NJ Smart Choices

Building the movement for smart land use
and transportation planning in New Jersey.

NJ Funding Programs

Please send feedback, suggestions for improvements and corrections of information to Juliette Michaelson (jmichaelson@pps.org).

Search results for Downtown revitalization

At Home Downtown Program
X planning
V implementation
NJ Department of Community Affairs

At Home Downtown allows a borrower to finance both the purchase (or refinance) and rehabilitation of an existing structure or the construction and permanent financing of a new structure. Properties may be 1- to 4-family residential structures, if owner occupied, or 1-3 residential structures, if non-owner occupied, which include a storefront commercial component. The actual mortgage amount is based upon the projected value of the property after all construction and/or specified repairs are completed and takes into consideration the purchase price (or existing debt) plus the cost of repairs. This program is administered by DCA's Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.

For more information:

City Living Program
X planning
V implementation
NJ Department of Community Affairs

The City Living Program provides construction, permanent and subsidy funding for predominantly market-rate rental housing developments in urbanized locations where: 1) the market rate rents are not yet high enough to support the development of the project, and 2) the project is part of a municipally approved revitalization plan. The Program is intended to provide financing for projects that are located near employment, transportation, and entertainment centers, while at the same time offering direct and indirect benefits to support community revitalization. This program is administered by DCA's Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.

For more information:

Community Development Block Grant (Entitlement Communities)
X planning
V implementation
Note: This program is only available to select municipalities. Read below for more details.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

This program provides annual grants on a formula basis to entitled cities and counties to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment, and by expanding economic opportunities, principally for low- and moderate-income persons. Principal cities of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), other metropolitan cities with populations of at least 50,000, and qualified urban counties with populations of at least 200,000 (excluding the population of entitled cities) are entitled to receive annual grants.

CDBG funds may be used for activities which include, but are not limited to: acquisition of real property; relocation and demolition; rehabilitation of residential and non-residential structures; construction of public facilities and improvements, such as water and sewer facilities, streets, neighborhood centers, and the conversion of school buildings for eligible purposes; public services, within certain limits; activities relating to energy conservation and renewable energy resources; and provision of assistance to profit-motivated businesses to carry out economic development and job creation/retention activities.

Note that this program is applicable only to entitlement communities. For non-entitlement communities (cities with populations of less than 50,000 and counties with populations of less than 200,000), please refer to the state administered CDBG program.

For more information:

  • Visit HUD's CDBG Webpage.
  • Contact the Camden Office of HUD at (856) 757-5081.
  • Contact the Newark Office of HUD at (973) 622-7900.
Community Development Block Grant Program (Small Cities)
X planning
V implementation
Note: This program is only available to select municipalities. Read below for more details.
NJ Department of Community Affairs

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, administered by the DCA, are used for a wide range of community development activities directed toward neighborhood revitalization, economic development, and improved community facilities and services. CDBG funds have been used to fund pedestrian improvements, including streetscape improvements, sidewalk installation, curb ramps, and building modifications to meets ADA access requirements. CDBG funds can also be used to help construct neighborhood centers, rehabilitate public and private buildings, and provide planning assistance for community development activities.

Note that this program is applicable only to non-entitlement communities (cities with populations of less than 50,000 and counties with populations of less than 200,000). For entitlement communities (cities with populations of more than 50,000 and counties with populations of more than 200,000), please refer to the federally administered CDBG program.

For more information:

Downtown New Jersey
V planning
X implementation
Downtown New Jersey, Inc.

Downtown New Jersey is a nonprofit organization that helps to support, guide and lead efforts at downtown revitalization throughout New Jersey. DNJ provides informational and educational opportunities; tracks judicial and legislative issues which would affect the success of New Jersey's downtown commercial districts; and fosters communication among business, political and professional leadership.

For more information:

HOPE VI Main Street Grants for Small Communities
X planning
V implementation
Note: This program is only available to select municipalities. Read below for more details.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The HOPE VI Main Street program seeks to rejuvenate older, downtown business districts while retaining the area's traditional and Historic character. The purpose of the HOPE VI Main Street Program is to provide assistance to smaller communities in the development of affordable housing that is undertaken in connection with a Main Street revitalization effort. Local governments of fewer than 50,000 people that have a Main Street rejuvenation effort and that are served by a public housing agency with no more than 100 public housing units may apply.

