Working for Smart Growth:
More Livable Places and Open Spaces
A recent study commissioned by the Council on Affordable Housing found that:
Of New Jersey’s 4.98 million acres, 1.24 million (25 percent) are vacant and unconstrained.
These vacant acres have the capacity for 1,169,697 residential housing units and 1.63 billion square feet of non-residential space.
Redevelopment of older housing and former commercial and industrial sites will produce an […]
Source: NJDEP
A 2002 snapshot of New Jersey’s landscape shows the state divided roughly into quarters: 28 percent is developed, 24 percent permanently preserved with public funds, 23 percent undevelopable or constrained by regulation, and 25 percent vacant and unconstrained—or “up for grabs.
The race for open space continues: Development consumed 15,000 acres per year on […]
Population density in Hudson County is about 13,000 people per square mile, the highest among New Jersey’s 21 counties and one of the most densely populated counties in the country. At the other end of the spectrum, Hunterdon County’s density is about 300 people per square mile. Union County, which contains […]
NJ Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson celebrated Earth Day by announcing a new regulatory regime to govern the extension of wastewater infrastructure in New Jersey. This huge new rule—all 464 pages of it—will be published in the NJ Register on May 23rd.
This rewrite is past due. Originally adopted in […]
New Jersey’s overdependence on property taxes to pay for local services, especially schools, is perhaps the most significant factor behind the state’s sprawling growth patterns, which have hurt families, businesses, the environment, and the economy.
The average cost of educating one child in NJ is $12,981, while the median property tax bill […]
No state has lost more jobs in the high-tech industry in the past decade than New Jersey, according to an analysis of New Jersey’s competitive position by the Brookings Institution, in partnership with New Jersey Future.
New Jersey lost nearly 30,000 (28,083) high-tech jobs between 1995 and 2004. California, in contrast, gained nearly 50,000 such […]
Wachovia Bank and Matrix Development Group this week celebrated the official opening of Wachovia’s regional headquarters in a new, five-story office building in the heart of downtown Trenton.
The $15.7 million project marks the first significant private investment in commercial office development in the city in more than a decade.
Wachovia cited its desire to follow its […]
Some have predicted that aging Baby Boomers will help spell the end of sprawling development, as older Americans turn away from large-lot, McMansion-style housing and seek the housing and lifestyles available in urban and older suburban settings with their multi-family housing options, access to public transit and walkable downtowns.
State leaders can help by changing the policies that make it easier and cheaper to develop our greenfields than to rebuild our older suburbs and cities.
Without new ways of managing growth and without fixing the systems that drive development, including the property tax system, New Jersey will never reach genuine prosperity.
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