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.

Phillips Preiss worked with the Morris Township Planning Board to plan the redevelopment of the 147-acre former Honeywell International Inc. corporate campus. The work included amending the Land Use Plan Element of the Master Plan to create a new Office and Research Laboratory/Planned Unit Development (OL-40/PUD) designation. The PUD permits a mix of office, laboratory and townhouse uses subject to a series of development standards and contingent upon the submission of a general development plan.

Clients: Various

Phillips Preiss provides planning services to both municipalities and private developers engaged in Mt. Laurel type litigation. Our work has included site suitability analyses and expert reports regarding a municipality’s compliance with its constitutional obligation to provide affordable housing.

Client: Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA)

As part of its ongoing planning consulting services for the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA), Phillips Preiss prepared design guidelines for the historic resources in the former Fort Monmouth.  The Historic Preservation Design Guidelines provide details on historic features and convey recommendations on renovations, restorations, and new additions to Fort Monmouth’s contributing historic resources.

Clients: Villages of Scarsdale, Larchmont, and Roslyn, NY

Overview

A number of suburban communities in the New York metropolitan area are grappling with the development of houses that are out of scale and/or out of character with the established neighborhoods in which they are located. Several municipalities have retained Phillips Preiss to craft zoning controls to prevent the proliferation of these so-called “bulky houses." The firm concluded that the size (i.e., floor area and height) of the house is not always the problem, but that the design is equally important in determining how a bulky house appears. Phillips Preiss developed an innovative approach that imposed a baseline cap on building size, with a floor area bonus for architectural design that successfully avoids an oversized appearance.

Client: Borough of New Milford, NJ

Overview

The Borough of New Milford is a nearly fully developed municipality located a short distance west of New York City. When the largest redevelopable parcel in the Borough became available for development, New Milford selected Phillips Preiss through a competitive process to evaluate the development application for the site and to advise the Mayor and Council on zoning and affordable housing matters. Phillips Preiss has assisted the New Milford Zoning Board of Adjustment with the review of a contentious application for the development of the property. The Borough’s Mayor and Council subsequently selected Phillips Preiss as the Borough Planner. The firm’s work has included analyzing zoning options for the property, evaluating changes to the municipality’s affordable housing plan, reviewing other development proposals, and preparing a thorough update of the Borough’s Master Plan.

Results

The Borough has adopted zoning changes to implement various Master Plan recommendations.

Client: City of Newark, NJ

Overview

Phillips Preiss has provided redevelopment planning services to the City of Newark for over a decade. The firm has prepared numerous area in need of redevelopment investigations on behalf of the City and advised municipal staff on redevelopment issues. Projects have included sites throughout the downtown and other parts of Newark.

Results

The Prudential Center, a major professional sports arena, was built in an area designated in need of redevelopment by a study prepared by Phillips Preiss. Teachers Village and One Rector Street are also being built in redevelopment areas that were designated based on studies prepared by the firm.

Client: New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC)

Overview

In 2004, the NJMC adopted the Secaucus Transit Village Redevelopment Plan to encourage a transit-oriented mixed-use development in the area surrounding the Secaucus Junction train station. At the same time, a new interchange on the New Jersey Turnpike at Secaucus Junction greatly enhanced the value of the existing warehouse and manufacturing facilities in the area. After years of inactivity in the Station Square district, NJMC retained Phillips Preiss to analyze and recommend potential amendments to the Redevelopment Plan to stimulate redevelopment. The study concluded that a substantial increase in allowable residential densities will be necessary to provide sufficient economic incentive for existing industrial property owners to redevelop.

Client: Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority

Phillips Preiss prepared a form-based zoning code and development and design guidelines for Fort Monmouth, a former military base which closed in 2011. The Fort encompasses over 1,100 acres that lie in three different “host municipalities:” the Boroughs of Tinton Falls, Eatontown and Oceanport. A reuse and redevelopment plan for the fort envisioned the development of mixed-income neighborhoods; creation of mixed-use, neighborhood centers; provisions for enhanced mobility; and the creation of an open space network. Phillips Preiss worked closely with FMERA and the three municipalities to translate the design concepts in the reuse and redevelopment plan into land use regulations that are flexible enough to respond to market conditions, based on sound sustainable planning principles, and conform to all New Jersey statutory requirements.

Client: Borough of Waldwick, NJ

Overview

Phillips Preiss completed an overhaul of the Borough of Waldwick code that includes a merger of the subdivision, site plan, land use procedures, soil movement, and zoning chapters into a unified land use and development ordinance. Phillips Preiss also modernized the ordinance to eliminate any inconsistencies of the current text with general planning practice. This includes an evaluation of ordinance definitions, permitted uses, parking requirements, and an update of the zoning schedule. Additionally, Phillips Preiss added a new section regulating solar panels and wind energy devices.

Client: National Resources

Overview

Edgewater Harbor is a mixed-use development on the former Unilever research site, which is located across from New York City in Edgewater, New Jersey. This major redevelopment project involves the adaptive reuse of an industrial building, restoration of a pier and construction of new roads and commercial, residential and mixed-use buildings, and a new municipal building for the Borough of Edgewater. Its focal point is a new traditional “Main Street” with apartments above storefronts and pedestrian-friendly design.

Phillips Preiss has served as planning consultant to the redeveloper, National Resources, since 2004. The firm has provided a range of services including analysis of affordable housing, demographic and fiscal impact issues; expert planning testimony before the Borough’s Planning Board; and drafting of amendments to the redevelopment plan.

Results

Despite the difficult economic climate in recent years, the project has moved forward and is nearing completion.

Client: Township of Plainsboro,NJ

Overview

Phillips Preiss has provided ongoing planning services to the Township of Plainsboro in connection with the development of a world class health care-oriented mixed-use campus anchored by the University Medical Center of Princeton (UMCP) at Plainsboro on a former industrial property located along Route 1.

Phillips Preiss prepared the area in need of redevelopment investigation in 2007 which qualified the entire industrial site as a redevelopment area and subsequently prepared the redevelopment plan which set forth a detailed regulatory framework and design guidelines for the development of the property.

The firm has since worked with the Township and the redeveloper on amendments to the plan. The vision now is focused on broadening the medical facilities and ancillary uses to be provided within the redevelopment area to include a pediatric care/medical-office facility, a day care center, medical offices, and age-restricted and other residential health care facilities.

Walking paths, open spaces, water features, a green corridor and other common design elements will ensure that physical linkages between the various uses are provided. In addition, the plan is based on the idea that creating an attractive and engaging outdoor environment is beneficial to the health and well-being of not just patients, but also doctors, employees, visitors and other members of the community.

Results

The first project developed to implement the redevelopment plan was the Merwick Care Center, a skilled nursing facility. It was followed by the hospital and medical offices of the UMCP. This building sets a high standard for environmental sustainability in building design by including features such as a high-performance curtain wall system, solar panels, a cogeneration facility, and water-saving fixtures, which create significant reductions in energy and water usage. Subsequently, a 32-acre public park was completed. The redevelopment plan was the recipient of a New Jersey Planning Officials Achievement in Planning Award.