For more information:

HOPE VI Revitalization Grants
X planning
V implementation
Note: This program is only available to select municipalities. Read below for more details.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

HOPE VI Revitalization Grants may be used for activities including relocation, demolition, development and rehabilitation of public housing rental units and homeownership units, and community and supportive services to residents to revitalize severely distressed public housing developments. HOPE VI Revitalization grants can also be used to provide housing that will avoid or decrease the concentration of very low-income families; and build sustainable communities. Public housing agencies (PHAs) that have severely distressed public housing in their inventory and meet the threshold requirements of the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) are eligible to apply for HOPE VI funds.

For more information:

Live Where You Work Program
X planning
V implementation
NJ Department of Community Affairs

The Live Where You Work Program (LWYW) is designed to provide low-interest, 30 year mortgage loans to homebuyers purchasing a home in the municipality in which they are employed provided that the municipality has agreed to participate in the Program. In keeping with Smart Growth principles, the Program supports efforts to reduce automobile use, encourages alternative modes of transportation while improving air quality and reducing pollution. LWYW also provides down payment and closing costs assistance to eligible homebuyers in an amount up to 4% of the first mortgage loan amount. The 4% down payment and/or closing cost assistance is a second mortgage loan, however, there are no monthly payments on the second mortgage and it will be discharged if the employee resides in the property as the principal residence for seven years. In addition, the program offers 1% expanded housing and debt underwriting ratios to borrowers participating in the program. This program is administered by DCA's Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.

For more information:

Local Finance Tools
V planning
V implementation
Municipal Governments
  • Special (Business) Improvement Districts: SIDs assess residents within set boundaries for additional services, such as park maintenance and public safety. They establish a partnership between property owners and businesses in downtown or commercial areas for the purpose of improving the business climate in a defined area. Impetus for the SID generally comes from business and property owners hoping to attract new customers by cleaning up sidewalks, improving parks, increasing lighting, etc. These business owners want better city services and are willing to pay for it -- within their neighborhood. In some places, they are willing to take on nongovernmental tasks, such as marketing, to supplement city services. There are currently an estimated 70 SIDs in the state of New Jersey. Refer to DCA's "SIDs: Loans & Grants" program for technical and financial assistance.
  • Tax Increment Financing: Tax increment financing can be used for a variety of purposes, including acquiring property to be resold at reduced prices and on-site improvements such as utilities, lights, repaving streets, and restoring neighborhood parks. TIF works like this: When a TIF plan is adopted, the assessed valuation of real property within a designated redevelopment area is frozen. Taxes are paid on the property at this base level while improvements to the area are made, new businesses are attracted, and property values rise. Typically, any increase in the assessed value of the property or additional sales tax revenues makes up the tax increment, which is then used to pay project costs or repay the bonds or other obligations that helped finance the project. By investing in a designated area, the TIF technique has aptly been described as a means of borrowing against the speculative gain that a project should bring.
  • Impact Fees: An impact fee is a one-time charge that private entrepreneurs, often developers, must pay to the local government in order to undertake their projects. In turn, the revenue from the impact fee finances public goods and services associated with the project, but which the developer would not provide voluntarily. Water and sewer lines, streets and bridges, and parks and recreational facilities are typical impact fee-funded projects.
  • User Fee Financing: Parking fees, dog tags, community college tuition, water bills, and park and recreation fees are just a few of the many different kinds of user fees collected by local governments. These funds can then be used to pay for transportation improvements, park maintenance and other municipal services.
  • Property Tax Financing: Perhaps because it is paid in a large lump sum check as opposed to small additions to each purchase, the property tax is the least popular of all state and local taxes. Yet they are an important source of revenue for local governments because they provide a steady source of revenue, less affected by downturns in the economy than either the sales or the income tax. In addition, property taxes are relatively easily administered at the local level, revenues can be accurately predicted, and the tax burden is fairly equitably distributed.

