Cool New Jersey

A Guide to Climate-Friendly Policies in Your Community

(This entire guide can also be downloaded in a printable form as the Cool New Jersey Handbook)

Smart Growth, Planning, and Building Design

Sprawl is the unplanned expansion of development that often overtakes natural areas, replacing open space with suburban strip malls and highways, and increasing the energy intensity of almost every aspect of life. It’s characterized by features that are all too familiar to many New Jerseyans: strip malls, expanses of large single family homes separated from the town center, isolated commercial areas, and abandoned urban centers. This sort of development is energy intensive in multiple ways. By separating housing, commercial, and recreational areas with miles of highway, sprawl dramatically increases our use of cars. Increases home and lot sizes also increases our water use, energy use, and pollution. And, the most remarkable thing is that studies indicate that people are significantly less happy living in such areas.

New Jersey has been hit hard by sprawl. The population of New Jersey has only increased by about twelve percent since 1990. But, the amount of developed land has increased at a much higher rate. That is the very definition of sprawl. According to Moving Out, a report by New Jersey Future, it was not immigration to the state but a pervasive movement of people from urban centers in New Jersey to new suburban developments that has driven this sprawl. Redeveloping our cities and town centers can stop this trend.

Smart growth initiatives encourage the revitalization of urban and town centers, mixed residential and commercial land use, and the clustering of development toward already-developed areas and away from greenfields. This sort of ‘new urbanism’ can help develop healthier, safer, and more livable communities, with a greater sense of community identity and engagement. Smart growth also offers an opportunity to foster a greater connection with nature, and a greater awareness of environmental issues and options for sustainable living.

Smart growth is important for the protection of the global climate; but it’s also particularly important for New Jersey because, quite simply, we’re running out of land. New Jersey is more densely developed than any other state in the nation. It’s more densely populated than Japan or India. Roughly two million of the state’s five million acres are developed. Since most of the remaining land is either protected or not buildable, New Jersey is likely to be the first state to exhaust its supply of buildable land. This is called buildout. Some think we’ll reach that point in as little as two to four decades. We cannot continue the splayed development of the past; it’s time we start using land and our resources with greater care.

Municipal Planning and Design

A central element of any climate-friendly city must be the development and maintenance of a livable urban center. Vibrant urban centers provide a desirable alternative to sprawl, thus maintaining green spaces. These green spaces absorb climate-changing carbon dioxide, functioning as ‘carbon sinks’. Because clustered development, or smart growth, allows community members to walk, bike, or take mass transit to work, school, and leisure activities, they are climate friendly, significantly reducing transportation-related carbon emissions. In addition, properly-designed homes in clustered communities have far lower heating and cooling demands than homes in sprawling developments.

Smart Growth Zoning Codes: A Resource Guide, available through the Local Government Commission, is a useful resource when revising your municipal codes to encourage smart growth and climate friendly development.

The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions is dedicated to natural resource protection, sustainable development, and open space protection throughout the state. They can be a valuable resource when trying to define policies for your community.

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♦ Adopt reduced or flexible parking requirements, particularly near transit services.
Often, parking requirements raise the cost and land requirements of new developments beyond what the market will bear. Reducing the parking requirements around transit centers can allow for innovative new transit-oriented development that is both more sustainable and affordable.
Allowing curbside parking and other shared parking to count toward parking requirements and requiring that a percentage of parking be located behind buildings can help facilitate clustered redevelopment and a walkable community in urban and developed areas. This may be coupled with a public-private partnership to build community parking facilities.

♦ Adopt a cluster development ordinance
A cluster development ordinance allows a developer to increase the construction density on a portion of the buildable property in exchange for preserving open space on another portion of the tract.

♦ Adopt overlay zones that promote infill development and protect natural resources and open spaces.
Overlays function as additions to existing zoning and are often used to protect waterways or other resources. They can also be used to promote infill development. Similarly, agricultural overlay zones can be used to ensure that agricultural areas are protected from development.

♦ Consider lot size averaging.
Lot size averaging is an alternative to typical minimum lot size requirements. Instead of identifying a minimum lot size, a municipality can set a targeted average lot size for all properties within a development. This facilitates construction on irregular lot shapes, sizes, and topography, and can therefore help facilitate and promote in-fill development.

