capacities, and prior to that as deputy director and assistant commissioner for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. “I am pleased to join this respected organization, focused on so many of the urgent issues that affect New Jersey’s growth,” Cradic said. “It’s an honor to support their work, and to serve with such distinguished fellow trustees.”
Aisha Glover, now president and chief executive officer of the Newark Alliance, previously led the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation, served as vice president of external affairs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, and led a team at the Center for the Urban Environment in New York City. “New Jersey Future has been a tireless advocate for the importance of revitalizing our cities and towns,” said Glover. “This work is critical to the economic future of the state, and I am happy to be asked to join the effort.”
Jen Velez, executive vice president, community and behavioral health at RWJBarnabas Health, previously served for eight years as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services. “New Jersey Future applies a culture of health lens to all of its work,” said Velez. “Regardless of specific focus area, this approach provides a strong foundation to promote health equity and advance the organization’s forward-thinking initiatives.”
“The breadth and depth of perspective these outstanding individuals bring to the board will serve to strengthen even further the organization’s position as a thought leader in advocating for smart, equitable growth in New Jersey,” said Peter Reinhart, the director of the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University and chairman of New Jersey Future’s Board of Trustees. “We’re delighted to welcome them, and grateful for their willingness to share their expertise and wisdom with us.”
Report Gives New Jersey High Marks for Designating Opportunity Zones in Smart-Growth Locations
January 9th, 2019 by Tim Evans
However, communities should guard against possibility of displacing existing residents
New Jersey’s Opportunity Zones. Map courtesy of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs
The Opportunity Zones program, announced earlier this year, is a new federal program enacted as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that is designed to attract capital investment into long-neglected neighborhoods characterized by disinvestment and concentration of poverty, by giving preferential tax treatment to funds that invest in projects in such areas. Each state was tasked with choosing its own set of census tracts to be designated as Opportunity Zones, subject to certain income criteria. The Department of Community Affairs administers the program in New Jersey and was responsible for selecting New Jersey’s Opportunity Zone tracts. Read the rest of this entry »
New Population Estimates: New Jersey’s Still Growing, But Slowly
January 2nd, 2019 by Tim Evans
The Bureau of the Census released new annual estimates of state populations in mid-December. A quick analysis shows that New Jersey’s story continues to be one of slow growth. The state’s year-to-year growth of 0.22 percent from 2017 to 2018 is actually the fastest single-year growth rate since 2010-2011, when it grew by 0.41 percent. It shares this distinction with neighbor Delaware (which also posted its fastest growth since 2011 this year) but not with any other Northeastern state, all of which had at least one faster year of growth at some point since 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Getting Sewage Off Our Streets and Out of Our Rivers
December 18th, 2018 by Moriah Kinberg
A statewide coalition today unveiled Sewage-Free Streets and Rivers, a coordinated campaign across New Jersey communities with combined sewer systems that overflow raw sewage during heavy rainfalls. These overflows can cause sewage backups into basements and streets, and dump an estimated 23 billion gallons of raw sewage into New Jersey’s waterways annually.
“After rains, the raw sewage that spews into our waterways and backs up into the streets of many urban communities poses a significant health threat to people and denies folks their right to access to safely swim, fish and recreate local on local rivers and waterways” said NY/NJ Baykeeper Greg Remaud, one of the partners in the campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
DEP Moves to Require Green Infrastructure for Stormwater Management
December 6th, 2018 by Louise Wilson
Update Jan. 8, 2019: Read New Jersey Future’s initial comments on the proposed rule.
The impacts of climate change, especially heavier storms and longer dry spells, are contributing to water pollution and flooding and in general making stormwater management — the art and science of managing and routing heavy rainfall — ever more challenging. And the state’s rules governing stormwater management have been robustly criticized for years by various stakeholders including developers, municipalities and environmental advocates, who view the rules as confusing, unenforceable and inadequate.
EPA Announces $56 Million in Brownfields Grants for 2019
December 3rd, 2018 by Elaine Clisham
Aerial view of Camden, which received $400,000 in brownfield grants in 2018.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced the availability of up to $56 million in brownfields program grants for 2019. These grants are used help revitalize land that has been contaminated by hazardous chemicals, petroleum products or other pollutants. Local, regional or county jurisdictions, nonprofits, and community development organizations are all eligible to apply.
Three kinds of grants are available:
- Assessment grants, which are three-year grants and cover inventory, planning, environmental assessment and public outreach. A maximum of $300,000 for a community-wide application, $200,000 for a site-specific application, or $600,000 for a coalition application is available. These grants require no cost-share on the part of the applicant.
- Cleanup grants, which are three-year grants of up to $500,000, cover cleanup activities at sites owned by the applicants. They require a cost-share of 20 percent of the requested amount. Previously funded sites may not apply again for cleanup grants.
- Multipurpose grants cover a range of eligible assessment and cleanup activities at one or more sites in a target area, and offer a maximum of $500,000 over five years. They require a cost-share of $40,000 in money, labor, material or services.
The deadline for applications is Jan. 31, 2019. Applicants must be registered with grants.gov, which can take up to one month.
Where Do New Jersey’s Out-Migrating Millennials Go?
November 7th, 2018 by Tim Evans
What are the most common destinations, at the county level, for Millennials who move out of New Jersey? Part 2 of a series investigating where New Jersey’s out-migrating Millennials are going. Read Part 1.
New Jersey Future intern Alexandra Rome assembled the data on which this analysis was based.
In part 1 of this series, we looked at the most common destinations, by county, for people of all ages who move from New Jersey to other parts of the United States. In part 2, we look specifically at where out-migrants of the Millennial generation – typically defined as those born between 1980 and 2000 – are going when they leave. Read the rest of this entry »
From Stormwater to Clean Water: New Flood-Control, Pollution Resource for Towns
November 5th, 2018 by Louise Wilson
New Jersey Future’s Green Infrastructure Municipal Toolkit Makes a Splash
The related problems of nuisance flooding and polluted waterways are getting worse in our Garden State. To help cities and towns address these problems, New Jersey Future has developed the Green Infrastructure Municipal Toolkit: a one-stop online resource useful to any community in New Jersey, whether new to the opportunities green infrastructure presents or already implementing GI and seeking more specific expert guidance. The toolkit includes detailed information and a variety of tools that cities and towns can use to plan, implement, and sustain green infrastructure in public- and private-sector development projects. Read the rest of this entry »
A Better Way To Plan for Traffic Effects of New Development
November 2nd, 2018 by Tanya Rohrbach
Woodmont Metro at Metuchen Station, built near transit and with shared parking, reducing the need for driving between destinations.
San Jose, California, is changing the way transportation planning is done. In a webinar hosted by Smart Growth America, a San Jose transportation planner discussed the problems with using transportation level of service (LOS) as a metric for mitigating impacts of traffic. Level of service measures the supply side of transportation – for example, the time it takes for a car to get through an intersection or the number of parking spaces per facility – but it doesn’t measure how efficiently a space is being used. A disconnect exists between land use and transportation in LOS analyses because there is no consideration given to other aspects of the space, such as a location’s vibrancy or access to mobility without the use of a personal vehicle. Read the rest of this entry »