For more information:

Local Transportation Planning Assistance Program (LTPA)
V planning
X implementation
NJ Department of Transportation

This program is for NJDOT consultant support designed to address local transportation and quality of life issues by promoting local implementation of the state's Smart Growth land use and transportation policies. The LTPA program provides municipalities with consultant expertise in the professional disciplines of transportation and land use planning to develop local circulation elements, access management plans, local traffic calming studies, and other transportation related planning initiatives. Potential and designated State Development and Redevelopment Plan Centers, Transit Oriented Developments, and participation in the Department's Transit Village and smart growth corridor planning initiatives receive highest priority. Municipal requests for LTPA services will be evaluated based on the nature of the problem(s) to be addressed and the expected benefit to the community. Applicants must commit staff and or/financial resources to these efforts. All studies undertaken must have a public outreach aspect, including continuing involvement by both the official representatives of the municipality as well as participation by local citizens. This Program is administered by the Division of Transportation Systems Planning & Research, Bureau of Systems Development and Analysis (BSDA).

For more information:

Main Street New Jersey
V planning
V implementation
NJ Department of Community Affairs

Main Street is a comprehensive revitalization program that promotes the historic and economic redevelopment of traditional business districts in New Jersey. Every two years the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs accepts applications and designates selected communities to join the program. These communities receive valuable technical support and training to assist in restoring their Main Streets as centers of community and economic activity, and provide communities with the skills and knowledge to manage their own business districts. Assistance is provide to designated Main Street New Jersey municipalities, downtown revitalization organizations, Economic Development Corporations, Urban Enterprise Zones, Special Improvement Districts, and New Jersey citizens.

(NOTE: Similar assistance, including workshops and Downtown Business Assistance Teams, is provided by Downtown New Jersey, Inc., a not-for-profit partner with NJ TRANSIT in the Transit Friendly Communities for New Jersey Program; not affiliated with NJDCA.)

For more information:

Neighborhood Preservation Program
V planning
V implementation
NJ Department of Community Affairs

The Neighborhood Preservation Program provides direct financial and technical assistance to municipalities over a three- to-five year period to conduct activities associated with the preservation of designated neighborhoods based on strategic revitalization's plans within those municipalities. Appropriate neighborhoods are those that are threatened by decline, but that are still viable.

For more information:

Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit (NRTC) Program
X planning
V implementation
Note: This program is only available to select municipalities. Read below for more details.
NJ Department of Community Affairs

The Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program's mission is to foster the revitalization of New Jersey's low and moderate income neighborhoods through comprehensive strategies driven by residents and other public and private stakeholders within the neighborhood; specifically. The NRTC Program offers business entities a fifty percent tax credit against various New Jersey state taxes. Credits are provided to business entities that invest in the revitalization of low and moderate-income neighborhoods in eligible cities. A total of $10 million per year is available in tax credits, generating a total neighborhood revitalization investment of $20 million. Nonprofit entities must use at least 60% of the tax credit funds for housing and economic development; the remaining funds may be used for supportive services. Municipalities under the "Special Municipal Aid Act" or "Abbott Districts" are eligible.

For more information:

New Jersey Brownfields Program
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V implementation
NJ Department of Community Affairs

The DCA Brownfields Program facilitates Brownfields redevelopment, promoting coordination among state agencies and maximizing the impact of state Brownfields resources and providing a forum for state Brownfields policy. This is where the planning, the regulatory programs, the financial and technical support, the infrastructure for redevelopment and other state incentives come together to work with Brownfields project managers, municipalities and counties to implement the best possible redevelopment as quickly as possible. The Brownfields Redevelopment Task Force, the NJ Brownfields Redevelopment Interagency Team (BRIT) and the state's Brownfields inventory (Brownfields Site Mart) are managed through this office.

For more information:

Smart Commute Initiative
X planning
V implementation
Fannie Mae

In 2004, NJ TRANSIT and Fannie Mae introduced the New Jersey Statewide Smart Commute Initiative. The program, designed to encourage state residents to consider homeownership options near public transportation, is supported by the New Jersey Association of Realtors and a range of local and national lending institutions.