♦ Adopt a steep slope ordinance.
Steep slop ordinances are one of many types of Environmental ordinances or performance standards. Slopes are often located in environmentally sensitive areas, such as riverbanks and wetlands. In addition, slopping land is very sensitive to development since disturbing a sloping area can lead to deterioration of the slope’s integrity, slides, and increased runoff. Restrictions on areas of steep slopes are generally defined as steeper in residential developments than in commercial developments. Slopes as low as eight percent can be classified as steep. A more typical slope might be fifteen percent.

♦ Reevaluate on-site stormwater management policies in urban areas.
In urban areas, requirements that stormwater be managed on site can be a barrier to redevelopment and infill. Land for stormwater management in a downtown area can be unavailable or expensive. Policies that limit the amount of impervious surface on a site can have a similar effect in urban regions. Instead, consider allowing developers to contribute to a stormwater management plan for the entire basin.

♦ Require developers to pay an impact fee.
Impact fees can provide a modest incentive for smart growth. An impact fee is a one-time payment by developers to municipal authorities. The funds can be used to finance water and sewer services or parks and roads made necessary by the new development. By raising the cost of new development, such fees can provide a modest disincentive for construction on greenfields. It is important to note that a fee is not a tax or a special assessment. Formally, a fee is voluntary and revenues must be reasonably related to the impact caused by development. This places sharp limits on the amount and use of such fees.

♦ Implement state ‘fix it first’ practices.
The New Jersey state ‘Fix it First’ policy requires municipalities to ensure existing roads and transit systems are adequately maintained before new road construction projects can begin. This policy promotes infill and discourage sprawl by ensuring that existing infrastructural repairs and maintenance are prioritized over the expansion of infrastructure (water sewer, lighting, and roads) to new developments built in greenfields.

♦ Promote marginal or stepped pricing for utilities.
Normally, new developments pay utility costs that are based on the average cost of providing services to the entire region. This is called average cost pricing. But, new developments actually have significantly higher marginal costs than homes in a developed town or urban area. So, the use of ‘average cost pricing’ actually is a subsidy that ends up promoting sprawl by spreading the cost of new developments among the region as a whole. Marginal or stepped pricing requires new developments that are further away from established services to pay a higher fee for utilities and services. This can work to discourage new developments in greenfields and encourage redevelopment in towns and cities with an established utility infrastructure.

Nearly a quarter of climate changing emissions in New Jersey are the result of residential energy use.

Big box stores need not be given a free hand. Stoughton, Wi, requires that big box stores be compatible with the surrounding area and the character of the community. The Los Angeles City Council’s ‘Superstore Law’ requires developers to identify the cost to local jobs and community businesses and the impact on crime and traffic before any big box development is approved. When Wal-mart acquired a seventeen acre parcel near the city waterfront in Hurcules, California, the city voted to claim the land by eminent domain.

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♦ Replace antiquated zoning systems with mixed-use zoning.
Zoning that separates residential areas from commercial centers promotes, in fact requires, sprawl. Mixed-use zoning can allow clustering of residential, commercial, and institutional development within the same neighborhood.

Higher density development, like this one in Washington Township, can enable more greenspace protection and less energy intensive lifestyles. Adding affordable units to this development would have made it an even better climate option.

♦ Consider the removal of minimum lot size requirements or the increase of lot size minimums in rural areas.
Minimum lot size requirements often encourage sprawl and raise housing prices. Rejecting minimum lot sizes can allow clustered development that, when combined with active conservation policies, can save greenfields. In rural areas minimum lot sizes of 25 to 150 acres per unit can help preserve a community’s rural character, when combined with other conservation policies. There are few areas in New Jersey that could utilize such a lot size minimum.

♦ Promote Location Efficient Mortgages (LEM).
An LEM is a mortgage that helps promote homeownership in transit-oriented and walkable communities. The total amount a homeowner is able to borrow is increased by incorporating the money saved by living in a ‘location efficient’ community. People who have less need to drive save money, and that savings can be factored into their mortgage. These mortgages can combine a low down payment, with competitive interest rates, and flexible criteria to encourage homeownership. LEMs are not yet available in New Jersey; but larger municipalities can make proactive efforts to encourage the development of LEM options in their cities.

♦ Utilize New Jersey transferable development rights.
Transferable development rights (TDRs) are used to focus development in targeted development zones and compensate landowners for restrictions to development in preserved areas. The right to develop a property in a conservation area is sold while the owner holds onto the property itself (thus softening the blow of conservation restrictions for private landowners). The purchaser of the development rights can then build in an area slated for development. TDRs or PDRs (Purchase of Development Rights) can save communities from 25-50% over outright purchase of property and reduces ongoing management costs by keeping the land in active use.

♦ Establish an open space conversion fee.
Developers of new constructions in greenfields can be made to pay a per-acre fee scaled in accordance with the type of habitat being displaced. A fee schedule can be based on the expected cost of protecting and maintaining equivalent habitat in the area. Fee revenues should be dedicated by statute to the purchase and maintenance of land or TDRs and administration of the program. As is true of an impact fee, a conversion or conservation fee must be reasonably related to the costs of the program. Attempting to make a developer pay more than a fair share can result in a court ruling against the fee.

♦ Establish a development excise tax.
An excise tax is similar to impact fee. It is intended to raise the cost of greenfield conversion and thus provide a disincentive to sprawl. However, unlike a fee, a tax is much more flexible and the level of taxation need not be related to the costs of development. However, taxes, unlike fees, must be established by voter approval. Developers can be expected to resist such a ballot measure sharply.

♦ Require new subdivisions to dedicate a significant portion of land for open space.
New constructions can be obligated to preserve a portion of the buildable tract for habitat protection, public open space and recreation. Open space and parks build a more social community, encourage public health and fitness, and are strongly correlated with a safer and more pleasant community. The selection of land to be preserved should be in the hands of municipal environmental officials, not the developer. 10-25 acres for each 1,000 residents would be a strong policy.

♦ Require a set aside of land for private open space.
A more modest form of set-aside requirement obligates the developer to designate and preserve a set percentage of the development site. Some municipalities have required up to forty or fifty percent of a site to be preserved as open space. The developer should not be allowed to chooses the property to be preserved without municipal input or approval; and the management of the land should be regulated to ensure continued protection. Funds to administer such a program can be raised through conversion fees.

♦ Promote school siting standards that preserve and develop neighborhood schools.
Often established standards have the effect of requiring new schools to be built at the fringe of the community on undeveloped greenspace. Smaller, community-centered schools can pretect greenspace, preserve community identity and promote pedestrian and bike travel to and from school. Just as compelling, research indicates that the shift from neighborhood schools over the past half century, and the associated dramatic drop in rates of children walking and biking to school, has contributed to childhood obesity.

The Garden State Preservation Trust, established in 1999, allows the state to set aside $98 million from sales tax revenues each year for ten years and up to one billion dollars in bond proceeds for open space preservation. Local governments will send an additional $100 million each year for preservation activities from voter approved tax revenues. Yet inappropriate development and sprawl still consumes thousands of acres of greenfields each year.

♦ Implement an expedited plan and permit approval procedure for smart growth projects.
Offering an expedited approval process can encourage smart growth initiatives in targeted development areas. Defining a specific municipal office or official who can work with developers to facilitate the planning and permitting process and help shape projects to municipal needs can increase the effectiveness of such policies.

♦ Consider working with state authorities to establish focused smart growth codes for a set development area.
Because changing existing codes can be a politically contentious and tedious process, and because most building codes are establish at the state level in New Jersey, municipalities may explore the possibility of adopting a set of parallel smart growth codes that allow, for example, modified setback requirements or require canopies to shade sidewalks. These codes can allow for a ready comparison between areas developed under the old set of requirements and those that benefit from the parallel green codes. The contrast can help convince smart growth skeptics.

Mixed use development need not be restricted to existing downtown areas. This new development in San Jose, California offers upscale shopping collocated with new homes and centered on an inviting pedestrian mall.

