July 18, 2024

I want to share an update from New Jersey Future on the recently passed Fiscal Year 2025 budget. As we navigate this new fiscal year, our commitment to driving investment in infrastructure, affordable housing, and economic opportunities for all remains steadfast. The budget falls short in some areas, but holds promise for maintaining and enhancing New Jersey's growth and inclusivity in others. Read our full statements on the FY2025 Budget and on Capital Park online, and below for a brief recap. 

Public Transit: Last month NJ Transit experienced delays approximately once every three days due to the dire state of Northeast Corridor’s infrastructure, underscoring the necessity of dedicated and consistent funding for NJ Transit. The new budget establishes the Corporate Transit Fee, a significant and encouraging funding stream to improve NJ Transit, ensuring better service and maintenance. Reliable and efficient public transportation is crucial for creating walkable communities and reducing the usage of private automobiles. We are committed to working with partners to ensure that the Corporate Transit Fee is effectively utilized and implemented.

Redevelopment Efforts: In addition to reliable transit, we must maximize the potential of properties around transit stations. We support the effort to have the Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) play an active role in developing NJ Transit land with the goals of creating more walkable, mixed-use communities, boosting ridership and meeting state housing, climate change, and redevelopment goals. However, we must ensure that such programs are transparent, don’t prioritize short-term gain over long-term value, and incorporate good planning principles to create places with lasting value and benefit.

Water Infrastructure: Water infrastructure remains a critical issue. The new budget provides water infrastructure funding, but falls short of last year’s commitment. With an updated estimate of $30 billion needed for water infrastructure over the next 20 years, it is disappointing that the budget does not fund a dedicated water infrastructure research center. Such a center would provide valuable insights for better planning and securing federal resources to help us close this gap and properly fund our needs.

Capital Park: We are pleased that Capital Park was funded $5 million in construction costs in the budget. We view Capital Park as a critical improvement to the Statehouse complex and connector between the Statehouse and the local community. In 2026, Capital Park will welcome the fifth governor since the beginning of advocacy behind converting this space into an urban park. We look forward to securing the final funding amounts soon and having a park to welcome visitors to by 2026.

Peter Kasabach

Executive Director

Harmful Algal Blooms

We’re talking HABs! Harmful Algal Blooms, which pose moderate health risks, are already being detected across the state and shutting down water bodies to recreational activities like fishing, swimming, and boating. HABs form when naturally occurring algae grow rapidly due to a number of factors like heat and nonpoint source pollution reaching our lakes. NJ.com reported earlier this month that recreational swimming has been banned at Spruce Run Recreation Area in Hunterdon County. NJ Department of Environmental Protection operates an insightful HAB Tracker online, which reveals that 14 water bodies have been issued alerts, while another 35 are under watch; together these alerts and watches account for issues at over half of our public bodies of water (as of July 15, 2024).

NJF’s Mainstreaming Green Infrastructure team did a deep dive into HABs, what causes them and how to prevent them with an in-depth exploration of HABs in Budd Lake. Read our blog, “Harmful Algal Blooms impacting recreation season for NJ Lakes,” to learn more about HABs and what municipalities can do as they conduct their long-term Watershed Improvement Plans to incorporate green infrastructure. And don’t miss our video, live now on all social platforms and linked above.

Stormwater Pays No Mind to Municipal Borders—Why Should You?

“Stormwater follows watershed boundaries, not political boundaries,” said Dr. Dan Van Abs, Professor at Rutgers University, during the 2024 New Jersey Planning & Redevelopment Conference (PRC). Many of New Jersey’s 564 municipalities grapple with flooding issues. For some, it is not uncommon for as little as three inches of rainfall to grind daily life to a halt. Read more.

New Jersey Needs More Housing, and Municipalities are on the Front Lines

Without a safe, stable place to call home, how can people achieve any personal goals?” asked Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Jacquelyn Suárez. Her opening remarks kicked off the session, “Housing: What’s Next in New Jersey?” at the 2024 NJ Planning and Redevelopment Conference. Read more.

New Jersey's Housing Landscape: The Mount Laurel Doctrine and the Search for the Missing Middle

The rising costs of housing in New Jersey are affecting everyone, especially individuals and households at the lower end of the income spectrum. New Jersey’s unique Mount Laurel doctrine is meant to address the need for housing for lower-income households, but it also indirectly has a major effect on the supply of market-rate multi-family units in the process. Read more.

Tell Us What You Want to Know!

We want to hear from you! New Jersey Future touches on a number of issue areas, and we’d like to know more about what you want to know about. By taking this brief survey you will share with NJF additional information that will help us tailor future newsletters, call to actions, reports, and more directly to your interests. Help us better understand our audience by taking the survey!

• Various Dates in July: The Mercer County Action Team (MCAT) and the Trenton Green Team are kicking off a new initiative called the Trenton Walks program. Its goal is to promote the trails in Trenton by getting more people walking on them. Join a walk!
• October 22: Save the date! The 2024 Smart Growth Awards will be hosted at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center from 5:30–8:30 p.m. Stay tuned for an announcement of the award winners and registration details.