The Smart Commute Initiative is based on the premise that living near transit and using it for work and non-work trips can reduce a household's total spending on transportation, and that those potential savings can be redirected toward housing costs. Lenders participating in the program will add a share of the borrower's potential transportation savings - $200 per month for single-wage households and $250 per month for dual-wage households - to their qualifying income, thus increasing the applicant's home-buying power.

To qualify for the program, homes must be within one-half mile of rail or light rail stations or within one-quarter mile of a bus stop. Buyers cannot own more than two cars and must agree to use transit for their trips to work. Additional features of Smart Commute include low down payments of 3 percent and up to two free one-month transit passes from NJ TRANSIT. This newest incentive for locating near transit complements transit-friendly financing products already offered by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. These include the HMFA's "City Living" program for the development of market-rate rental housing in urban locations, and its "At Home Downtown" program for the rehabilitation or construction of one- to four-unit residential structures with storefront commercial components.

For more information:

Smart Future Planning Grants
V planning
X implementation
NJ Department of Community Affairs

These grants are intended to advance the legislative goals of the State Planning Act by helping local jurisdictions to plan for growth. The program is designed to promote comprehensive urban redevelopment that is sensitive to community needs, as well as efficient investment in and use of public infrastructure, affordable housing, environmental, natural, historic and cultural resource protection, and farmland preservation. Smart Future Planning Grants can be used to create centers-based plans, master plans, economic development or redevelopment plans, regional strategic plans, zoning or site plan ordinances, or other planning documents. This program is administered by the Office of Smart Growth at the Department of Community Affairs.

For more information:

Smart Growth Planning Grants for Municipalities
V planning
X implementation
Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions

Through the Smart Growth program, ANJEC (the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions) will award 1-to-1 matching reimbursement grants of up to $20,000 to municipalities for local or regional plans, ordinances, studies or document reviews that protect natural resources and establish the land use patterns envisioned in the State Plan. Suitable projects include, but are not limited to, the following: natural resource inventories (NRI); open space plans and preservation programs; master plan conservation elements; brownfields or revitalization plans that include new open space; bicycle/pedestrian network plans; capacity studies including build-out analysis, septic capacity and groundwater supply; master plan and zoning ordinance revisions that incorporate smart growth concepts including clustering, downzoning, conservation design and transfer of development rights (TDR); critical areas protection ordinances for steep slopes, stream corridors, wellhead areas; planning tasks that help obtain Plan Endorsement from the State Planning Commission; planning that will achieve affordable housing within the municipality while protecting the environment; intermunicipal/regional plans to protect common resources (greenways, open space, etc.).

For more information:

Special (Business) Improvement Districts: Loans & Grants
V planning
V implementation
NJ Department of Community Affairs

Dollar for dollar matching grants up to $10,000 from DCA to support the technical and professional services needed to establish a Special Improvement District (SID). Provides loans up to $500,000 to make capital improvements within designated downtown business improvement zones. Also provides technical assistance and acts as a clearinghouse for information concerning New Jersey's SID statute.

For more information:

Transportation Community Development Initiative (TCDI)
V planning
V implementation
Note: This program is only available in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Mercer Counties.
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission

The TCDI program is intended to assist in reversing the trends of disinvestment and decline in many of the region's core cities and first generation suburbs by:

  • Supporting local planning projects that will lead to more residential, employment or retail opportunities;
  • Improving the overall character and quality of life within these communities to retain and attract business and residents, which will help to reduce the pressure for further sprawl and expansion into the growing suburbs;
  • Enhancing and utilizing the existing transportation infrastructure capacity in these areas to reduce the demands on the region's transportation network; and
  • Reducing congestion and improving the transportation system's efficiency.

For more information:

Urban Enterprise Zone Program
X planning
V implementation
NJ Department of Commerce

Created to stimulate economic growth and jobs in designated zones. Participating businesses are eligible to receive tax exemptions for building materials, equipment and supplies invested in zone. Also they can receive corporate tax benefits and unemployment insurance rebates and the ability to charge their customers half of the current sales tax on most in-store purchases. Receipts from retail sales are deposited into a zone assistance fund which UEZ municipalities may apply to fund projects within the urban enterprise zone.

For more information: