2014 Smart Growth Awards Announced

April 1st, 2014 by Elaine Clisham

Former State Planning Commission Chairman Joe Maraziti
To Receive Leadership Award

Three different types of housing developments; two plans to revitalize fading downtowns; a plan that transformed an industrial riverfront into a premier urban asset; a project that will serve as an anchor of hope to its surrounding community; and a region-wide plan for smart economic growth are all winners of New Jersey Future’s 2014 Smart Growth Awards.

“The jury was both gratified and challenged to have a large pool of very high-quality entries to review this year,” said Eileen Swan, policy manager at the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and a New Jersey Future trustee, who chaired this year’s selection committee. “Choosing the ultimate winners was a daunting task, but we are pleased to present these as the very best examples of smart-growth planning and development from across the state.”

Joseph J. Maraziti Jr. Esq.

New Jersey Future will also present the Cary Edwards Leadership Award to Joe Maraziti, partner in the law firm of Maraziti, Falcon & Healey LLP. This award, named for the late former assemblyman and state attorney general who was a key player in passage of the State Planning Act in 1987, recognizes individuals who have made an outstanding commitment to improving the quality of life and promoting smart growth in New Jersey through sustainable land-use policy and practice. Mr. Maraziti, a New Jersey Future trustee, was chairman of the New Jersey State Planning Commission in 2001 when it adopted the State Development and Redevelopment Plan, and he has worked for more than 40 years with state officials, counties, local communities and the private sector to ensure that development and redevelopment in New Jersey enhances the quality of life for all citizens.

“We are very pleased to be honoring Joe Maraziti with our Cary Edwards Leadership Award this year,” said New Jersey Future Executive Director Peter Kasabach. “In addition to being a past State Planning Commission chairman and a keen redevelopment attorney, Joe has been a constant champion of high-quality development and redevelopment in the Garden State. He brings an unparalleled passion and commitment to his work revitalizing and improving all the places that make New Jersey great, and this award is richly deserved.”

2014 New Jersey Future Smart Growth Awards

Downtown Rehabilitation Plan, Hackensack
Design regulations and flexible zoning to foster a revitalized downtown
Archer & Greiner, DMR Architects, City of Hackensack, Upper Main Street Alliance

G.G. Green Senior Residences, Woodbury
Refitting an endangered historic building for use as retail and senior and veterans’ housing
New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency, RPM Development Group

Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, Camden
Building an anchor for community change
Dresdner Robin, Kitchen & Associates, New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection,
Salvation Army

Block 64 Redevelopment Plan, Fanwood
A cooperative approach to re-making a transit-oriented downtown
Borough of Fanwood, Maser Consulting, Rogut McCarthy, T&M Associates

Riverfront Redevelopment and Public Access Plan and Riverfront Park, Newark
Transforming an industrial waterfront into a public amenity
County of Essex, Ironbound Community Corp., City of Newark Planning Office, Trust for Public Land

Springside School Apartments, Burlington
Adapting an unused school to provide senior and special-needs residences and services
Township of Burlington, Conifer Realty, MEND, New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency

Access and Mobility Improvements To Sound Foster Economic Growth, Somerset County
Determining investment priorities through regional planning
North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, Parsons Brinckerhoff,
Somerset County Planning Board

Woodrow Wilson Commons I and II, Long Branch
Re-building public housing as an open, walkable community asset
Maestro Community Development Corp., Pennrose Properties LLC, Wallace Roberts & Todd LLC

Joseph J. Maraziti Jr. Esq.
Cary Edwards Leadership Award
Partner, Maraziti Falcon & Healey LLP
Former Chairman, New Jersey State Planning Commission

The New Jersey Future Smart Growth Awards are selected by an independent jury. Serving on this year’s selection committee besides Ms. Swan are Larry DiVietro, president of Land Dimensions Engineering in Glassboro and a New Jersey Future trustee; Monique King-Viehland, principal of Obsidian Development and a New Jersey Future trustee; Dante Germano, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Nexus Properties in Lawrenceville; Jennifer Gonzalez, environmental and transportation planner at The Louis Berger Group in Morristown; John Hasse, chairman of the department of geography at Rowan University in Glassboro; Janice Kovach, mayor of the Town of Clinton; David Minno, principal at Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners in Lambertville; and Peter Porraro, senior managing director at Mill Creek Residential Trust in Bedminster.

The ceremony honoring Mr. Maraziti and the Smart Growth Award-winners will be Thursday, June 5, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Metropolitan Room at the Newark Club, One Newark Center, 22^nd Floor, in Newark.