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♦ Define a comprehensive and integrated set of performance standards.
Performance standards, or environmental ordinances, include steep slope ordinances, riparian buffers, and many other policies and ordinances discussed in this section. Often, such policies are not well integrated, and can define a confusing and possibly contradictory set of obligations for builders and officials. Reviewing these policies and developing a comprehensive set of required practices and ordinances that support each other, are well integrated, and promote smart alternatives can help foster comprehensive, climate friendly planning and development.

♦ Design and adopt an Official Map.
An official map is used to guide development and allow the municipality the right of first refusal for acquisition or an easement on land. This could allow your town the ability to save from development land that might be needed, for example, to provide a trail right-of-way or green corridor. If done properly, such a policy can enhance land values and benefit landowners.

♦ Establish a municipal body to manage an integrated set of growth management ordinances.
A clear and accessible set of ordinances and requirements can be defined to control the density, type, location, and timing of development in support of clustered, sustainable design, before development pressures overwhelm a community. Defining a responsible body to delineate and manage these ordinances and development targets within a transparent and accountable process will increase the likelihood of success as well as the democratic nature of the process.

♦ Define a proactive smart growth posture.
Municipalities need not simply sit idly by, hoping to encourage smart growth initiatives while waiting for developers to propose projects. They can proactively seek out developers for sustainable initiatives and work with builders to make projects viable and profitable for all parties. Publicly funded, private sector development and public-private partnerships can help make climate-friendly projects attractive for private sector builders.

♦ Make land available for sustainable initiatives.
Municipalities can make property available to local developers at a discounted price in exchange for sustainable, green development and affordable, transit-oriented development.

♦ Establish a municipal wetlands mitigation bank.
Restoring a local low value or degraded wetland area to a functional and healthy ecosystem generates wetland mitigation credits that can then be sold to developers to meet federal, state, and local regulations for wetlands conservation. In essence, if a development causes wetland loses that cannot be compensated for on site, the developer may purchase credits from this bank. So, creating a wetlands bank can support enrichment and consolidation of local fragmented wetlands into a large and healthy ecosystem that can contribute significantly to local conservation efforts and pay for itself.

♦ Define an Urban Growth Boundary
An urban growth boundary (UGB) sets a clear limit around a municipality beyond which development is strictly limited. The UGB line is design to separate urban and suburban areas from surrounding undeveloped areas. This line needs to be carefully set, with input from all key stakeholders. Setting the line too far out fails to protect greenfields that could be saved. Setting the line too far in can result in rising housing prices, overdevelopment in core areas, urban decline, or sprawl beyond the restricted area coupled with increased long-distance commuting. However, a well define UGB is one of the most powerful tools available in the fight against runaway sprawl.

In accordance with Oregon state law, the city of Portland adopted a strict urban growth boundary (UGB) in the 1970s. Because growth beyond the boundary was strictly curtailed, there was strong incentive for infill development and reuse of urban structures. This trendy shopping area and new residences are examples of the resulting reuse of a former industrial site in the inner-city.

Open space taxes can create incentives for open space protection and raise resources for smart growth efforts. Referenda have established local open space taxes in nearly 200 New Jersey municipalities.

Brownfields and Urban Redevelopment

The development of underutilized urban land is a vital aspect of creating climate-friendly towns and cities. Redevelopment of declining areas lowers the need for infrastructure expansion, thus lowering the environmental impact of development as well as the cost to municipalities. Clustering new development in already-developed areas also allows for the preservation of surrounding greenfields.

Underutilized buildings and brownfields such as these can be understood as valuable community resources that, if developed, can help take pressure of open spaces.

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♦ Conduct an inventory of brownfield sites.
Most urban and town authorities have little idea of the land resources available in their jurisdiction or the environmental threats and financial opportunities of these properties. So, a good first step is a municipal inventory of brownfield sites and underutilized properties. The Office of Smart Growth in the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs offers grants and incentives to initiate such efforts.

♦ Assess vacant properties at strong market rates.
To discourage owners from leaving properties idle in town and urban centers, properties can be assessed at strong market rates. Typically, underutilized properties are assessed well below market rated, lowering property taxes and thus lowering the cost of leaving the property idle. Increasing the tax assessment creates a strong incentive to either develop or sell the property.

