CENTERS

Urban
Generally the largest Centers, offering the most diverse mix of industry, commerce, services, residences and cultural facilities.

Regional
A compact mix of residential, commercial and public uses, serving a large surrounding area and developed at an intensity that makes public transportation feasible.

Town
Traditional Centers of commerce or government throughout New Jersey, with diverse residential neighborhoods served by a mixed-use Core offering locally oriented goods and services.

Village
Primarily residential places that offer a small Core with limited public facilities, consumer services and community activities.

Hamlet
Small-scale, compact residential settlements organized around a community focal point, such as a house of worship, luncheonette, small park or a civic building.

Centers are the State Plan’s preferred vehicle for accommodating growth. Center-based development patterns are superior to sprawl for a number of reasons (see sidebar on page 231). A Center’s compact form is considerably more efficient than sprawl, providing opportunities for cost savings across a wide range of factors. Compact form also translates into significant land savings. A Center’s development form and structure, designed to accommodate diversity, is also more flexible than single-use, single-purpose sprawl, allowing Centers to evolve and adapt over time, in response to changing conditions and markets. Centers promote community, protect the environment, provide enhanced cultural and aesthetic experiences, and offer residents a superior quality of life.

As Centers are planned to be the location for much of the growth in New Jersey, it is critical that they be located and designed with the capacity to accommodate desired growth. While specific Centers may not be appropriate for additional growth, in a regional context, Centers should be planned to accommodate growth projections. Centers that are targeted for growth should contain a sufficient amount of land to support this growth, including new or expanded capital facilities and affordable housing, without constraining the market or allowing monopoly land pricing.

Each Center has specific designation criteria (see Table, Criteria for Center Designation/Planning for the Year 2020), which establish certain basic thresholds of land area, population, employment and densities. These criteria are intended to be applied flexibly. For example, population fluctuations in seasonal communities should be taken into account, as should disparities between daytime and nighttime populations. Density criteria are relevant primarily to new Centers and to the growth areas of existing Centers, and are less relevant to the built-up portions of existing Centers, except when conditions influencing development change significantly (for example, central sewer is provided for the first time) and infill and redevelopment opportunities are viable and locally sought. Designation criteria refer to conditions in the Center’s planning horizon year (for example, 2020 rather than current population), and while the State Plan’s horizon year forms the primary basis for long range planning, municipalities and counties should be aware of the consequences of these planning decisions in the years beyond 2020.

Although Centers are the preferred growth vehicle, some existing Centers, namely Hamlets, Villages and some Towns, are currently unsewered. In order to grow, these Centers will need to find cost-effective and appropriately scaled solutions to the provision of wastewater treatment capacity.

While the State Plan establishes a hierarchy of five Center types, each with specific designation criteria and growth management strategies, these places are not expected to remain static, and areas are not precluded from growing—a Village may become a Town, or a Town may turn into a Regional Center. Both existing and new Centers may change over time and therefore should be carefully planned. New Centers should emerge from regional or subregional strategic planning initiatives developed cooperatively between the private sector and municipal and county government. State agencies, including the Office of State Planning, can provide technical assistance in carrying out strategic planning efforts.

The designation of Centers is part of the Plan Endorsement process.

The purpose of Plan Endorsement is to increase the degree of consistency among municipal, county, regional and state agency plans and the State Plan and to facilitate the implementation of these plans. The State Plan outlines six objectives that derive from this purpose:

1. To encourage municipal, county, regional and state agency plans to be coordinated and support each other to achieve the Goals of the State Plan;
2. To encourage counties and municipalities to plan on a regional basis while recognizing the fundamental role of the municipal master plan and development regulations;
3. To consider the entire municipality, including Centers, Cores, Nodes and Environs, within the context of regional systems;
4. To provide an opportunity for all government entities and the public to discuss and resolve common planning issues;
5. To provide a framework to guide and support state investment programs and permitting assistance in the implementation of municipal, county and regional plans that meet statewide objectives; and
6. To learn new planning approaches and techniques from municipal, county and regional governments for dissemination throughout the state and possible incorporation into the State Plan.

A municipal master plan, county plan or regional plan and accompanying development regulations will be reviewed for consistency with the guidelines for Plan Endorsement adopted by the State Planning Commission. If the Commission finds the plan consistent, it will be endorsed and therefore eligible for priority assistance and incentives that flow from such endorsement.