Posts in Planning
Highlands CBD Redevelopment Plan

The Borough of Highlands, located along Sandy Hook Bay and the Shrewsbury River, has a compact main street (Bay Avenue) with small-scale lots anchoring the downtown, ferry service to New York City, a substantial waterfront, and easy access to Atlantic Ocean beaches. However, nearly the entire downtown lies within the FEMA AE flood zone, making ground-floor retail  prohibitively expensive. Many properties were badly damaged by flooding from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and few businesses have reopened. In 2018, the Borough overhauled the downtown zoning, hoping to spur more restaurants, retail, and activity through mixed-use development. However, onerous parking requirements and restrictive height and FAR limits, combined with stricter floodproofing requirements, continued to make it nearly impossible to build a mixed-use building with ground-floor retail. Most recent construction and renovations have been single-family homes with front garages, resulting in less pedestrian activity on downtown sidewalks.

Examples of recent home construction and renovations to place living spaces above the Design Flood Elevation, resulting in a growing “garagescape” along Bay Avenue, the retail spine of Highlands. Some homes have a more friendly appearance than others.

Example of a house with its living areas raised above Design Flood Elevation, with a friendly second floor porch that is linked to the public sidewalk with a prominent staircase.

Through a competitive bidding process, Highlands retained Phillips Preiss to determine if a redevelopment approach could be used to spur new investment across downtown. After careful analysis of existing zoning, built form, building heights, and patterns of recent construction and renovations, the firm suggested a series of dramatic changes. Parking ratios were reduced, FAR was removed as a factor, and maximum permitted building coverage was increased. Most significantly, the firm created an optional height bonus program for several overlay areas where larger-scale new construction could be added downtown without unduly impacting adjoining single-family areas. The two-tiered bonus program awards higher heights in exchange for features that contribute to active, inviting, downtown-style streetscapes, including attractive, landscaped front “pocket parks” or plazas to create “breathing room” along the narrow, constrained Bay Avenue sidewalks and active uses on a floodproofed “Lowest Floor” – either the ground floor or the second floor. The additional heights will allow for more residential units on upper floors, creating more foot traffic and helping support new restaurants and retail.

The bonus program requires that if the active use is provided on the second floor, over an open level of parking, a front porch or deck with a substantial staircase or a series of terraced ramps is required within the front setback to maintain an inviting connection to the public sidewalk. In addition, front setback areas must have porous paving and landscaping for infiltration as well as seating areas to foster activity. The top floor of buildings must be stepped back to help reduce the perceived height and bulk. The Plan was well received and unanimously adopted in May 2022.

Aerial view of downtown Highlands, showing the narrow lots and regular grid of pedestrian-friendly streets.

Raritan Sustainable Economic Development Plan

Client: New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA)

Downtown Raritan Vision Plan

Downtown Raritan Vision Plan

Raritan Vision Plan

Raritan Vision Plan

Phillips Preiss was part of a project team led by FHI Studio that was selected by the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) to prepare a sustainable economic development plan for the Borough of Raritan, New Jersey as part of NJTPA’s Planning for Emerging Centers Program. Conveniently located in Somerset County’s core in central New Jersey, the Borough sought to create a plan that would allow them to maintain and expand existing downtown employment and economic activity, while retaining their historic, small-town character and capitalizing on their highly connected street network and potential waterfront connections to the Raritan River. Phillips Preiss’s primary role was to evaluate economic and market conditions within and around the Borough in order to provide insights and recommendations that would advance the goals of the plan, which presented a community-driven 10-year economic, land use and multi-modal vision for the Borough with a focus on supporting both existing and new residents and businesses. The Raritan Sustainable Economic Development Plan was honored with a 2021 Excellence in Planning Award by the Somerset County Planning Board.

Green at Florham Park: Planning Services
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Phillips Preiss has provided planning services including fiscal and community impact analyses to Rockefeller Group with regard to its master planned redevelopment of a 268-acre former Exxon-Mobil corporate campus site in Florham Park known as The Green at Florham Park. The development is now home to the BASF North American Headquarters, Summit Medical Group, and The New York JETS . The Green at Florham Park is also the future home of AVE Florham Park, which provides 256 corporate suites, The Archer Hotel, a sophisticated 161-key boutique hotel, Summit Medical Group / MD Anderson Cancer Center, providing world class cancer care, and a residential community. 

Morris Township Reexamination Report
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The firm prepared a Master Plan Reexamination Report for the Township of Morris in 2017. Phillips Preiss worked closely with the Planning Board to catalogue progress that had been made on the Township’s previous plan, describe the changes experienced in the municipality over the last ten years, and to develop recommendations for future land use. The recommendations were broken down into a short-, medium-, and long-term implementation schedule.

