October 18, 2023

Last month we honored seven remarkable projects and plans throughout the state of New Jersey and three inspiring individuals as a part of our 21st Annual Smart Growth Awards. Our showcase was held at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center to an audience of 250 attendees to cheer on and celebrate our awardees. Over the next weeks we’re posting each video segment online, and encourage all of our supporters to share far and wide. We honor these projects and profile their achievements to promote what Smart Growth planning and development looks like and to grow our community of local leaders, developers, planners, architects, and residents who will make it happen. Thank you to the honorees, their project teams, our sponsors, and all who came out to support — it was truly a memorable evening that demonstrates our shared commitment to building and fostering an inclusive and prosperous New Jersey. 

In the coming weeks, New Jersey Future is hitting the road! We will be attending a number of conferences stretching from Atlanta to Arizona to Atlantic City, where we will network and connect with other state and national leaders on important redevelopment and Smart Growth issues, including adapting to climate change, upgrading our water infrastructure, and reconnecting communities severed by freeways. National conferences are great opportunities for New Jersey Future to not only bring best practices back to New Jersey, but to promote the achievements and approaches that we have developed in our state. 

Another update of note is that the State of New Jersey is beginning the process of updating its State Plan, which has not happened since 2001. While the process is just beginning, New Jersey Future will use this opportunity to advocate for the next State Plan to properly balance our development and preservation goals, address climate change and the geography of injustice, and promote redevelopment as the primary form of development. By properly planning for the future ahead, we can encourage and promote development practices, street design, and transportation alternatives that ensure New Jersey’s future is inclusive, equitable, and resilient.

Peter Kasabach

Executive Director

The NJ State Development and Redevelopment Plan is Being Updated - Where and How Should New Jersey Grow? Add Your Voice!

The NJ State Planning Commission is hosting a series of eight webinars in October to gather input on how to update the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan. Last adopted in 2001, the State Plan provides a comprehensive framework intended to guide future development, redevelopment, conservation, preservation, and restoration efforts in the state of New Jersey. Read more.

School Segregation in NJ is Not an Accident

Despite being one of the most racially diverse states in the country, New Jersey remains stubbornly segregated at the local level. Persistent segregation in New Jersey’s schools has given rise to a lawsuit that seeks to compel the state government to develop a strategy for addressing it. Read more.

The Smart Growth Awards showcase continues for the next three weeks online! We're thrilled by the enthusiasm of the winning project partners and our sponsors and want to continue to draw attention to our winning projects. Starting last week, NJF began featuring each project across our email, social media platforms, and on YouTube. If you don’t already, please subscribe to New Jersey Future’s YouTube channel to catch each video as it premieres.

Next year’s Smart Growth Awards are just around the corner! If you or someone you know has contributed to an exceptional project or plan in New Jersey we want to know about it! As with this year, we plan to honor a number of projects and individuals for their contributions to a bright future for New Jerseyans. Learn more online and contact NJF staff with any questions.

Hold the Dates:

2024 NJ Planning and Redevelopment Conference

New Jersey Future and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association are partnering once again to host the 2024 New Jersey Planning and Redevelopment Conference.

June 5–6 will be held virtually and June 7 will be held in person at the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick. Look out for more information and call for session proposals coming soon!

See you in Atlantic City!

NJF at the League of Municipalities Conference

Join New Jersey Future November 14-16 at the NJ League of Municipalities Conference and stop by the following sessions.

Planning for Local Responses to Climate Change 

Thursday November 16, 2023, 9:00 AM-10:15 AMET

This session will review a model process to analyze climate vulnerability in a way that addresses resilience of the whole community, going beyond a project-based approach and toward a fuller understanding of climate risks. Tools and resources available to communities will be described to assist in using the planning process outlined in this session to reach clear land use goals as an outcome of a climate vulnerability assessment. 

Tanya Rohrbach, Community Planner Manager, New Jersey Future

Stormwater Management: Map, Monitor and Maintain

Thursday November 16, 2023 2:00 PM-3:15 PM ET

This session will focus on tools, strategies and funding that municipalities can use to meet the new NJDEP municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) permit requirements. Learn how to work with volunteers to advance better regional approaches and compliance and deliver cleaner water into New Jersey's water bodies. 

Lindsey Sigmund, Program Manager, New Jersey Future

• December 13: The annual Jersey Water Works Conference will be held on December 13 at The College of New Jersey and serves as an opportunity to learn from leaders, experts, and advocates on how to increase visibility and bring awareness to our water challenges and solutions. Register today!
• December 14: The New Jersey Section of American Water Resources Association is hosting their annual meeting where Paula Figueroa-Vega, Jersey Water Works Collaborative and Organizational Development Director, will be speaking on New Jersey Future's Collective Impact program area, including new programs and projects. Learn more and register!

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.

In October we observe Indigenous People’s Day. New Jersey’s original people are undeniably a part of our state’s future as much as its past. This year, an exciting development in our state returned land to its original inhabitants, the Lenni-Lenape. In August the Native American Advancement Corporation (NAAC), the NJDEP Green Acres Program, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy acquired a 63-acre forested property in Quinton Township, Salem County and transferred this parcel of Cohanzick Lenape homeland, and ancient predecessor to the NJ state recognized Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, to the NAAC. Henceforth it will be known as the Cohanzick Nature Reserve. “Right now we need to save water, we need to save soil, we need to teach people better gardening”, explains Tyrese Gould Jacinto, president and CEO of NAAC, in an exceptional NJ Spotlight profile of this development. 

Tribal management of public lands and natural resources has been given ever the slightest of opportunities in the past few years. What is formally recognized as Traditional Ecological Knowledge has been incorporated into federal management of ecologically and culturally places of significance to indigenous people. The results are positive; in Yellowstone indigenous management has improved bison herd health, in the forest around Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico it has reduced the region's vulnerability to wildfire.

According to the Nature Conservancy: “NAAC plans to launch Indigenous conservation education programs at the reserve, providing a unique opportunity for the public to engage with and learn from the land's original stewards. These programs will offer hands-on experiences, workshops, and guided tours to foster a deeper understanding of Indigenous conservation and the importance of environmental stewardship.”

• Local Assistance Director, Community Planning: New Jersey Future is seeking an experienced, entrepreneurial, and mission-driven planning professional who is ready to help New Jersey communities become more sustainable, equitable, resilient, and competitive.
• Development Director: New Jersey Future is seeking an experienced professional and strategic thinker who will help advance the organization’s mission, guide the organization’s corporate and individual giving fundraising strategy, oversee and execute its related events and relationship-building activities, and manage relationships across fundraising platforms.

• 10/12/2023: Vacant Lot in Newark Made Award-Winning Learning Center (Tapinto Newark)
• 10/11/2023: Op-Ed: School segregation in NJ is not an accident (NJ Spotlight News)
• 10/10/2023: 'Smart Growth' In Newark: Early Learning Center Earns Award (Patch)
• 10/06/2023: We don’t need this many school districts and salaries (NJ.com)
• 09/11/2023: Water Workforce Pilot Program Launches at Hudson County Community College (New Jersey Business Magazine)

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