New Jersey Future Announces Smart Growth Award Winners for 2010

April 16th, 2010 by Jay Corbalis

Special Leadership Award will honor W. Cary Edwards

A diverse group of innovative development and redevelopment projects located in cities, towns and townships across New Jersey will be honored with 2010 Smart Growth Awards from New Jersey Future.

Maxwell Place, Hoboken, NJ

Six projects and 20 honorees will receive Smart Growth Awards for initiatives ranging from an innovative transfer-of-development-rights plan in Woolwich Township (Gloucester County) to a new town center in Robbinsville (Mercer County) to a creative neighborhood affordable-housing project in Jersey City. (A complete list of the winners and honorees follows).

At its ninth-annual Smart Growth Awards ceremony in June, New Jersey Future will also honor longtime board member W. Cary Edwards with a special Leadership Award. A former state assemblyman, Mr. Edwards served as chief counsel and attorney general in the Kean administration and was a key player in passage of the State Planning Act in 1985,

“Cary Edwards has been a powerful, influential and effective voice for smart growth in New Jersey for more than 25 years,” said New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach. “This special Leadership Award is but a small tribute to his lifelong determination to make New Jersey a better place to live.”

The six Smart Growth Award-winning projects and plans drew praise from Debbie Mans, the NY/NJ Baykeeper and New Jersey Future board member who chaired the selection committee. “These six award-winners exemplify the kind of creative thinking, innovative planning and careful consensus-building that are critical components of any successful 21st-century development or redevelopment project in New Jersey,” she said. “They are a credit not just to their communities, but to the entire state.”

The ceremony honoring Mr. Edwards and the Smart Growth Award-winners will be held Wednesday, June 2, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Newark Club, One Newark Center, 22nd Floor, Newark. Title sponsors of the event are New Jersey Natural Gas and Verizon.

2010 New Jersey Future Smart Growth Awards

Historic Reuse & Downtown Redevelopment
Historic Golden Swan Inn & CWA Office Development, Trenton
Clarke Caton Hintz; Facility Strategies; Lamarra Construction; Woodrose Properties

Creative Neighborhood Affordable Housing
Lafayette Gardens HOPE VI Revitalization, Jersey City
Jersey City Housing Authority; Wallace Roberts & Todd; Michaels Development Company

Mixed-Use Waterfront Enhancement
Maxwell Place on the Hudson, Hoboken
Dean Marchetto Architects; Hoboken Brownstone Company; Toll Brothers

Main Street Community Revitalization
MidTown Commons, Neptune
CityWorks, Inc.; Neptune Township; New Jersey Economic Development Authority; TD Bank

New Town Center & Traditional Neighborhood Development
Robbinsville Town Center
Feinberg & Associates; Sharbell Development Corp.; Robbinsville Township

Innovative Growth & Land Conservation Strategy
Woolwich Transfer of Development Rights Plan
Group Melvin Design; New Jersey State Planning Commission; Woolwich Township

The New Jersey Future Smart Growth Awards are selected by an independent jury. Serving on this year’s selection committee are: Deborah Mans (Committee Chair), Baykeeper and Executive Director, NY/NJ Baykeeper, New Jersey Future Trustee; Vincent Myers, Principal, Design Ideas Group Architecture & Planning, LLC; Anton Nelessen, Associate Professor, Graduate Department of Urban Planning and Policy Development, Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy, Rutgers University; Kathleen Miller Prunty, Director, Cranford Downtown Management Corp., President, Downtown NJ; Ingrid Reed, Director, New Jersey Project, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University, New Jersey Future Trustee; Robert Sheehan, Township Administrator, Plainsboro Township; and Jon Vogel, Senior Development Director, Avalon Bay Communities.