Fort Monmouth Planning Services

Client: Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA)

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Since 2011, Phillips Preiss has provided ongoing planning consulting services to the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA). FMERA is the entity responsible for overseeing the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth with an emphasis on job creation, economic development, conservation of natural resources, and housing creation. PPG has provided planning advisory services to FMERA including the preparation of redevelopment plans, amendments to the Reuse and Redevelopment Plan, and open space analyses among other tasks.

Bethlehem Citywide Historic Preservation Plan

Client: City of Bethlehem, PA

Overview

The City of Bethlehem retained Phillips Preiss to reexamine and refine its existing historic resource surveys, establish criteria and an action plan for additional landmark designations, and explore the idea of using tools outside of designation to preserve its rich architectural and cultural heritage. The strategies in the Preservation Plan dovetail with other City initiatives, so that preservation works to further – rather than restrain – economic development, neighborhood revitalization, environmental sustainability, affordable housing, and other desired goals.

Municipal Consolidation Advisory Services - Bergen County, NJ

Clients: Members of the New Jersey State Legislature

Overview

Phillips Preiss provided planning and economic analysis services in support of “The Meadowlands Regionalization, Efficiency and Property Tax Relief Act of 2010” (bill number A2939/S2078), a municipal consolidation bill for part of southern Bergen County. The bill proposes to dissolve the Borough of Teterboro (a municipality with 67 residents), modify the boundaries of other municipalities, and rationalize the tax-sharing agreements for the Hackensack Meadowlands District. Phillips Preiss advised two of the primary sponsors of this law, Senator Robert M. Gordon and Assemblywoman Connie Wagner.

Results

Although the bill has not yet been passed by the Legislature, it has helped bring municipal consolidation issues to the forefront. Related legislation has been passed to ease municipal consolidation efforts.

Downtown Montclair Development Impact Analysis

Client: Township of Montclair, NJ

Overview

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Phillips Preiss was retained by the Township of Montclair to assess the potential impacts of a major downtown mixed-use project. Notably, the development was proposed to include housing for approximately 1,000 students from a nearby state university, as well as retail, office, hotel and/or residential components. The Phillips Preiss study analyzed aesthetic, community, economic and traffic impacts and outlined a variety of possible benefits and challenges, which helped lay the groundwork for a productive discussion between the applicant, the Township and the greater Montclair community.

Results

The student housing project did not move forward, due in part to concerns about potential impacts uncovered by Phillips Preiss' study. The Township of Montclair subsequently hired Phillips Preiss to prepare a redevelopment investigation for the study area, as well as a redevelopment plan.

Cranbury Master Plan

Client: Township of Cranbury, NJ

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Overview

As the Township Planner, Phillips Preiss prepared Cranbury’s Master Plan, which recommended amendments to the Zoning Code to help preserve the Township’s rural character and historic Village center while ensuring a fiscally-sustainable future for the Township by encouraging non-residential development opportunities in appropriate locations (e.g., in the vicinity of Route 130).

Results

Following the adoption of the plan, Phillips Preiss worked with the Township Committee on the preparation of zoning amendments to implement plan recommendations and strategies.

Master Plan Amendment for the Honeywell International Corporate Campus

Client: Morris Township, NJ

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Overview

Honeywell International, Inc. has maintained its nearly 150-acre corporate headquarters in Morris Township, New Jersey for some time. Because of changing business needs coupled with a multitude of outdated and/or obsolete buildings on-site, Honeywell approached Morris Township to establish a more modern campus that could respond to current operational and technological demands as well as provide for other development opportunities within the campus. Phillips Preiss worked on behalf of the Morris Township Planning Board in master plan and zoning amendments designed to provide for a new mixed-use, planned development district that will allow Honeywell to refurbish existing buildings, construct new office and lab space, develop up to 235 townhouse units, and provide passive as well as active recreational space on-site.

Results

The Planning Board adopted the Master Plan amendment and the governing body held public hearings on the zoning ordinance amendment.

Roosevelt Island Main Street Retail Study

Client: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC), New York, NY

Overview

RIOC retained Phillips Preiss to conduct a retail market analysis and planning study to help Main Street realize its potential as the true town center of Roosevelt Island. The report revealed significant potential for more retail on Main Street and recommended a series of policy and urban design interventions to revitalize the commercial district.

Results

Within one year of the completion of the study, RIOC moved forward with a central recommendation of the report by soliciting proposals for a master leaseholder for the Main Street retail spaces.

Morris Avenue Revitalization Plan

Client: City of Elizabeth, New Jersey

Overview

Phillips Preiss was retained by the City of Elizabeth to create a corridor revitalization plan for a key commercial corridor by leveraging two engines of the local economy: 1) the growing Colombian retail district clustered near the Elizabeth Train Station; and 2) Kean University, an expanding public university in Union Township. The resulting plan provided strategies to tap into “town/gown” synergies between Kean University and “Little Colombia,” encourage transit-oriented redevelopment, strengthen the commercial environment and improve the public realm.