♦ Identify viable grayfields for development.
Redeveloping ‘grayfields’, such as abandoned strip malls, can help take pressure of undeveloped greenfields. There are almost two hundred abandoned regional malls in the United States. Often, policies that promote mixed use development are key to this effort.

Municipalities can identify grayfields, such as this abandoned strip mall and this vacant convenience store, and remove impediments to their redevelopment.

New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zones (UEZ) program uses tax exceptions, unemployment insurance rebates and other incentives for redevelopment of brownfields and unused buildings. The Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act of 1998 amended key statutes to facilitate brownfield redevelopment by providing liability protection and financial incentives to developers. The law also expands the property tax abatement municipalities can offer. Some municipalities around the country have established a land bank authority to help cut though the legal constraints that often leave lien-burdened properties vacant.

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♦ Develop tax increment financing (TIF) options.
TIF can encourage development that relies on existing infrastructure and thus takes development pressure off greenfields. This is done by developing grants and loans based on the higher property tax revenues that will be generated from development. This is called the tax increment, and it can make such a program affordable for municipalities. TIFs can be used to acquire property to be resold at reduced prices for smart growth or affordable housing initiatives. Typically, the assessed value of real property in the project area is frozen when the project is initiated. After improvements are made and new industry and commerce is attracted, property values can be expected to rise. The addition to the municipal tax base is then used to pay for the initial improvements.

♦ Consider supporting a special improvement district (SID)
SIDs are partnerships between local businesses, property owners, and residents to help improve neighborhood conditions. Local businesses in blighted or underdeveloped urban areas absorb the costs of improvements in sidewalks, parks, street lighting, or pedestrian services to attract new customers. There are roughly seventy SIDs in New Jersey.

♦ Offer property tax credits for small business renovations.
Business owners who renovate their properties in underdeveloped areas can be partially compensated with a property tax credit.

♦ Encourage affordable housing.
Affordability is an indispensable part of smart growth. If an urban redevelopment project simply results in wealthy citizens moving to urban centers and poorer citizens moving to abandoned suburbs, there is no environmental benefit to the process. A truly sustainable community must integrate multiple income levels and types of homes into a complete community. Property tax credits, exemptions, or changes to property tax assessments can encourage the development of affordable housing in underutilized properties. Any area is a candidate for mixed housing types and a diversity of home cost. The result is a more diverse, richer, more integrated, and more sustainable community.

Multiple resources and organizations are available in New Jersey to help urban communities define and pursue redevelopment options. Downtown New Jersey is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and guiding efforts at downtown revitalization in the state. The Transportation Community Development Initiative is available in certain counties to assist in the redevelopment and preservation of core urban areas. The New Jersey Department of Transportation offers programs that support the enhancement of travel choices and transit oriented development (TOD) in urban areas.

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♦ Place limitations on undesirable new developments.
All new constructions or renovations should be compatible with a broad plan that incorporates mixed forms of residences with street front retailing, entertainment, and commercial enterprises. Affordability and transit friendly design should be made central elements of this plan; and any development or reconstruction that does not help a municipality achieve this vision should be discouraged.

♦ Make assistance available to encourage redevelopment of anchor sites.
Tax credits, grants, property tax abatements, and other incentives can be used to encourage redevelopment of old waterfronts, abandoned or underutilized manufacturing sites, underused warehousing districts and heritage structures. Such sites can serve as anchor points for community redevelopment.

Minneapolis was the first city in the US to have developed a ‘high performance FAR premium’. (FAR is floor-area ratio, a way of measuring the space taken by each new residential unit, or if you like a taller building premium). The city provides incentives for private investment in energy efficiency, affordable housing, ground level retail space, or for the use of renewable energy by allowing developers who incorporate these features an automatic increase in the allowable FAR. This is integrated with incentives that promote privately-funded public open space, skyways, arcades, street-level retail uses, public art, sidewalk widening, mixed-use residential, a transit facility, and historic preservation.

Trenton’s Waterfront Park is a notable example of redevelopment in the Garden State.