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: 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.

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.

Client: Township of Montclair, NJ

Overview

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.

Client: Township of Cranbury, NJ

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.

Client: Morris Township, NJ

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.

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: 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.

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.

Client: Town of Morristown, NJ

New mixed-use buildings face the Morristown Green. Upper floors are stepped back, per one of the design standards required in exchange for a height bonus.

Courtyard and mid-block pedestrian connection behind the mixed-use building that faces the Morristown Green.

The new LEED-accredited office building for the Morristown Parking Authority.

Overview

With its City Council and Planning Board at odds over approval of a major downtown redevelopment project, Phillips Preiss brokered a compromise and brought the project to a close on behalf of the Town of Morristown. Many Town leaders and residents were alarmed by the height and bulk of the project, and were also unhappy with its original design. The proposed project involved the complete redevelopment of several key, underutilized blocks abutting the Town Green, with new mixed-use development. Phillips Preiss worked with the Town to impose a series of design standards, including LEED certification, as a condition of approval in exchange for allowing building heights in excess of the current zoning.

Results

The first phase of the project, New Jersey’s first LEED Platinum building, has been completed. The plan won four statewide awards: the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Outstanding Smart Growth Plan, the New Jersey Planning Officials Award for Innovative Design, Downtown New Jersey’s Excellence in Downtown Award and New Jersey Future’s Smart Growth Award for Creative Downtown Redevelopment Strategy.