If you're having trouble viewing this email, you cansee it online.
September 18, 2025
Dear Friends,
As summer comes to an end and we head into a busy fall, New Jersey Future is looking ahead with excitement and urgency. We are at a pivotal moment, one where the choices we make about how we grow, invest, and move around our state will shape the health and prosperity of our communities for decades to come.
This fall, I invite you to join us in two important ways. First, celebrate the people and projects leading the way at our 2025 Smart Growth Awards on October 9. Our seven smart growth project winners, along with Adenah Bayoh, our Leadership Award honoree show us what’s possible when vision and commitment come together. Your participation, whether by attending or sponsoring, helps ensure their stories inspire more change in redevelopment across our state.
Second, take part in A Week Without Driving (September 29 through October 5). Even one week of rethinking how we get around—walking, biking, sharing rides, or using public transit—can remind us of the barriers many New Jerseyans face daily, the great opportunities in front of us to get out of our cars, and spark new ideas for making our transportation systems more inclusive, sustainable, and effective.
These efforts align with our newly released policy roadmap, Redeveloping New Jersey, Planning for Prosperity. Together, they chart a course toward stronger, healthier, and more equitable communities.
I hope you’ll take action by registering for the Smart Growth Awards, consider sponsoring to amplify our collective impact, and challenge yourself during A Week Without Driving. Each step we take, individually and together, brings us closer to the future we all want for New Jersey.
At this year’s Smart Growth Awards, we’re honoring exceptional planning and redevelopment projects from across New Jersey! From Hoboken and West Orange in the north to Camden in the south, with central towns like Princeton and Trenton also making waves.
It’s a rare chance to see how diverse communities are shaping their futures and to network with changemakers, leaders, and innovators who are making it happen.
Seven outstanding projects and one Leadership Award honoree will be recognized for transforming how we live, work, and connect. Whether you're passionate about affordable housing, transit, environmental resilience, or urban design, this event brings together the region’s best ideas and opportunities to collaborate.
Don’t miss it! Be part of the celebration, the inspiration, and the connection!
October 9, 2025 5:30‑8:30 p.m. South Orange Performing Arts Center
Interested in multiple tickets for your team or getting insider opportunities to showcase your brand? Become a sponsor. Deadline to submit a program book ad is September 26. Thank you to the 2025 sponsors!
New Jersey deserves communities that are healthy, vibrant, and resilient. Where housing is affordable, infrastructure works for everyone, and the climate challenges of today are met with smart planning. That’s exactly what Redeveloping New Jersey, Planning for Prosperity is all about.
While these issues are not new, they now require bolder leadership than ever to shape a better, brighter future that benefits all New Jerseyans. Regardless of who the next Governor is, we understand the significant challenges ahead for our next leaders.
The updated State Plan provides a roadmap to address critical challenges, including climate change, housing affordability, infrastructure modernization, and economic development. Developed by numerous stakeholders, the Plan allows for smoother coordination and planning among state agencies and different levels of government.
The final round of public input is underway! The State Planning Commission will conduct six public hearings in October for the purpose of receiving testimony on the draft Final State Plan and the draft Infrastructure Needs Assessment. Four meetings will take place virtually, one each day, from Tuesday, October 14, through Friday, October 17. Two meetings will be in person, one in Westampton Township and one in Morristown. See the Notice of Public Hearings for details about times, locations, and online access.
Throughout the public hearing process and up to 30 days after the last meeting, comments on the Plan or the Infrastructure Needs Assessment may also be submitted via email at stateplan.comments@sos.nj.gov.
Take advantage of your last chance to add your voice and inform New Jersey's next State Plan!
Did you know there’s a nationwide event called Week Without Driving?
Communities everywhere are embracing this week and considering how nondrivers in their communities move. It’s a week to rethink how to build more accessible places for everyone. Whether you're walking, rolling, biking, catching public transit or a ride from someone, the week will inspire you to reimagine our streets. So mark your calendars, spread the word, and join us Monday, September 29 through October 5, 2025!
Remember to use the hashtag #WeekWithoutDriving and tag @AmericaWalks and @NewJerseyFuture in your posts! We want to amplify your stories, share your experiences, and show the world how this week is transforming perspectives on transportation!
Legislative Updates
We’re calling on Senate leaders to prioritize S3616, which helps prevent serious health risks to both parent and baby through lead screening during pregnancy. Tell Senator Paul Sarlo and Senator Teresa Ruiz to make NJ a safer, healthier place to have a child. Take action now!
Coming Up
September 24: Join us at 7 p.m. for a conversation highlighting the Reconnecting Trenton’s Riverfront campaign on the Sierra Club’s free Smart Growth Webinar Series. Learn how this project exemplifies smart growth in action.Register today!
September 30: The forum Filling the Gaps: Infill for Transit Connected Communities, hosted at 9:30 a.m. in New Brunswick, will feature NJF Director of Research Tim Evans for a discussion on addressing New Jersey’s housing needs through sustainable, transit-oriented development. RSVP to attend!
October 9: The 2025 New Jersey Future Smart Growth Awards will be hosted at the South Orange Performing Arts Center. Join us to celebrate excellence in redevelopment and network with changemakers from across the Garden State. Get your ticket!
December 11: Jersey Water Works will host its annual conference, bringing together experts and stakeholders to collaborate on improving water infrastructure and stormwater management.Mark your calendar!
Smart Growth for Everyone
Smart Growth is equitable growth. It is also restorative, as smart growth and redevelopment can help correct systemic racial and economic disparities. As New Jersey Future drives land use decision-making toward more equitable outcomes, we will be sharing useful resources and lessons in this monthly spotlight. Please give us your feedback and share with us any particularly insightful articles, talks, events, or videos that you come across.
This Hispanic Heritage Month, our Advocacy and Government Affairs Manager Sabrina Rodríguez Vicenty, MPP, reflects on how her roots shape her work at New Jersey Future.
"I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where environmental challenges like flooding, hurricanes, and heat islands are part of everyday life and where recovery is often slowed by a lack of resources and representation. When I moved to Elizabeth, a predominantly Hispanic community, I quickly realized the same story of environmental inequities continues here, too. That experience drives my commitment to advancing policies that address the built environment and environmental justice, ensuring all communities, especially those historically overburdened, have the chance to thrive.
This blog feels especially important for Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month because it highlights how our stories and lived experiences are deeply connected to the work of building stronger, more resilient, and more equitable communities.
Founded in 1987, New Jersey Future is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes sensible and equitable growth, redevelopment, and infrastructure investments to foster healthy, strong, resilient communities; protect natural lands and waterways; increase transportation choices beyond cars; provide access to safe, affordable, and aging-friendly neighborhoods; and fuel a strong economy for everyone. New Jersey Future does this through original research, innovative policy development, coalition-building, advocacy, and hands-on strategic assistance. Embracing differences and advancing fairness is central to New Jersey Future’s mission and operations. New Jersey Future is firmly committed to pursuing greater justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion through its programs, internal operations, and external communications.