Smart Growth is equitable growth. It is also restorative, as smart growth and redevelopment can help correct systemic racial and economic disparities. As New Jersey Future drives land use decision-making toward more equitable outcomes, we will be sharing useful resources and lessons in this monthly spotlight. Please give us your feedback and share with us any particularly insightful articles, talks, events, or videos that you come across.

Last summer was the hottest on record, and this summer will be no different. In fact, New Jersey is the third-fastest warming state in the country, largely due to overdevelopment and being a coastal state. Average temperatures increase at 3.5F degrees annually compared to 2.5F degrees across other states. In the past week, temperatures have reached the high 90s, but urban areas are bearing the brunt of this scorching summer. 

Newark is one of 12 cities in New Jersey that experience the “urban heat island effect.” These areas experience higher temperatures than surrounding areas due to buildings, roads, etc, covering green spaces that would otherwise absorb the sun’s heat. Cities often lack adequate tree cover, all resulting in an 8° to 11° temperature difference. Residents of urban areas like Newark, that deal with 100-degree temps, disproportionally face cooling costs and heat-related health risks. According to the US Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey, “about 9% of American households lack air conditioning, and nearly 12% of these households are below the poverty threshold.” Additionally, many low-income households will opt out of using air conditioning due to rising costs. 

It's clear that climate justice and racial justice are intertwined. NJF’s Advocacy and Government Affairs Manager Sabrina Rodriguez-Vicenty’s blog explores the convergence of environmental justice issues in Elizabeth, NJ, noting, “There are troubling connections between race-based housing segregation and climate change.” Urban Heat Islands (UHI) can be traced to historically redlined areas that “currently experience hotter summers than non-redlined areas in 150 of 179 major U.S. cities,” according to the research group Climate Central. Besides ensuring residents have resources such as cooling centers during extreme heat events, cities should work to mitigate urban heat effects by advocating for parks, increasing green space, planting trees, and installing permeable green infrastructure.

New "Dangerous by Design" Report Names NJ the 20th Most Deadly State

More than 7,522 people were struck and killed while walking in 2022, marking a 40-year high in pedestrian deaths. Smart Growth America’s 2024 edition of Dangerous by Design analyzes national trends in pedestrian fatalities and ranks the deadliest metro areas and states in the U.S. Despite success stories, like Hoboken which hasn’t had a bike or pedestrian traffic fatality in seven years, New Jersey’s roads remain unfriendly to non-drivers amidst a national trend of increasing fatalities year over year. New Jersey Future advocates for safe street infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists, and believes the key to ensuring our communities are safe for people of all walks of life and all ages is the development and redevelopment of strong town centers with a mix of residential and commercial activities. Walkable, dense town centers that feature robust public transportation options promote public safety and health, economic opportunity and climate resilience.

Most streets are designed to move cars as quickly as possible, at the expense of safety. Our elected officials must intervene to address dangerous street design and curb preventable deaths. 

Call on your state leaders to prioritize safe street design by supporting Smart Growth America’s call to action for safer streets.

The report contends that roads designed for vehicle speed at the expense of the safety of all other road users lead to more deaths. And the burden is not shared equally: Black individuals are twice as likely to die while walking than their white, non-Hispanic counterparts, with the rate for Native Americans being even higher. Read the full report and see if your community is one of the most dangerous in the nation: smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design.

Celebrating Michele Glassburg on Her Retirement

We’re extending our best wishes to Michele Glassburg, who retired from New Jersey Future last month. Michele will be greatly missed by her NJF colleagues, our board of trustees, and community leaders alike—whether you know Michele personally or not, she was a vital part of our signature events and daily operations in her dedication to New Jersey Future and to a better New Jersey. 

We all benefited from her passion for our mission, and she was an inspiration to us all. Michele was with New Jersey Future for over seven years, during which time her partnership building contributed to tripling our staff, adding many new programs, and serving even more Garden State communities. We also would like to thank our friends at Princeton Hydro who generously made their space available for us to host a small retirement party for Michele, and MudGirls studios for their always superb artistic contribution in honoring Michele with the very same tile she helped design for our Smart Growth Award winners.

• 06/27/2024: New rules are coming for PFAS in drinking water. See how your water tests. (Gothamist)
• 06/18/2024: Advocacy groups: Funding NJ Transit is critical to state’s economic, environmental future (Real Estate NJ)

Guide to Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning

Working with the NJDEP, Sustainable Jersey, and statewide partners, NJF led development of the Guide to Local Climate Change Adaptation Planning, providing a model Climate Change-Related Hazard Vulnerability Assessment (CCRHVA) and planning process for New Jersey Municipalities that satisfies the requirements of the 2021 MLUL amendment.

New Jersey Stormwater Retrofit Best Management Practices Guide

NJF partnered with Princeton Hydro to create a New Jersey Stormwater Retrofit Best Management Practices Guide. This guide provides municipalities, counties, nonprofit organizations, developers, and property owners the tools to identify opportunities to retrofit existing stormwater BMPs and install new stormwater BMPs in built-out environments.

Social Media Spotlight:

What Do You Value the Most About the NJPRC?

Did someone forward you this newsletter?

Sign up to receive your own copy!